Rebecca Saxe facts for kids
Rebecca Saxe is a smart professor who studies the brain. She works at a famous school called MIT. She is known for her research on how our brains understand what other people are thinking and feeling. This is called "social cognition."
Rebecca went to Oxford University to study how people think and feel (Psychology) and big ideas (Philosophy). She then earned her PhD from MIT, also studying how our minds work. Her family includes her grandfather, Morton Shulman, and her mother, Dianne Saxe.
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How Our Brains Understand Others
As a student, Rebecca Saxe found something amazing about a part of the brain. This area is called the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ). She showed that this brain part becomes active when we try to understand what someone else is thinking. This skill is often called 'theory of mind'. It means being able to guess what others might be feeling or planning.
Brain and Moral Choices
Rebecca Saxe continues to study the rTPJ. She has found that this brain area helps us make moral choices. Imagine you hear a story about someone's actions. The rTPJ helps you decide if what they did was right or wrong.
If this brain area is not working perfectly, people might judge actions differently. They might focus more on what actually happened, not on what the person meant to do. For example, if someone accidentally broke a vase, a person with rTPJ issues might focus only on the broken vase, not on the fact it was an accident.
Brain and Autism
Scientists have noticed that people with autism sometimes judge actions in a similar way. This suggests that the rTPJ might play a role in autism. Understanding this could help us learn more about how autism affects how people understand others.
Other Brain Studies
Besides 'theory of mind', Rebecca Saxe also studies other cool things about the brain. She looks at how flexible the brain is and how it changes. She also researches how our brains handle empathy. Empathy is when you can truly feel and understand what someone else is feeling. She also studies how the brain deals with group disagreements and how we figure out other people's emotions.
Awards and Special Recognition
Rebecca Saxe has received many awards for her important work.
- Before becoming a professor at MIT, she was a special junior fellow at Harvard University.
- In 2008, Popular Science Magazine named her one of the "Brilliant 10" scientists under 40.
- In 2012, the World Economic Forum called her a Young Global Leader.
- Her TED talk from 2009 has been watched over 3.3 million times!
- In 2014, she won the Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences.
