ABOUT BCS
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Rebecca Saxe , Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience Fred and Carole Middleton Career Development Professorship
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Building: 46-4019
Lab: Saxe Lab
Email: saxe at mit.edu
Assistant Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience Fred and Carole Middleton Career Development Professorship
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Building: 46-4019
Lab: Saxe Lab
Email: saxe at mit.edu
Externally observable components of human actions carry only a tiny fraction of the information that matters. Human observers are vastly more interested in perceiving or inferring the mental states - the beliefs, desires and intentions - that lie behind the observable shell. If a person checks her watch, is she uncertain about the time, late for an appointment, or bored with the conversation? If a person shoots his friend on a hunting trip, did he intend revenge or just mistake his friend for a partridge? The mechanism people use to infer and reason about another person’s states of mind is called a ‘Theory of Mind’ (ToM). One of the most striking discoveries of recent human cognitive neuroscience is that there is a group of brain regions in human cortex that selectively and specifically underlie this mechanism. Our lab studies these brain regions for Theory of Mind, as a case study in the deeper and broader question: how does the brain - an electrical and biological machine - construct abstract thoughts?
Uniquely Human Social Cognition Saxe R (2006) Current Opinion in Neurobiology.
The perception of Causality in Infancy. Saxe R, Carey S. (2006) Acta Psychologica
It's the thought that counts: Specific brain regions for one component of Theory of Mind. Saxe R, Powell L. (2006) Psychological Science
Divide and Conquer: a defense of functional localizers Saxe R, Brett M, Kanwisher N (2006) Neuroimage.
Why and how to study Theory of Mind with fMRI. Saxe, R. (2006) Brain Research .
Secret Agents: Inferences about hidden causes by 10- and 12-month-old infants. Saxe R, Tenenbaum J, Carey S (2005) Psychological Science 16(12) p 995 - 1001.
Five-month-old infants know humans are solid, like inanimate objects Saxe R, Tzelnic T, Carey S (2006) Cognition.
Against Simulation: the Argument from Error. Saxe, R. (2005) Trends in Cognitive Science 9(4):174-9.
Dissociation between emotion and personality judgments: Convergent evidence from functional neuroimaging. Heberlein A, Saxe, R. (2005) Neuroimage .
Making sense of another mind: the role of the right temporo-parietal junction. Saxe R, Wexler A. (2005) Neuropsychologia.
My body or yours? The effect of visual perspective on cortical body representation. Saxe R, Jamal N, Powell L (2005) Cerebral Cortex.
Understanding other minds: linking developmental psychology and functional neuroimaging. Saxe R, Carey S, Kanwisher N (2004) Annual Review of Psychology 55:87-124.
A region of right posterior superior temporal sulcus responds to observed intentional actions. Saxe R, Xiao DK, Kovacs G, Perrett DI, Kanwisher N (2004) Neuropsychologia 42(11):1435-46.
People thinking about thinking people: fMRI studies of Theory of Mind. Saxe R, Kanwisher N (2003)Neuroimage. 19(4):1835-42.
