Ideas worth spreading

How we read each other's minds

3,546,970 views |

Rebecca Saxe |

TEDGlobal 2009

• July 2009

Sensing the motives and feelings of others is a natural talent for humans. But how do we do it? Here, Rebecca Saxe shares fascinating lab work that uncovers how the brain thinks about other peoples' thoughts -- and judges their actions.

Sensing the motives and feelings of others is a natural talent for humans. But how do we do it? Here, Rebecca Saxe shares fascinating lab work that uncovers how the brain thinks about other peoples' thoughts -- and judges their actions.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Rebecca Saxe

Cognitive neuroscientist

See speaker profile

Rebecca Saxe studies how we think about other people's thoughts. At the Saxelab at MIT, she uses fMRI to identify what happens in our brains when we consider the motives, passions and beliefs of others.

Learn more

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.