Mind reading comes easily to most of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For all our divisions, humans are uncannily efficient at simulating another person\u2019s thoughts and beliefs. It\u2019s how you can \u201cwalk a mile in someone else\u2019s shoes,\u201d know \u201cwhere they\u2019re coming from,\u201d and in turn, generate empathy or predict how your actions impact others. Most of the time, we can even do this when we fundamentally disagree with the other person\u2019s point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This mysterious ability to hop into someone else\u2019s head\u2014heck, even just to admit that they\u2019re conscious beings with their own minds\u2014is dubbed the \u201ctheory of mind.\u201d It\u2019s simulation at its very best, where it allows us to connect and interact with others not just based on our own thoughts and actions, but also on our understanding of theirs. It\u2019s what lets you guess why your friend is upset on her birthday. It\u2019s behind strategy games like chess and entire disciplines such as game theory. It\u2019s what makes human society flourish or fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem? No one really knows how theory of mind works in our heads\u2014but that\u2019s set to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week, in a study<\/a> with over half a dozen people, a team from Harvard Medical School and MIT recorded directly from single neurons in the forepart of their brains. For the first time, the scientists identified a special group of cells that lets us acknowledge and predict someone else\u2019s hidden beliefs. Even crazier, these neurons loyally encoded demonstrably false ideas that others may have, and beliefs that the person being studied doesn\u2019t necessarily agree with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, each of us has a smattering of brain cells dedicated to modeling another mind inside our own heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUntil now, it wasn\u2019t clear whether or how neurons were able to perform these social cognitive computations,\u201d said<\/a> study author Mohsen Jamali.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The results propelled a centuries-old debate on the nature of self and other into a new, scientifically-grounded era. But to lead author Dr. Ziv Williams, it also builds a framework to better capture the intricacies of how we model minds\u2014and when or why it fails. Autism, for example, often leads to a breakdown in the ability to gauge social cues. People with brain injuries due to trauma can also lose that predictive superpower. And outside our own species, a model of how we model each other\u2019s minds could form a powerful tool to bolster AI, providing them with an artificial theory of mind<\/a> and a lot more common sense when dealing with people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Debates over the theory of mind have roots going back to 17th-<\/a>century philosophy<\/a>. But modern excitement, especially in neuroscience, sparked in the early 1990s, when neuroscientists captured the inner electrical dialogue of a very special type of neurons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recording from the motor regions of the brains of macaque monkeys, they found a bizarre population that fired not only when the monkey waved its arm around\u2014say, to grab an apple or ring a bell\u2014but also when it watched another monkey perform the same action. Even weirder, the same neurons sparked with electrical activity when the monkey heard someone else performing the task in another room. Unlike any other known type of brain cell at the time, these \u201cmirror neurons\u201d seemed to encode for another being\u2019s actions and goals, rather than those of its own host.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mirror neurons exploded in popularity<\/a> for the next few decades. Some believed they\u2019re the seat of empathy. Others thought they\u2019re central to human social interaction capabilities, such as speech. One prominent pop-culture neuroscientist even went as far as<\/a> saying that these cells shaped our civilization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet as more sophisticated tools and techniques grew in social neuroscience, people soon realized that mirror neurons weren\u2019t the end-all of empathy, language, or autism. Rather, using state-of-the-art brain imaging, scientists began honing down towards the front of the brain, sitting right behind the forehead\u2014the prefrontal cortex\u2014as the piece of the brain that captures another\u2019s beliefs and thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Schooled by overpromises from mirror neurons, however, few were willing to hallmark the brain region as a supporter of theory of mind. After all, brain imaging captures the aggregated and averaged activity of thousands, if not more, neurons simultaneously. The readout is then influenced by other brain regions, painting a murky picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One way to sharpen it? Record from single neurons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new study blew people away with just that. Rather than relying on social but non-human animals, they went straight to the source: human volunteers who have electrodes implanted. These participants had already gone through brain surgery in preparation for a treatment for Parkinson\u2019s disease, and bravely signed on for the study. This allowed the team to directly record from single neurons in human brains\u2014something generally outside the reach of most theory of mind studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In all, they tapped into over 320 neurons embedded in the subjects\u2019 frontal brains. As the implanted microelectrodes silently recorded the brain cells\u2019 electrical activity, the team asked the participants to listen to a short story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take this scenario: \u201cYou and Tom see a jar on the table. After Tom leaves, you move the jar to the cupboard.\u201d The listener knows that the jar is in the cupboard. But Tom doesn\u2019t. Because of theory of mind, we can reason that Tom will still think the jar is on the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The team then asked the listeners two seemingly simple questions. The first was \u201cwhere is the jar,\u201d or an objective assessment based on the listener\u2019s understanding. The second was more interesting\u2014\u201cwhere does Tom think the jar is?\u201d which probes the brain\u2019s simulation of Tom\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Immediately, the team found a slew of neurons that surprisingly captured the distinction between internal beliefs and those of others. About 20 percent of recorded neurons reliably fired with activity when they predicted Tom\u2019s belief. An even higher percentage sparked to life when Tom stated a true belief\u2014that is, \u201ctrue\u201d from his perspective. In all, the electrical activity of these neurons could predict nearly 80 percent of the time whether the listener accurately predicted Tom\u2019s mental image of the jar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To rephrase: we have neurons in our heads that encode for someone else\u2019s idea of reality, rather than what\u2019s actually true or real. This holds rather unnerving implications, in that the neurons solely reflect someone else\u2019s specific perspective\u2014your perspective, or the truth, doesn\u2019t come into play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re thinking \u201coh well, these brain cells just respond to prediction,\u201d the authors have answers here too. It gets weirder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For one, the cells that encode data for Tom\u2019s ideas update to his perception of reality. When the participants heard that \u201cafter Tom leaves, you move the jar to the cupboard as he watches you through the window,\u201d the same cells that encoded Tom\u2019s perspective will shift gears, leading to the answer that now Tom knows the jar is in the cupboard. Your brain cells, encoding for someone else\u2019s beliefs, will update when their beliefs\u2014not your own\u2014update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For another, the neurons also captured specific details about Tom\u2019s beliefs. Using stories similar to the jar and cupboard, for example, the team found that these mind-reading neurons could encode for the item\u2019s identity (a jar versus a table or vegetables), its location, color, and other characteristics. Compiling all the tests together, the team built a model with these neurons that could accurately predict another person\u2019s concept at nearly six times more than chance, regardless of the difficulty of reasoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEach neuron is encoding different bits of information,\u201d said Jamali. \u201cBy combining the computations of all the neurons, you get a very detailed representation of the contents of another\u2019s beliefs and an accurate prediction of whether they are true or false.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are these predictive neurons just another mirror neuron story in the making? Many don\u2019t think so.\u00a0Dr. Uta Frith<\/a>, an Emeritus Professor at UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience,\u00a0commented<\/a>, \u201cAmazing that single cells in\u2026 [the prefrontal cortex]\u2026show activity during mentalizing,\u201d recapitulating findings from more blunt human brain recording instruments such as MRI. But mostly, the leap is in our methods for probing our own minds\u2014even as they encode for someone else\u2019s. It\u2019s \u201camazing that this type of recording can be done at all,\u201d said Frith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Image Credit:\u00a0Gerd Altmann<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pixabay<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Author:<\/strong> Original Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mind reading comes easily to most of us. For all our divisions, humans are uncannily efficient at simulating another person\u2019s thoughts and beliefs. It\u2019s how you can \u201cwalk a mile in someone else\u2019s shoes,\u201d know \u201cwhere they\u2019re coming from,\u201d and in turn, generate empathy or predict how your actions impact others. Most of the time, […]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[62,75,56],"series":[],"class_list":["post-3282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articulos-ingles","tag-brain","tag-empathy","tag-neuroscience"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/singularityumexico.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/empathy-brain-2.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/singularityumexico.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/11711533-1673157178559-89a95be153719-4-scaled.jpg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/singularityumexico.com\/en\/feed\/podcast\/the-feedback-loop-by-singularity","embedCode":"Mirror, Mirror in the Brain<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Empathetic Brain<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Down the Rabbit Hole<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Shelly Xuelai Fan is a neuroscientist-turned-science writer. She completed her PhD in neuroscience at the University of British Columbia, where she developed novel treatments for neurodegeneration. While studying biological brains, she became fascinated with AI and all things biotech. Following graduation, she moved to UCSF to study blood-based factors that rejuvenate aged brains. She is the …\u00a0Learn More<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis Is Where Empathy Lives in the Brain, and How It Works<\/a><\/blockquote>