Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Mindcontrol

I found this interesting video on TED.

What I learned by watching this video:
  • There is a part of the brain called "Right temporal parietal junction" (RPTJ)
  • The RPTJ is located just behind the right ear. (See image.) 

  • The “RPTJ” is dedicated to understanding what's going on in other people's minds and forms our thoughts about it.
  • For instance, when judging peoples actions this is the part of the brain which helps us understand why a person has made harm (for instance if the harm was made by mistake).
  • In children, the RPTJ is still not dedicated to understand other people in the same degree. This can be measured in the brain (see image below), as well as observed through behavior (judgement of people who makes innocent mistakes, see video)

  • With the RPTJ "less active" people will judge mainly based on the outcome. I.e., there is less comprehension for the "guilty" person in case of an accident. (The case mentioned in the video is a person that thinks she is giving sugar to a friend but actually, unintentionally, is giving her poison.) 
  • It is even possible to find a correlation between activity in the RPTJ and the "understanding" of unintended accidents. (See image)

  • If the RPTJ is distorted (in the experiment, by magnetic fields) people tend to be more judging. 

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