On Reading Minds 3 (3'39)

And now what we've started to do in my lab is to put children in to the brain scanner and ask what's going on in their brain as they develop this ability to think about other peoples's thoughts.

而现在我们在实验室里开始做的是，让孩子们大脑扫描，看看在他们开发这种考虑其他人想法的能力是，他们的大脑发生了什么？

So the first thing is that in children we see the same brain region, the Right TPJ, being used while children are thinking about other people.

所以第一件事就是，我们看到在孩子们的这个相同的脑区域里，右TPj，当孩子们在考虑其他人时被使用了。

But it's not quite like the adult brain.

但是不太像成人的大脑。

So where is the adults, as I told you, this brain region is almost completely specialized, it does almost nothing else except for thinking about other people's  thoughts.

所以，正如我告诉你的，在成人的这个大脑区域中非常的专业，它除了思考别人的想法其它几乎什么的都不做。

In children it's much less so, when they are age 5 to 8, the age range of the children I just showed you.

在孩子们的大脑中，它就少很多。当他们5-8岁时，在我之前给你看的那个年龄区间的小孩子。

And actually we even look at 8 to 11 -year olds getting into early adolescence, they still don't have quite an adult-like brain region.

而事实上我们甚至观察8-11岁大，正在进入早期青春期的小孩子，他们仍没有很像成年人的脑区域。

And so, what we can see is that over the course of childhood and even into adolescence,

所以，在对儿童期甚至青春期的观察中我们可以发现，

both the cognitive system, our mind's ability to think about other minds, and the brain system that supports it are continuing,  slowing , to develop.

我们的认知系统，包括我们大脑思考其他人想法的能力，和支持它的大脑系统正在持续、缓慢的发展。

But of course, as you're probably aware, even in adulthood, people differ from one another in how good they are thinking of other minds, how often they do it and how accurately.

但是，当然，正如你可能已经知道，即便再成年人中，人们在思考其他人想法的擅长程度，频率和精确度上是不同的，

And so what we wanted to know was, could differences among adults in how they think  about other people's thoughts be explained in terms of differences in this brain regions?

那么我们想要知道的是，成年人如何思考其他人想法的不同之处可以用大脑的不同区域来解释？

so, the first thing that we did is we gave adults a version of the pirated problem that we gave to the kids, and I'm going to give that to you now.

所以，我们做的第一件事就是，给成年人一个不同版本的我们之前展示给孩子们的海盗未，先我要将 它展示给你们看。

1. How do adults and children's RTPJ regions' differ?

...`The RTPJ region is more specialized in adults.

2. why are children less able to understand other's minds compare to adults?

...their RTPJ has not developed yet.

3. 完形填空

Of course, as you're probably aware, even in adulthood, people differ from one another in how good they are thinking of other minds, how often they do it and how accurately.

So Grace and her friend are on a tour of chemical factory, and they take a break for coffee. And Grace's friend asks for some sugar in her coffee.

Grace goes to make a coffee and finds by the coffee a pot containing a white power which is sugar.

But the powder is labeled "Deadly poison", so Grace thinks that the powder is a deadly poison.

And she puts it in her friends coffee, And her friend drink the coffee, and is fine.

How many people thins it was morally permissible for Grace to put the powder in the coffee.

Okay, good.

So we ask people, how much should Grace be blamed in this case, which we call a failed attempt to harm.

And we can compare that to another case, where everything in the real world is the same, the powder is still sugar, but what's different is that Grace thinks.

Now she thinks the powder is sugar.

And perhaps unsurprisingly, if Grace thinks the powder is sugar and puts it in her friend's coffee, people say she deserves no blame at all.

Whereas if she thinks the power was poison, even though it's really sugar, now people say she deserves a lot of blame.

even though what happened in the real world was exactly the same.

And in fact, they say she deserves more blames in this case, the failed attempt to harm, than in another case, which we call an accident.

Where Grace thought the powder was sugar, because it was labeled " sugar" and by the coffee machine, but actually the powder was poison.

So even though when the powder was poison, the friend drank the coffee and died,

people say Grace deserves less blames in that case, when she innocently thought it was sugar, than in the other case,  where she  thought it was poison and no harm occurred.

People, thought, disagree a little bit about exactly how much blame Grace should get in the accident case.

Some people think she should deserves more blame, and other people less.

And what I'm going to show you is what happened when we look inside the brains of people while they are making that judgement.

So what I'm showing you, from left to right, is how much activity there was in this brain region, and from top to bottom, how much blame people said the Grace deserved.

And what you can see is on the left when there was little activity in this region, people paid little attention to her innocent belief and said she deserved a lot of blame for the accident.

Whereas on the right, where there was a lot of activity, people paid a lot more attention to her innocent belief, and said she deserved a lot less blame for causing the accident.

1.  Which of the following is failed attempt to harm?

.... Grace mistook sugar for poison, put it into her friend's coffee, and caused no harm.

2. How was brain activity in the RTPJ related to the amount of blame people said Grace deserved?

...

3. 选词填空

In fact, they say she deserves more blames in this case, the failed attempt to harm, than in another case, which we call an accident.

4. 听 复述 

    People differ from one another in how good they are thinking of other minds.

5. The powder is still sugar, but what's different is what Grace thinks.

6. If something is morally permissible, it is acceptable according to the principles of good behavior.