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Back to Faculty/Researchers
Prof. Rebecca R Saxe
John W Jarve (1978) Professor in Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Associate Dean, MIT School of Science
Associate Investigator, McGovern Institute for Brain Research
Primary DLC
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
MIT Room:
46-4019
(617) 324-2885
saxe@mit.edu
https://mcgovern.mit.edu/profile/rebecca-saxe/
Assistant
Emily Chen (Lab Manager)
echen15@mit.edu
Areas of Interest and Expertise
Neuroscience
Social Cognition
Autism
Dyslexia
Research Summary
In her research, Professor Saxe studies human social cognition, using a combination of behavioral testing and brain imaging technologies. She is best known for her work on brain regions specialized for abstract concepts, such as “theory of mind” tasks that involve understanding the mental states of other people. Her TED Talk, “How we read each other’s minds” has been viewed more than 3 million times. She also studies the development of the human brain during early infancy.
Research includes understanding how the brain gives rise to the mind represents a great scientific challenge, and the answers will not come through any single approach or technique in isolation. A multidisciplinary effort is needed, and research at the McGovern Institute employs the full range of modern neuroscience techniques, from molecular genetics to functional neuroimaging, and computational modeling.
Recent Work
Projects
January 25, 2017
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Neural Measures of Social Reward and Information Value in Infants
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
January 26, 2016
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Neural Flexibility in Social Information Processing
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
January 26, 2016
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Using fNIRS to Characterize Infant Social Attention
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
January 26, 2016
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Functional organization of social perception and cognition in the superior temporal sulcus
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
February 26, 2013
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Impairments of Theory of Mind Disrupt Patterns of Brain Activity
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
August 31, 2011
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Theory of Mind in Clinical Populations
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
August 31, 2011
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience of Typical and Atypical Communication
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
August 31, 2011
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
The Relationship Between Sensory and Conceptual Representations
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
August 31, 2011
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Linguistic Processing and Theory of Mind
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
August 31, 2011
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
The Effects of Intervention on Inter-Group Social Cognition
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
January 13, 2009
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
SaxeLab: Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
January 13, 2009
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Social Cues for Word Learning
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
January 13, 2009
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
The Effect of Experience on Theory of Mind and the Relationship Between Sensory and Conceptual Representations
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
January 13, 2009
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
The Effects of Prosody on the Listener's Online Representation of the Speaker's Thoughts
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
January 13, 2009
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Moral Judgment and Theory of Mind
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
January 13, 2009
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
The Ontogeny and Phylogeny of Theory of Mind
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
January 13, 2009
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Theory of Mind and Episodic Memory Retrieval
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
January 13, 2009
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Inferring Mental States to Justify Blame
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
January 13, 2009
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Theory of Mind and Causal Learning
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
January 13, 2009
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
The Effect of Training on Executive Function
Principal Investigator
Rebecca Saxe
Related Faculty
Prof. William G Quinn, Jr
Professor of Neurobiology, Emeritus
Dr. Micah Kimo Johnson
Research Affiliate
Dr. Vikash Kumar Mansinghka
Principal Research Scientist