Principal Investigator Rebecca Saxe
How is conceptual knowledge organized in the brain and how do lifetime experiences shape conceptual representations? How does the sensory modality through which we learn information effect how that information is represented in the cortex? How do the intrinsic computational properties of a brain region interact with input from the environment to shape a region's function? To answer these questions I conduct fMRI and TMS studies with sighted and blind participants. In one line of research we examine the effects of early sensory experience on the organization of the neural network that supports reasoning about beliefs (ToM). In a second line of research we examine the relationship between the representations of word-meaning and sensory experiences.