Mind-reading neurons

From MGH News:

“A study by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has discovered two groups of neurons that play key roles in social interactions between primates – one that is activated when deciding whether to cooperate with another individual and another group involved in predicting what the other will do.  Their findings appear in the March 12 issue of Cell.”

In this study, pairs of Rhesus monkeys repeatedly played a version of the Prisoner’s Dilemma game. The most remarkable result of the study is that the ‘predictor neurons’ of monkey A predicted the choices of monkey B as accurately as a ‘rational’ algorithm that tried to predict the choices of monkey B based on his/her prior choices. Here is a beautiful article on the Prisoner’s Dilemma and its role in Evolutionary Biology from Quanta Magazine

The Latin American School for Education, Cognitive and Neural Sciences (LASchool)

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LA School

From the website of the 5th instantiation of the LASchool: LASchool is a meeting that brings together students and faculties from all over the world in Latin America “to build new bridges between Education, Cognitive and Neural Sciences. Each year, LASchool’s participants work together for two weeks to generate project proposals potentially relevant for the development, design and implementation of effective science-based educational practices. LASchool series have been inspired by the ideas raised in The Santiago Declaration, in 2007.”

“Previous LASchools took place in Atacama, Chile (2011), Patagonia, Argentina (2012), Bahia, Brazil (2013), and Punta del Este, Uruguay (2014). All these experiences have brought together more than 150 researchers and 200 students in a continuing effort to promote the scientific work at the interface between Education and Science.”

This 5th version of the LASchool is organized by the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and will take place in San Pedro de Atacama. The LASchool will develop several issues such as the transition from informal to formal education, how brain systems change through development and education, and how social programs may impact education.”