Keynote: Brains, Beliefs and Beyond
Michael Gazzaniga
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Michael Gazzaniga lays the framework for the conference "Biological Foundations of Morality? Neuroscience, Evolution & Morality" by exploring the 24/7 brain. He describes the brain as a parallel distributive system, constantly and unconsciously processing information. Meanwhile, a region in the left hemisphere of the brain collects the information from all systems and interprets some of what's going on. The running narrative gives us the illusion of unity and control. Sharing his decades-long research with split-brain patients, Gazzaniga pinpoints the hemispheres of the brain responsible for processing certain types of information including language, imagery and empathy. He shows how the interpreter works even when the hemispheres of the brain aren't connected. Gazzaniga also introduces the theory of mind and the concept of mirror neurons and how they characterize our social interactions and our ability to model others and empathize.
Michael Gazzaniga is director of the SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind at the University of California Santa Barbara, where he oversees an extensive and broad research program investigating how the brain enables the mind. Previously, he started centers for cognitive neuroscience at Dartmouth College and the University of California-Davis. He is founder and president of the Cognitive Neuroscience Institute, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, and a member of the President's Council on Bioethics. His scholarly publication The Cognitive Neurosciences III (MIT Press, 2004) is recognized as the sourcebook for the field. He has also published many books accessible to a lay audience, such as Mind Matters and Nature's Mind, which, along with his participation in the public television specials The Brain and The Mind, have been instrumental in growing public interest and support for the study of the brain.