MEG, Babies and Moral judgement

One of the many incredible opportunities MEG (Magnetoencephalography) provides, is the ability to look silently into the brain of a baby, without affecting any of the activity/development. We can then see what goes on in the developing brain as the baby does different activities and even map changes from visit to visit. Mothers can potentially correlate growth spurts of different structural areas with different environmental, social or educational influences. Scientists are finding more and more locations that can be clearly seen to develop in parallel with what we casually refer to as maturity.
Studies by researchers like Patricia Kuhl translate what the brain of a baby hears and understands. Kuhl is developing a statistical model of early learning as a result of her MEG research with babies, this is shedding light on why early language learning is so important and why it gets so much harder to learn a language as we mature.


Also, check out this video presentation of the research of Rebecca Saxe at MIT. Saxe has pinned down an anatomical region, the temporoparietal junction which develops over our childhood and adolescence and is responsible for how we consider other peoples thoughts and decisions. The story of two cheese sandwich loving pirates brilliantly demonstrates the correlation between the TPJ and understanding the root of ethics and why people in general can assume other people have brains and are similarly responsible, thinking rational creatures without actually seeing their brain in action.