Ideas change everything

A neural portrait of the human mind

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Nancy Kanwisher |

TED2014

• March 2014

Brain imaging pioneer Nancy Kanwisher, who uses fMRI scans to see activity in brain regions (often her own), shares what she and her colleagues have learned: The brain is made up of both highly specialized components and general-purpose "machinery." Another surprise: There's so much left to learn.

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

Brain imaging pioneer Nancy Kanwisher, who uses fMRI scans to see activity in brain regions (often her own), shares what she and her colleagues have learned: The brain is made up of both highly specialized components and general-purpose "machinery." Another surprise: There's so much left to learn.

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

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About the speaker

Nancy Kanwisher

Brain researcher

See speaker profile

Using fMRI imaging to watch the human brain at work, Nancy Kanwisher’s team has discovered cortical regions responsible for some surprisingly specific elements of cognition.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

Read our curation guidelines.