What is it like to get inside another
person’s head? You already
know the answer, according to
Princeton neuroscientist Lauren
Silbert. She placed herself in an
fMRI brain scanner and noted
her neural response when she
spoke about a vivid memory (two
boys fighting over her at her high
school prom). Later she and her
collaborators scanned the brains
of a group of volunteers as they
listened to a recording of her story.
The outcome, published last
June, was remarkable. Among the
listeners who paid close attention
to the story—as measured by a
subsequent questionnaire—brain
activity paralleled the activity in
Silbert’s own brain. More surprising,
among the most attentive
listeners, key brain regions lit up
before her words even came out,
suggesting anticipation of what
she would say next. “The more
you anticipate someone, the more
you’re able to enter their space,”
Silbert says. AMY BARTH
Discover Magazine Jan 2011
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