1. 19:59
Speaker: Daniel Wolpert: Movement expert
Why you should listen to him:
As he says, "I believe that to understand movement is to understand the whole brain. And therefore it’s important to remember when you are studying memory, cognition, sensory processing, they’re there for a reason, and that reason is action.” Movement is the only way we have of interacting with the world, whether foraging for food or attracting a waiter's attention. Indeed, all communication, including speech, sign language, gestures and writing, is mediated via the motor system. Taking this viewpoint, and using computational and robotic techniques as well as virtual reality systems, Wolpert and his team research the purpose of the human brain and the way it determines future actions.
"A recurrent theme in Wolpert’s research is that “The more we know about how the body acts, the more we know about how the brain thinks.”"Kavli Foundation Newsletter Email to a friend »
Quotes by Daniel Wolpert
-
“I am a movement chauvinist.”
Watch this talk »
-
“There can be no evolutionary advantage to laying down memories of childhood or perceiving the color of a rose if it doesn’t affect the way you’re going to move later in life.”
Watch this talk »
-
“We have a brain for one reason and one reason only — and that’s to produce adaptable and complex movements.”
Watch this talk »
-
“You may reason that we have [brains] to perceive the world or to think, and that’s completely wrong.”
Watch this talk »
Daniel Wolpert | Profile on TED.com
http://www.ted.com/speakers/daniel_wolpert.html