2016 AAAS Annual Meeting (February 11-15, 2016)

February 10 - 15, 2016

How the Body Shapes the Mind

Human thoughts are not generated by a computer or by a brain in a jar, but by people using their bodies to interact with each other and the world around them. According to emerging research, our mental lives are profoundly shaped by these bodily interactions with the environment, in multiple ways and on multiple timescales. This symposium explores how the use of our bodies can influence important aspects of the way we understand our world: how we see the world (our perceptions); how we think and feel about the world (our thoughts and emotions); and how we learn about the world (our understanding of physics). This symposium also examines how each of these processes is implemented in our brains, and how neural models of emotions and abstract concepts must change as a consequence. Finally, the symposium explores the relevance of these findings for clinical practice and classroom teaching.