CERSS Colloquium will be held on September 30th.

Date & Time : 2016. 9. 30 (Fri) 17:00-18:00

Location: Hokkaido University, The Humanities and Social Science Building, room W201

Speaker: Prof. Masako Myowa（Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University）

Participants: Yuki Masaki, Susumu, Ohnuma, Ayaka Takimoto, Nobuyuki Takahashi, Masanori Takezawa, and other 15 participants (total 20 participants)

Title: Emergence of self―Evolutionary foundation and development of social cognition

Abstract: Compared to most other animals, humans are born in a relatively premature state. However, human newborns do possess an elaborate capacity to process information about both the external world and their own bodies. In this talk, I will first show that there is a clear continuity in human sensorimotor development from prenatal to postnatal life. Human fetuses have some knowledge of their own bodies by distinguishing them from other entities in the womb. I will then show that by the end of the first year of life, humans and chimpanzees attend differently to actions of other individuals. Our approach has enabled us to identify the emergence and development of human social cognition and its evolutionary foundations, as well as the biological variables behind the characteristics of the human mind that are both shared and distinct when compared to non-human primates.

Asuka Murata, Assistant Professor of Center for Experimental Research in Social Sciences
e-mail: asukamurata@lynx.let.hokudai.ac.jp, tel: 011-706-230