This is my last post on “The Science of Consciousness,” held in Tucson, Arizona, April 26-30. (See Further Reading for links to post 1, 2 and 3.) -- John Horgan
DAY 4, FRIDAY, APRIL 29. WHITE RABBITS AND BRAINS IN VATS
Last day starts on a high note. Psychologist Alison Gopnik yanks the mike from its stand and strides the stage of Kiva Ballroom in silky black pants, trying to help us remember what it’s like to be a kid.
Gopnik has devoted her life to studying kids because they have so much to teach us. They aren’t just tiny, dim-witted adults. They’re different. Their cognitive control centers, in the prefrontal cortex, are still unformed, so they can’t focus or plan like we do.
But they have other talents. Synaptic connections surge in kids’ brains until they’re seven or eight, then gradually decline. Kids’ ability to come up with crazy, creative solutions to problems, similarly, peaks early and subsides by early adolescence.
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