All in the Mind - Dialogue with the Dalai Lama - Part 2 - Mirror neurons, our intersubjective minds & the limits of compassion

This week on All in the Mind, Natasha Mitchell concludes her two-part interview with the Dalai Lama - and here they get to some of the good stuff: mirror neurons, our intersubjective minds, and the limits of compassion. They are joined by neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni, psychiatrist Patrick McGorry, psychologist Paul Ekman, and Buddhist author B. Alan Wallace.

Dialogue with the Dalai Lama - Part 2 - Mirror neurons, our intersubjective minds & the limits of compassion

Download Audio

Marco Iacoboni studies mirror neurons - what some dub "Dalai Lama neurons" - and believes they "force us to rethink the deepest aspects of our very selves". Psychologist Paul Ekman redefined the scientific study of emotion. They join Natasha Mitchell in dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

Show Transcript

Guests

The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet

http://www.dalailama.com/

Marco Iacoboni
Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
Director of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Lab at the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center
University of California Los Angeles
USA
http://faculty.bri.ucla.edu/institution/personnel?personnel_id=46207

Paul Ekman
Psychologist and author
Manager of the Paul Ekman Group, LLC.
San Francisco,
USA
http://www.paulekman.com/

Patrick McGorry
Executive Director of Orygen Youth Health
Professor of Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne
Director, National Youth Mental Health Foundation (headspace)
2010 Australian of the Year
Melbourne, Australia
http://www.patmcgorry.com.au/content/biography

B. Alan Wallace
Buddhist Scholar and author
President and founder, Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies
http://www.alanwallace.org/

Further Information

Happiness and Its Causes Conference - Science of Mind forum with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, June 2011

Natasha Mitchell on Twitter

All in the Mind blog

Dialogue with the Dalai Lama: Part 1 of 3 (2009, All in the Mind)
From the stage of the 2009 Mind and Its Potential conference, His Holiness the Dalai Lama joins All in the Mind's Natasha Mitchell in an extended conversation about the mind, science and much else. Parts 2 and 3 feature the founder of the field of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, leading Harvard evolutionary biologist Marc Hauser, and Buddhist scholar B. Alan Wallace.

Dialogue with the Dalai Lama - Part 2 of 3 (2009, All in the Mind)
His Holiness the Dalai Lama joins All in the Mind's Natasha Mitchell and leading scholars in a dialogue about science, wellbeing and our moral minds. Harvard evolutionary biologist and author of Moral Minds, Marc Hauser, asks - does biology constrain our mind's potential and our moral capacity? Is there a place for moral outrage?

Dialogue with the Dalai Lama - Part 3 of 3 (2009, All in the Mind)
His Holiness the Dalai Lama joins All in the Mind's Natasha Mitchell and leading scholars in a dialogue about science and the self. This week, founder of the field of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, and Buddhist scholar Alan Wallace consider with him what it takes to flourish...really flourish...individually and collectively.

Publications

Title: Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others
Author: Marco Iacoboni
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (2008)

Title: Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Barriers to Psychological Balance and Compassion
Author: The Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman
Publisher: Times Books, 2008

Title: Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life
Author: Paul Ekman
Publisher: Times Books; 2003

Title: The Recognition and Management of Early Psychosis: A Preventive Approach
Author: Henry J. Jackson (Editor), Patrick D. McGorry (Editor)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 2nd edition, 2009

Title: Cognitive Psychotherapy of Psychotic and Personality Disorders: Handbook of Theory and Practice
Author: Carlo Perris and Patrick D. McGorry
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; 1999

Title: Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge.
Author: B Alan Wallace
Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2007

Title: The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind.
Author: B Alan Wallace
Publisher: Wisdom, 2006.

Title: Cortical Mechanisms of Human Imitation
Author: Iacoboni M, Woods RP, Brass M, Bekkering H, Mazziotta JC, Rizzolatti G.
Publisher: Science. 1999 Dec 24;286(5449):2526-8.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10617472

Title: Neural mechanisms of empathy in humans: a relay from neural systems for imitation to limbic areas.
Author: Carr L, Iacoboni M, Dubeau MC, Mazziotta JC, Lenzi GL.
Publisher: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 Apr 29;100(9):5497-502.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12682281

Title: Grasping the intentions of others with one's own mirror neuron system.
Author: Iacoboni M, Molnar-Szakacs I, Gallese V, Buccino G, Mazziotta JC, Rizzolatti G.
Publisher: PLoS Biol. 2005 Mar;3(3):e79.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15736981

Title: Entering adolescence: resistance to peer influence, risky behavior, and neural changes in emotion reactivity.
Author: Pfeifer JH, Masten CL, Moore WE 3rd, Oswald TM, Mazziotta JC, Iacoboni M, Dapretto M.
Publisher: Neuron. 2011 Mar 10;69(5):1029-36.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21382560

Title: Understanding emotions in others: mirror neuron dysfunction in children with autism spectrum disorders.
Author: Dapretto M, Davies MS, Pfeifer JH, Scott AA, Sigman M, Bookheimer SY, Iacoboni M.
Publisher: Nat Neurosci. 2006 Jan;9(1):28-30.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16327784

Title: Atypical neural networks for social orienting in autism spectrum disorders
Author: Greene DJ, Colich N, Iacoboni M, Zaidel E, Bookheimer SY, Dapretto M.
Publisher: Neuroimage. 2011 May 1;56(1):354-62
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21334443

Title: Single-Neuron Responses in Humans during Execution and Observation of Actions.
Author: Mukamel R, Ekstrom AD, Kaplan J, Iacoboni M, Fried I.
Publisher: Curr Biol. 2010 Apr 7.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20381353

Title: Mirror Neurons -- Rock Stars or Backup Singers?
Author: David Dobbs
Publisher: Scientific American, 2007
URL: http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=mirror-neurons----rock-stars-or-bac

Title: Mirror Neurons and the brain in the vat
Author: V.S Ramachandran
Publisher: (Edge Third Culture essay, 2006)
URL: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/ramachandran06/ramachandran06_index.html

Presenter

Natasha Mitchell

Tags: Dialogue with the Dalai Lama, Part 2, Mirror neurons, intersubjective minds, limits of compassion, ABC, Natasha Mitchell, All in the Mind, Buddhism, consciousness, compassion, brain, mind, Marco Iacoboni, Patrick McGorry, Paul Ekman, B. Alan Wallace, psychology, neuroscience, Tibetan Buddhism