ESP Biography



HEATHER KOSAKOWSKI, MIT grad student studying cognitive neuroscience




Major: 9

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: G

Picture of Heather Kosakowski

Brief Biographical Sketch:

I am passionate about studying the development of the human brain and how it gives rise to thought. How does a baby brain come to be responsible for housing everything a child (or adult) thinks, knows, experiences, and feels? In order to answer this question, I show babies videos or have them listen to sounds like speech or music, while I take pictures of their brains. I then look at the pictures to determine if there are any differences in the way their brain responds to different videos or different sounds. If I find differences, I can use those differences to help us understand what a baby might be thinking.
Outside of graduate school, I am the mom of a 10-year-old daughter. We really like watching the Avengers movies together and we wish we spent more time riding our bikes.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

S12392: Babies and Brains! in Splash 2018 (Nov. 17 - 18, 2018)
What do babies know about the world? How do we ask what babies know? In this class, we'll share some of the most exciting findings in psychology and neuroscience that come from studying babies, and explore techniques that enable us to ask big questions about the little ones. Be ready to think, ask questions, participate in demos, and see some adorable videos!