マーク・チャンギージーは、視覚、言語、音楽、感情表現がどのように成立したかを進化の観点から研究する理論神経科学者。バージニア大学で物理学と数学を学び、メリーランド大学で数学の博士号を取得した。カリフォルニア工科大学で理論神経生物学の研究に取り組み、2007年にレンセラー工科大学の認知科学部で研究・教育を始め、2010年には2ai Labsの人間認知研究部門の責任者となった。『ヒトの目、驚異の進化――視覚革命が文明を生んだ』（原題 “The Vision Revolution”）では、肌の血流の変化を捉える色覚、遮蔽物の向こうを見通す両眼視、知覚の遅れを補う予測と錯視の関係など、人間の視覚の働きを進化上の役割から説明する仮説を提示した。『〈脳と文明〉の暗号――言語と音楽、驚異の起源』（原題 “Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man”）では、自然環境に適応した脳の仕組みを文化が利用するという考えを展開し、話し言葉の音と物体の衝突音、音楽と人間の動作音との類似を検討した。数学者ティム・バーバーとの共著『感情表現という言語を読み解く――表情を「交渉」から考える』（原題 “Expressly Human: Decoding the Language of Emotion”）では、表情を内面の感情の反映だけでなく、社会的動物が対立を調整し妥協点を探るための信号として捉え、日常のやり取りからポーカーまでを手がかりに、その構造と機能を体系づけた。
Mark Changizi is a theoretical neurobiologist who investigates the evolutionary foundations of vision, language, music, and emotional expression. He studied physics and mathematics at the University of Virginia and received a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Maryland. He pursued theoretical neurobiology at the California Institute of Technology, joined the cognitive science department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2007, and became director of human cognition at 2ai Labs in 2010. In The Vision Revolution, translated into Japanese as ヒトの目、驚異の進化, he proposed evolutionary explanations for capabilities of human vision: detecting changes in blood beneath the skin, seeing past obstructions with two forward-facing eyes, and compensating for perceptual delays through prediction, with consequences for visual illusions. In Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man, published in Japanese as 〈脳と文明〉の暗号, he developed the idea that culture recruits brain systems already adapted to the natural environment. He examined parallels between speech sounds and physical events involving solid objects, and between music and the sounds of human movement. With mathematician Tim Barber, he extended his work to social communication in Expressly Human: Decoding the Language of Emotion, translated into Japanese as 感情表現という言語を読み解く. Rather than treating expressions solely as reflections of internal feelings, they analyzed them as signals used by social animals to negotiate disagreement and seek compromise. Drawing on everyday interactions and poker, they organized the structure and social functions of emotional expressions into a unified theoretical account.
