Mirror Neurons

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Mirror Neurons

Updated October 17, 2010
2 minute read

Not too long ago, a startling discovery was made in the field of neuroscience. Groups of neurons, called mirror neurons, were identified. These enable animals (and people) to ‘feel’ what others feel.

Discovery

In the last decades of the previous century, Giacomo Rizzolatti, was working at the university of Parma, in Italy, where he was conducting brain research on macaque monkeys. At the day of the discovery, an electrode was inserted in the brain of a monkey, in the premotor cortex. It just so happens, it was measuring the activity of neuron involved in grasping motions. So each time the monkey reached for a banana, a signal was seen. When a student walked in, holding an ice-cream, the researches noticed, to their surprise, that the neuron in the premotor cortex was firing!

And People?

Further research has shown the people also posses networks of mirror neurons, even more intricate than those in monkeys. The measuring of brain activity with brain imaging techniques has shown that we too mimic other peoples movements in our own brains. But it’s not just movement that is being ‘copied’ by these neurons. Pain also seems to be an aspect of life these neurons mimic. So when other people suffer, we, quite literally, suffer with them. This adds a whole new dimension to the notion of compassion.

Empathy Explained

Recently, a group of scientists has actually measured empathy. Some people are more empathic than others, and these scientists have shown that this difference can be explained through the difference in the activity of a group on mirror neurons that is located in the insula, a brain area on the cortex, near the temple. These mirror neurons enable us to evaluate what another person is feeling. So, it’s not just physical (movement, pain), but also psychological (feelings, mental anguish).

It is clear that these mirror neurons are significant attributions during social interactions. They help us through making us understand the other person’s viewpoint intuitively and react to it very rapidly.

Link with Autism

When people with an autistic disorder are shown pictures of people in different states of emotion (happiness, pain, sadness, and so on) no activity can be measured in the brain areas where the mirror neurons are supposed to be located. This might offer an explanation as to why people with autism seem to have so much difficulty with social interactions. To them, it is not intuitive, but trial-and-error.

Extra (and Very Interesting) Information