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Mirror neuron
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[edit] Why should I be aware of this?
Over the last few years mirror neurons have been recognized as the next big thing in neuroscience. Mirror neurons provide a unifying framework and help explain a host of mental abilities that have so far remained mysterious and inaccessible to experiments. Sophisticated mirror neuron system set the stage for the emergence of a number of unique human abilities such as proto-language (facilitated by mapping phonemes on to lip and tongue movements), empathy, 'theory of other minds', and the ability to 'adopt another's point of view'.
[edit] All about mirror neurons
Rizzolatti discovered from the frontal lobes of monkeys that when a monkey performs a single, highly specific action like pulling, pushing, tugging, grasping, putting a peanut in the mouth etc. different neurons fire in response to different actions. But what is astonishing is that any given mirror neuron will also fire when the monkey in question observes another monkey performing the same action.
This discovery provided the basis for understanding a host of very enigmatic aspects of the human mind: "mind reading" empathy, imitation learning, and even the evolution of language. Whenever we watch someone else doing something (or even starting to do something), the corresponding mirror neuron might fire in our brain, as a result of which we can "read" and understand the other person’s intentions. This helps develop a sophisticated "theory of other minds."
Discovery of mirror neurons have helped understand to a great extent a number of human features, from imitation to empathy, mindreading and language learning. Damages in these cerebral structures can be responsible for mental deficits such as autism. Without these neurons an autistic child can no longer understand or empathize with other people emotionally and therefore completely withdraws from the world socially.
[edit] Birth of language in humans
There are later theories that mirror neurons were the spark that allowed our hominid ancestors to branch off from apes. The humanoid brain capitalized on this ability to imitate in new ways to learn to move beyond simple imitation to more complex imitation, and that in turn blossomed into language, music, art, tool-making and even empathy.
[edit] Big bang of human development
University of California, San Diego, neuroscientist and mirror-neuron proponent Vilayanur Ramachandran, MD, PhD, gave these cells credit for causing the big bang of human development. He called it the "great leap forward" that occurred somewhere around 50,000 years ago, when human culture experienced a sudden explosion of technological sophistication, widespread cave art, clothes, stereotyped dwellings and the like.
Intrigued by mirror neurons more researchers began to investigate their potential role in human evolution and came to the conclusion that they are a mechanism of connecting person with another, and therefore may play a vital role in communication and social interaction.
[edit] Some mirror neuron reactions
- When someone goes to a therapist, the therapists can use their own mirror system to understand a client's problems and to generate empathy. It can be found that many of their client’s experiences stem from what other people have said or done to them in the past.
- Art exploits mirror neurons. While reading a novel often we memorize positions of objects from the narrator's point of view.
- Mirror neuron activation is similarly responsible for hooking millions of sports fans in front of the television.
- According to several scientists mirror neurons are powerfully activated by pornography, several scientists said. Mirror neurons spring into action when a man watches another man have sexual intercourse with a woman.
[edit] CopperBytes
- Mirror neurons allow us to grasp the minds of others not through conceptual reasoning but through direct simulation. By feeling, not by thinking. [1]
- Mirror neurons reveal how children learn, why people respond to certain types of sports, dance, music and art, why watching media violence may be harmful and why many men like pornography. [1]
- The discovery is shaking up numerous scientific disciplines, shifting the understanding of culture, empathy, philosophy, language, imitation, autism and psychotherapy. [1]
- Other animals - monkeys, probably apes and possibly elephants, dolphins and dogs - have rudimentary mirror neurons, several mirror neuron experts said. But humans, with their huge working memory, carry out far more sophisticated imitations. [1]
- More than other primates, human children are hard-wired for imitation. Their mirror neurons involved in observing what others do and practicing doing the same things. [1]
[edit] 90 degrees
Mirror neurons work best in real life, when people are face to face. Virtual reality and videos are shadowy substitutes.
Nevertheless, according to a study in the January 2006 issue of Media Psychology it was found that when children watched violent television programs, mirror neurons, as well as several brain regions involved in aggression were activated, increasing the probability that the children would behave violently. [1]
[edit] Unlearn
Social emotions like guilt, shame, pride, embarrassment, disgust and lust are based on a uniquely human mirror neuron system found in a part of the brain called the insula. In a study not yet published, it has been found that when people watched a hand go forward to caress someone and then saw another hand push it away rudely, the insula registered the social pain of rejection. Humiliation appears to be mapped in the brain by the same mechanisms that encode real physical pain, he said. [1]
