Empathy and Mirror Neurons: PBS Nova (has transcripts)
This excellent video explains the scientific and physiological basis of Empathy
"Why do sports fans feel so emotionally
invested in the game, reacting almost as if they were part of the game
themselves? According to provocative discoveries in brain imaging,
inside our heads we constantly "act out" and imitate whatever activity
we're observing. As this video reveals, our so-called "mirror neurons"
help us understand the actions of others and prime us to imitate what we
see."
"Why do sports fans feel so emotionally invested in the game, reacting
almost as if they were part of the game themselves? According to
provocative discoveries in brain imaging, inside our heads we constantly
"act out" and imitate whatever activity we're observing. As this video
reveals, our so-called "mirror neurons" help us understand the actions
of others and prime us to imitate what we see." Nova
Wikipedia Article on Mirror Neurons
(Has an extensive listing about Mirror Neurons)
"A mirror neuron is a
neuron
that fires
both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action
performed by another. Thus, the neuron "mirrors" the behavior of the
other, as though the observer were itself acting."
Facebook Mirror-Neuron Page
"Our goal is to make this Community Page the best collection of shared
knowledge on this topic.
About Mirror Neurons
Mirror neurons as source of empathy,
Story of boy with Aspergers Syndrome,
Interviews VS Ramachandra,
Image of cheerleaders in mirrored room
"The evolutionary roots of human mirror neuron systems reach back millions of
years, says Michael Arbib, director of the
USC Brain Project, and author of "From Action to Language via the Mirror
System." The evolution of language appears to be connected to the
mirror-neuron-rich area of the brain associated with movements of the hands, he
says, while the evolution of our empathic mirroring capabilities seems to be
associated with regions of the brain governing movements in the face."
"Mirror neurons had an inconspicuous start, says
Daniel
Dennett, director of the
Center for Cognitive
Studies at Tufts University and the author of "Darwin's Dangerous Idea," and
other books about evolution. "All evolutionary innovation begins with a
mistake," he says. Some genetic mutation may have led to a misfiring set of
neurons that enhanced hand-eye coordination. This "programming bug," as Dennett
calls it, must have conveyed an advantage amplified by natural selection. And
once simple mirror-neuron networks were established, he says, "they may well
have played a big role in the evolution of empathy, and imitation, and social
understanding."
Dr. Giacomo Rizzolatti - THE DISCOVERY OF MIRROR NEURONS
"Dr. Rizzolatti is an Italian Neurophysiologist and professor
at the University of Parma in Italy. He discovered unique neurons in the
frontal and premotor cortex while doing research on the neural representation
of motor movements in monkeys. Unlike other motor neurons, these neurons not
only fired when engaged in planning a motor movement, but also through the
observation of a related movement in another person or other monkey."
Christian Keysers is professor and group leader of the Social Brain Lab at
the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands. The lab
explores the biological nature and neuroscience of empathy.
Christian is author of 'The Empathic Brain: How the Discovery of Mirror
Neurons Changes our Understanding of Human Nature'.
Marco Iacoboni is Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral
Sciences and Director of the Marco Iacoboni Lab, UCLA Brain Mapping Center
at the University of California, Los Angeles.
"in San Diego, Vilayanur Ramachandran, director of the
Center for Brain and
Cognition at UCSD, offers, "We used to say, metaphorically, that 'I can feel
another's pain.' But now we know that my mirror neurons can literally feel your
pain."
"Mirror neurons dissolve the barrier between you and someone else," says
Ramachandran. He calls them "Gandhi neurons.""
"Marco Iacoboni, M.D., Ph.D., discusses data on mirror neurons that suggest that
their role in
intersubjectivity may be more accurately described as allowing
interdependence."
"Iacoboni's team at UCLA collaborated with Itzhak Fried, a neurosurgeon
who was implanting electrodes into epileptic patients in an effort to find the
origins of their seizures so they could be surgically treated. Once those
electrodes were in place, and after patients gave permission, it was possible
for Iacoboni to test individual human neurons for mirroring. He found mirror
neurons in several parts of the human brain."
"Alison Gopnik, a developmental psychologist at U.C. Berkeley's
Institute of Cognitive and
Brain Sciences, flatly labels mirror neurons a myth. But her voice is
drowned out by an academic chorus of mirror hosannahs. U.C. Berkeley critic
Gopnik, the significance of mirror neurons "is blown way out of proportion." She
says their power to explain consciousness, language and empathy "is just a
metaphor.""