Key Points: Parts of our brains, our mirror neurons, fire when we perform an action and when we observe someone else performing that action. This increases our likelihood of doing the same action, and can strengthen our connections.
Mirror Neurons
A team of Italian researchers, led by Giacomo Rizzolatti discovered the existence of “mirror neurons” in the early 1990s. These neurons seem to be mainly located in the premotor cortex and inferior parietal lobule. Yup – that’s more detailed than we understand too!
Anyway, these neurons fire both when we perform an action and when we observe someone else performing the same action. In other words, if I see you do something, a little bit of my brain is replicating what you’re doing, so I’m, in some way, sharing part of that experience with you at a biological level.
The implication is that this mirroring mechanism provides a neural basis for empathy, social connection and awareness and imitation.
For example, if I see someone smile, then my mirror neurons simulate the experience of smiling, making it more likely that I will actually smile and we’ll share an emotion and experience. These shared experiences and sense of connection are key for our social bonding and cooperation, amongst other things.
We’ve not really explored too much neuroscience, and a lot of it is beyond us, so we have little to recommend here. There are though loads of great sources available on the internet and various podcasts.
Our View
This feels intuitively sensible to us as an evolved mechanism that supports and reinforces human connection and relationship building.
We know that we’re a highly social beings, and that our ability to communicate is essential for our survival as a species, so having a mechanism that supports this behaviour makes sense.
Interestingly, mirror neurons have also been observed in other primates, who are also highly social. We know that these mirror neurons support our ability to learn through replication, as well as our social groups.
We’ve not explored it, but we wonder if some individuals have a higher volume of / activity of mirror neuron activity than others.
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Sources and Feedback
Rizzolatti, G., & Craighero, L. (2004). The mirror-neuron system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27, 169-192. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144230 Gallese, V., Keysers, C., & Rizzolatti, G. (2004). A unifying view of the basis of social cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(9), 396-403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.07.002
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