The Discovery Of Mirror Neurons

This analysis persists of key points, about The article “Stress and the brain by Janet Elder”. The author forged an excellent informative piece to educate the reader on the effects of stress on the brain. The author states that “Stress can be both good and bad. It is part of life, and your brain and body respond to it”. The author clarifies that, "Whether stress is harmful or helpful depends on the amount of stress, how severe it is, and how long it lasts".

Upon reviewing the video entitled “Mirror Neurons” by Nova Science now, I gained a better understanding of the the whole mirror neuron system (MNS) and it's functions. In fact, a neuron is defined as “a specialized cell that conducts impulses through the nervous system” (Wood, Wood, and Boyd, 2014. p.41). The difference between a neuron and a mirror neuron is simple, a mirror neuron is defined as “a network of cells that the brain uses to interpret and produce motor actions and emotion-related behavior” (p.99). In my opinion mirror neurons are essential to establishing a human bond, considering they help the human brain translate or connect to one's own actions/behaviors to the actions and behaviors of another person. Mirror neurons help an individual experience empathy, which may assist in an individual's ability to relate to the world.

Thesis Statement: Body language expresses emotions and actions unconsciously and differs between men and women depending on their brain type, emotional experience and culture.

This neuron is probably tied to learning or recognizing in others similar activities they perform. Following, this experiment the simulation explained “mirror neurons,” which seems to be very similar to what Rizzo’s excited neuron was showcasing. These “mirror neurons” appear to be very important in learning and interpreting the world around us, they allow us to “mind- read” and develop empathy, however while reading the information in the simulation I remembered reading an article about research that suggested children may be experiencing a lack in the development of empathy and other areas of emotional development due to the large, and rapidly rising amount of time they spend in front of a tablet, phone screen, etc. rather than having social interactions, which made me wonder if and how their mirror neurons are being affected. Evidently, extensive research on mirror neurons is underway which raises the probability one day we will come to understand neurons and their

In addition individuals with autism show deficits in understanding the emotional states of others which is seen in how they imitate and perceive facial expressions. Dapretto et al, (2006) studied MNS by investigating neural-activity during the imitation and observation of emotional facial expressions in high-functioning autistic children and found activity in the anterior component of the MNS was greater in controls then children with ASD. They found that typically developing children rely on right hemisphere mirror neuron mechanisms which is linked to the limbic system where meaning of the observed emotion is understood. Dapretto and colleagues suggested that since individuals with ASD displayed a dysfunction in their MNS they have to use alternate

Numbers of studies have shown that people mimic others behaviour. Mimicry is a terms use when people imitate others doing (Stel & Vonk, 2010). Imitate here means that follow, copy, or repeat what others do. Other terms usually use to represent mimicry are synchrony, mirroring (Parrill & Kimbara, 2006), behaviour matching and interactional synchrony (Lakin, Jefferis, Cheng, & Chartrand, 2003). Mimicry can be in verbal and non-verbal form. For verbal, it includes accent, speech, and gesture (Parrill & Kimbara, 2006). For non-verbal, it includes posture (Ramseyer & Tschacher, 2008), yawning (Yoon & Tennie, 2010), eating behaviour (Hermans et al., 2012) and drinking behaviour (Koordeman, Kuntsche,

Overly, the model provides coherent explanation of many kind of information about faces and how they relate to each other. It provides evidence about significant differences in processing of familiar and unfamiliar faces. Nonetheless there are limitations. For instance, there is not enough information about processing unfamiliar faces. Burton et al. (1999)

Another experiment by psychologist Robert Miller and his colleagues was designed to see if a monkey was able to interpret another monkey’s facial expression. The researchers trained rhesus monkeys to pull a lever to avoid getting shocked after a

Tanya Chartrand and John Bargh are two notable researchers whom also have extensively contributed to the topic of the chameleon effect, and eloquently explain its mechanism. In their studies, they primarily focus on the motor mimicry that typically accompanies tonal mimicry. However, the subconscious intent and the resulting effects are the same. In their study “The Chameleon Effect: The Perception-Behavior Link and Social Interaction”, they explain, “the perception of the similar behavior on the part of the other creates shared feelings of empathy and rapport”. As a result, they continue, the chameleon effect “exists…as a kind of “social glue” that produces empathetic understanding and even greater liking between people, without their having to intend or try to have this happen”. The chameleon effect communicates empathy and understanding through its vocal mimicry. In doing so, the chameleon effect subconsciously bonds individuals together in their

In the late 1990’s, researchers from the University of California, San Diego wanted to know if there was connection between mirror neurons and autism.1 They hypothesized that since these neurons play a role in a person’s ability to feel empathy, they found it sensible to think it might be the cause of autistic symptoms.1 Autism is a disorder found among children where areas of the brain fail to work thus makes it difficult for individuals to communicate.4

According to this theory, since a child cannot see the entirety of his or her body, he or she has a disjointed sense of self prior to this stage. However, when the child does see his or her movements correspond to those in the mirror, he or she begins to construct a sense of self, associating “me” or “I” with the image in the mirror. As Lacan clarifies, “we have only to understand the mirror stage as an identification, in the full sense that analysis gives to the term: namely, the transformation that takes place in the subject when he assumes an image.” This is similar to shot 1 of the shot/reverse shot formation, but it is also more broadly applicable to the identification of the spectator with the image onscreen. Shot 1 is unexpected, as it establishes a foundation for the next shot. Similarly, the child discovering his or her body does not consciously know what it is supposed to look like, which elicits feeling of pleasure upon the discovery of his or her complete body

Mirror neurons are neurons that are activated by the actions we take and the actions we see others take. For example if someone buys a new pair of shoes the neurons are activated but if the same person sees someone else wearing a new pair of shoes the same neurons are activated. Your brain subconsciously imagines you taking the actions that others are taking. This phenomenon is why you cringe when you see someone get hurt. You experience their pain momentarily and literally feel for them.

It suggests that an emotional relationship causes the spreading of yawning; but if that’s the case then what caused the subjects in the first study with the random videos to yawn? They had no relationship with the people in the videos, yet a large amount of the subjects ended up yawning. Another question that is left unanswered is what is the differences in the effects of yawning with those of smiling. In the study, a difference in the mirror neuron’s reaction to smiling is less significant than its reaction to yawning, but why is that? The studies in the article solved a small part of the mystery but more importantly can provide the basis for more future studies to complete the

The recent discovery of mirror neurons was accidently noticed by Italian neuroscientists who were working with monkeys to study certain areas of the brain that operated cognitive movements. Upon this discovery, it was determined that there is an abundance of previously unknown cells within the brain that work to consciously or unconsciously detect emotions of others through their actions and behaviours, which we in turn mirror by mimicking those exact emotions. It is believed that this

What is the Chameleon effect it’s the automatic human behavior of mimicry of others. The book defines it as, “Our natural mimicry of others’ postures and language generally elicits liking- except when echoing others’ negative expressions such as anger” (Myers, 2013).