Mirror Neurons And Empathy

Mirror neurons are stimulated in the same way when you perform an action yourself as when you observe someone else performing the action. The fact that your brain reacts the same way in both situations explains how we as humans can learn through imitation, competition and even empathy. This is because you experience the actions of another as your own, and your brain helps you to better understand these actions.

Mirror neurons were first discovered in an animal study, in monkeys. First observed in a group of macaques, these neurons were located in the premotor cortex, which specializes in planning, selecting, and executing movements.

After this discovery in monkeys, many studies have been conducted on humans to find out whether we also have mirror neurons, and whether they are related to learning, imitation and empathy.

Put yourself in someone else

People can recognize the gestures of others and identify their emotions simply by looking at their faces. Even if we don’t know someone, we’re still able to guess how they’re feeling, and we’re usually right.

So when you see someone in a hurry or falling, you may experience their fear or pain as if it were your own fear or pain. This transfer is completely innate. That said, we can ask ourselves: what mechanism in our brain makes this possible? Everything points to mirror neurons and the way these neurons are connected to other areas of the brain.

Mirror neurons also have to do with how we interpret the actions of others. Not only can they help us internalize and repeat an action we have just observed, but they can also help us understand and sort through the actions of others. They can help us understand why others behave in a certain way and whether they need our help.

When these specialized neurons are activated, other parts of the brain are also activated, such as the limbic system. We can recognize facial expressions by digging into our memories and looking at the things we have learned and combining all this information to interpret a situation and give it meaning.

Emotions are contagious

People are very sensitive to impressions. Even so sensitive that we can easily be influenced by the mood of others, causing a change in our own mood. When one of our colleagues is sad and his face radiates sadness, we are not only able to understand that something is wrong, but it can also affect our own mood. Empathy helps us not only to know what another person is thinking, but also to put ourselves in the position of that other person.

In fact, it has been proven that forcing yourself to put on a fake smile can be very beneficial for your mood and sense of well-being. Try it: whenever you feel depressed, just have a spontaneous laugh. Pretending to be happy in this way will actually make you happier. It can also help to be in a group of people who make jokes all the time. Even if you’ve had a bad day, their laughter can be very contagious.

Not only are the emotions of others contagious and can affect you, their actions can have exactly the same effect, especially when you are still young. For example, by exposing children to violence through television programs or video games, you can make their own behavior more violent, because people tend to imitate what they see in others (of course, we must not forget that we are not robots that cannot choose their own actions).

Get to know the intentions of others

We have been imitating from an early age. First we imitated the gestures of our mother, then many children like to play doctor, cook, police officer etc. During our adolescence we had great idols and looked up to people we would like to imitate, and as adults we strive to be like other successful people.

Throughout our lives, we imitate others and continuously try to put ourselves in the shoes of others. We pretended to be people we weren’t really at all. That’s why people like movies and theater so much: as they satisfy our need to imitate and live in another reality.

Unlike monkeys, who also have mirror neurons that are activated when they see another monkey perform an action, we as humans are able to interpret whether someone is pretending, to guess or know what someone’s true intentions are. Perhaps this is one of the characteristics that distinguishes us from other species. We are able to name the actions of another and to form a hypothesis about his intentions.

Mirror neurons can be activated by hearing, seeing, performing or thinking about an action. However, not all of these triggers will have the same impact. For example, we can judge a situation better when we see it happening right in front of us than when we hear about it. In fact, people work with visual information the most, even though the rest of the senses are just as important.

The effect on our daily life

The name for these neurons says a lot about what kind of neurons they are. The name suggests that these neurons are activated when we see someone doing something. When this happens, the brain gets the chance to mimic the same activation pattern as that of the person performing the act. In other words, to our brain it’s like we’re doing the same thing that other person is doing. Mirror neurons thus, as the name suggests, act as a kind of mirror.

We have the surprising innate ability to identify small gestures that are difficult to fake. This ability is very useful for knowing how another person is feeling and how best to treat them. It’s a highly adaptive ability that helps us get along with others and avoid problems.

This phenomenon was discovered not so long ago, and today it is being studied how these neurons might be linked to certain behaviors and diseases. For example, it has been observed that in the brains of autistic people there is less activity in these neurons. So that we can now study these neurons is very beneficial to better understand autism and find a treatment that improves the symptoms and the adaptability of the people who suffer from it.