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| Image source: flickr commons Smoking chimpanzee in Artis zoo. The Netherlands, Amsterdam, 1958. |
If you're not in my class, Mirror Neurons are this new discovery that seem to reveal the location of "empathy" nerves in the brain. These Italian ape researchers discovered the mirror neurons on accident. They had been studying which part of the brain fires when a monkey reaches for a peanut, and one day realized the exact same synapses fire when the monkey watches someone else grab a peanut. That is, in this part of the brain, the reaction to seeing is equivalent to the act of doing it oneself. Further studies with humans reveal the same goes for witnessing other people's emotions. Seeing them is the same as feeling them. Capiche?
Well a quick search turned up the original 14 minute video on the PBS website, and it was really fascinating and worth watching! They get into what this means for autism research, which some of us were wondering about in class after having watched Part 1. Watch the whole thing on the NOVA website here, or just watch them on youtube below and pick up at Part 2 for autism discussion :)
Part 1:
Part 2:
1 comment:
Very interesting! Makes me think that Tripp is so emotionally flat because his mirror system was damaged.
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