Mirror Neurons: The Biological Substrate Of Our Empathy
Have you ever wondered why we yawn when we see others yawn? And why is it that when you ask someone how they are, you often know if they are hiding something from you or not?
All these behaviors have to do with the other, not with yourself; are phenomena related to a system of neurons called mirror neurons, which play a fundamental role in human communication and empathy
Until a few decades ago, it was thought that the motor, visual, auditory systems, and the rest of the sensory elements of the nervous system worked relatively independently. It was thought that there were a group of neurons that belonged to one system, and other groups that belonged to other systems, and that they did their work without regard to each other.
In the 1990s, thanks to the development of magnetic resonance imaging techniques and blood flow studies in the brain, a group of researchers realized that The same group of motor neurons that were activated when the individual moved were also activated when that individual saw the action being performed
That is, the same neurons were activated when the person picked up the glass as when they saw another individual pick up the glass.
This represented an enormous advance in the understanding, not only biologically, but also philosophically. Suddenly, your action becomes my action, and that is the phenomenology that emerges: what the other does becomes mine. Those scientists had just discovered the neural basis of human social communication, mirror neurons
And here lies the importance of this complex of neurons in our daily lives. These nerve cells allow us not only to know what the other person is doing, but also to understand why they are doing it. It is a concept related to the theory of mind, of being able to know and understand what the other person feels and how they live.
This is the substrate that seems to be damaged in people with Autism Spectrum Disorders, and apparently it is the biological cause of the impediment in social communication that individuals with this type of alterations show.
What are mirror neurons used for in our daily lives?
Fundamentally they serve so that we can be social beings, so that we take into account our environment and can provide appropriate social responses. In some way, they function as a social and emotional GPS, which allows you to know your environment to give more appropriate social responses from the understanding of what others do and feel.
Returning to the questions at the beginning, mirror neurons are responsible for making us yawn when we see someone yawning. They also work to detect inconsistencies in communication, since the language, motor, visual and auditory systems work at the same time and can detect if body language is coherent with oral discourse, that is why we can know if they are telling us the truth or not..
Also thanks to them, we can observe whether or not there is a connection between two people who have just met, by the imitation of gestures. Normally, we unconsciously tend to mirror the other’s gestures in a conversation if we are really listening.
This imitation will be registered by the other person’s brain, a signal that you are in sync with them. That you understand what he says and what he feels when he says it. What will happen is that when imitating, more or less the same mirror neurons will be activated in your brain as in ours. In fact, we like more those people who resonate with our movements in a subtle way.
If you get a new job, Mirror neurons will work automatically, sending and directing you information about the behaviors and emotions of others so you can know which partner seems friendlier to you, who generates more tension, who listens carefully and who doesn’t… and be able to respond to the environment in an adaptive way.
Finally, it should be noted that this article emphasizes the connection of these mirror neurons with the socialization of the individual, but these cells also fulfill relevant functions not so directly related to communication with others. They are responsible for allowing us to transfer knowledge from one field to another, emotional self-regulation, learning by imitation and countless other areas.
I hope that you have found this field of research as interesting as I have and that it has awakened your curiosity to understand the brain and its functions.
