Mirror Neurons

The concept of Mirror Neurons was introduced in 1990s. A group of scientists in Italy were studying hand and mouth movements in primates (macaque monkeys). They found that there were neurons which fired when monkey reached for pieces of food, this was usual of motor neurons. But some of the same neurons also fired when monkey was looking at another monkey reaching for pieces of food. These neurons were called "Mirror Neurons". As if they fire to mirror the movements of other monkey. Soon evidence was found that these neurons even exists in humans. They not only restricted their firing (activity) during movement, but same neurons were even seen to be active when the person was just looking at another person suffering pain. As if these neurons are helping us to understand the feeling of the affected individual. Dr Ramachandran has rightly called them “EMPATHY NEURONS”. He goes on to say that these neurons make us “humans”. Various human emotions like love, affection, generosity may arise as a function of these neurons.

Mirror neurons have high implications in cognitive science as it is believed that it can help us in deciphering various concepts in perception and in certain clinical conditions like Autism.