Biology in Classical Novels: Mirror Neurons
Biology in Classical Novels: Mirror Neurons
By Joonwoo Lee
For a long time, human’s ability to understand others' thoughts and empathize with people around them was a mystery which many scientists tried to solve. This was an important matter because it is related to social interactions. Despite numerous discoveries and advancements in science, there weren’t any studies or researches that explained this trait of humans. Then finally, the discovery of the “mirror neuron system” answered this question.
Mirror neuron was discovered by chance. At the University of Parma in Italy, neuroscientist Giacomo Rizzolatti was researching with macaque monkeys in the early 1990s. While the monkey was waiting for the next experiment with electrodes inside the brain, the monkey saw a person reaching out to grab something. Then the computer showed some signs that indicated stimulation of nerve cells in the premotor cortex. This meant parts of the brain involved in picking up reacted even though the monkey was just “watching” a person pick something up. By this incident, mirror neurons were discovered and were studied for another 20 years.
What these unique neurons do is pretty obvious. Just like how they are called, mirror neurons make people unconsciously “mirror” what they see. Even when the other person's intentions could be guessed, certain parts of the brain were stimulated just like when they actually saw the action. Also, neurologist Marco Iacoboni said that humans can experience the actions of others indirectly even in their imagination because of the mirror neuron system. Through further research, it was concluded that the mirror neuron system is implicated in neurocognitive functions (social cognition, language, empathy, the theory of mind). Thanks to the discovery of mirror neurons, humanity was able to provide a plausible neurophysiological explanation for complex social cognition and interactions for the first time in history.
Many classical novels can be reinterpreted by introducing mirror neurons in reading and understanding them, since there are many novels that “mirror” society or that have characters who try to “mirror” others in the novel. Mirror neurons can either cause positive situations by imitating positive traits or cause negative situations by imitating negative traits like crimes.
There are numerous examples that literature provides to support this. One positive example is shown in <Brat’ya Karamazovy> by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky portrayed Russian ‘community spirit’. Russian community spirit is an idea created by the combination of national spirit and religion. In Russia, all members of society, from citizens to leaders, are regarded as one family. This was possible because Russians mirror each other’s way of thinking and actions that show community spirit. As <Brat’ya Karamazovy> emphasizes the ‘unity of all mankind’, this can be an example of a positive result of the stimulation of mirror neurons.
In contrast, Evgeny Zamiatin’s novel <My> shows what can happen when mirror neurons’ stimulation reaches its most negative extremes. The background of this novel is a ‘single empire’ which is a country built on Earth by humans who survived from a terrible war. In this country, there is no concept of 'I'. Only the concept of 'us' exists. All citizens of this country wear the same uniforms, get up at the same time, eat the same food, and go to bed at the same time according to the same daily schedule. All citizens are called by numbers instead of their own names. They are all brainwashed with the notion of “solidarity” or “unification,” believing that they even think in the same way. This is an inverted “community spirit” and a terrible parody of unity and harmony. This is, in fact, a warning against equalization, grouping, and uniformity which can happen when the mirror neuron system is stimulated in the wrong way.
These two examples give us an important question to think about. In the future, humanity will eventually reach the crossroads between heaven and hell. It is up to our choice. We can either push the activity of mirror neurons to a positive extreme and complete the human unity orientation into a community in the Dostoevsky meaning, cause the negative extreme, a Zamyatin dystopia. Inducing this choice in a positive direction will be one of the most important tasks that neuroethics will ultimately have to accomplish.
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