Emotions are contagious. Just watch a mother with her baby in her arms. When the mother smiles her child smiles too. It’s the same for soccer fans when their team scores a goal: the stadium fills with joy and the excitement spreads through the stands.
Emotions, although invisible, spread like viruses. It is a primitive process that acts in synchrony with all those around us and adapts us to living in society, because human beings are social beings by nature. For many years, many scientists have wondered why such “perfect” connections are established between humans.
Mirror neurons seem to hold the answer to all this. They are a type of neuron that is strictly related to the capacity for empathy and interpersonal communication. empathy and interpersonal communication.. They were discovered more than 20 years ago and with them it was possible to establish a scientific basis for identifying and understanding why emotions can be so contagious.
The knowledge of mirror neurons has created a before and after in the field of neuroscience and psychology. It is not surprising, because it seems that behind them are hidden the keys to better understand how the brain works and learns. In today’s article we will introduce you to mirror neurons in order to understand what functions they perform.
What are neurons?
Our nervous system is mainly composed of neurons, highly specialized cells that are responsible for transmitting information by means of electrical impulses. transmitting information by means of electrical impulses. In fact, in just one cubic millimeter of brain tissue, which is equivalent to a grain of coarse salt, there are up to one million of them. Neurons are not isolated; on the contrary, they establish an extensive three-dimensional network full of contacts and ramifications throughout the body.
A typical neuron consists of a cell body, in which the nucleus with the genetic material is located. The cell body has a series of very short and numerous extensions called dendrites. These, which give the neuron a tree-like appearance with many branches, allow it to establish connections with other neurons. On the other hand, from the same cell body arises a very long extension: the axon, which makes it possible for a neuron to connect with the dendrites of another neuron.
As the dendrites form a highly branched network, each neuron can receive many axons and, consequently, be connected to many other neurons. These connections are called synapses and it is estimated that each neuron, on average, can establish synapses with 1,000 neurons. synapses with 1,000 other neurons.. If the data are extrapolated, the total count of neuronal connections in our brain may amount to the high figure of a few trillion, which form the basis of the complicated neural networks that build our mind.
In the body, there are different types of neurons according to their morphology, location or the function they perform. Today we will talk about a group of neurons: mirror neurons, which play a fundamental role in learning, empathy and social relationships.
And mirror neurons… What are they?
It was 1995 and the research team of Giacomo Rizzolatti, a renowned Italian neurobiologist, was studying the functioning of motor neurons in macaques when he made a surprising finding. The aim of the experiment was to evaluate the electrical impulses of motor neurons when these apes peeled and ate a banana.
As they explain, at one point, a researcher got hungry and ate a banana. The surprise was great. The macaque’s brain activated the same pathways that were activated when he ate the banana. In other words, they accurately reflected what he saw the researcher doing as if he were doing it himself. This is how they discovered mirror neurons, which they decided to call them for their ability to reflect the actions of others. ability to reflect the actions of others..
Therefore, mirror neurons are a type of neurons that are activated when we carry out an action, but also when we observe someone doing or feeling something. In this situation, they are activated in our mind, reflecting as if we were carrying out that action or having that feeling.
For example, it has been observed that when, in a conference, the speaker is telling a story with a very high emotional component, the mirror neurons make people connect in a very close way to the speaker’s story. people connect in a very close way with the story, making the level of attention to the story very high.The attention level of the audience is also triggered.
What are the functions of mirror neurons?
In people, these neurons are distributed in many regions of the brain, especially in the motor cortex and the motor cortex. motor cortexbut also in areas that manage empathy, decision making, emotional control and motivation. They are also present in areas vital for language and for the development of imitative behaviors. Thus, their activation allows us to deduce what others think, feel or do, since they are specialized in understanding not only our own behavior, but also that of others.
1. They allow us to anticipate actions.
We are social beings, therefore, understanding and learning from the actions of others is essential. First of all, mirror neurons allow us to transform visual information into knowledge about the intention behind the actions of others.
That is, if our brain is activated in the same way when we perform an action as when we see it being performed by another person, just by seeing a piece of the action we can deduce how it will end and we can anticipate their final intentions. Therefore, mirror neurons allow understanding that intentions can be understood. It is believed that the development of these neurons begins at 3 months of age.
2. They enable us to learn
It is known that we learn mainly by the mechanism of imitation. Mirror neurons are fundamental for imitationThey are activated either when we see another person perform an action or if we experience it in our own flesh.
The link between mirror neurons and imitation is so strong that, without them, the way we imitate would change completely. It is through these neurons that we learn to walk or ride a bicycle, even before we stand upright or are seated on a tricycle. It is so extraordinary that when we try it for the first time, our brain already knows which neurons to connect to perform those movements. Obviously, our movements will initially be rather clumsy, but this is something that children learn very quickly. This implies that the brain already knew what it had to do.
3. They facilitate non-verbal communication
Mirror neurons also play a role in the communication process, which are activated when speaking and listening. They are essential in the control and and interpretation of gestures and movements that accompany speech. These neurons detect facial gestures and intervene in their interpretation and imitation, aiding nonverbal communication.
4. They endow us with empathy
Empathy is the ability to identify with someone and put ourselves in the other’s shoes, therefore, as its name indicates, mirror neurons allow us to create a kind of reflection within ourselves.
These neurons automatically interpret the expressions of others, informing us of how they feel. In this way, we can intuit or deduce what others are feeling or thinking, which is essential for social relationships. This happens because the regions containing mirror neurons are connected to the parts responsible for emotions, such as the limbic system. These neurons are the ones that allow us to understand what our child means when he or she is afraid of the dark, and without them we would not be able to get excited watching a movie.
The aptitude for empathy develops throughout life, based on the neural systems, which store information and experiences about our own moods. In this way, our own experiences are basic to understand what others feel. Our emotional life is the basis for understanding and sharing emotions with others. Therefore, it could be said that empathy has an innate component but that it is also susceptible to socialization and education.
Mirror neurons and autism spectrum disorder
Seeing that mirror neurons play a role in social interactions, some scientists hypothesize that they may be related to autism spectrum disorders. People with an autism spectrum disorder have more difficulty understanding the minds of others. difficulty understanding the minds of others, and in some cases and it has been found that in some cases, these neurons do not function at full capacity.
For example, it has been observed that in children with autism, when they are shown pictures with facial expressions, the neuronal pathways that are activated may be totally different from what is expected. They understand the pictures from a cognitive point of view, but the typical “empathic” pathways of the brain are not activated. For this reason, some therapeutic interventions for these disorders revolve around imitation with the aim of exercising mirror neurons.