It looks like a mirror neuron of a healthy person. Photo: NIH
Based on Joachim Bauer's book Why I Feel What You Feel.

"Nerve cells that are able to implement a certain program in their own body, but which are also activated themselves when observing or otherwise empathizing with the execution of this program by another individual, are called mirror neurons.[...]

It is enough for a person to hear a conversation about some kind of action in order to bring mirror neurons into resonance. Conclusion: not only observations, but also any perceptions of the process performed by others, can activate mirror neurons in the brain of the observer. (one) [...]

Action-directing nerve cells are activated not only by observing the actions of others. They also give signals when the subject is asked to imagine the corresponding action. But the strongest signal comes from them when a person is asked to simultaneously reproduce the observed action. [...]

The actions of other people perceived by a person inevitably cause the activity of mirror neurons in the observer. They trigger their own scheme of actions in his brain, and exactly the one that would work if he himself performed the perceived action. The mirroring process proceeds synchronously, arbitrarily and without any reflection. An internal neuronal copy of the perceived action is created, as if the observer himself is performing this action. The performance of this action in reality is the free choice of the observer, but the phenomenon of the resonance of mirror neurons, which activate the action programs embedded in them in his internal representation, he cannot prevent. (2) [...]

In order for everyday interpersonal relationships to proceed more or less smoothly, a number of conditions must be met, and constantly, at the current moment in time. We consider most of these conditions to be absolutely natural, and we believe that they should be fulfilled, although they are not at all taken for granted. We are talking about unconscious (unreflected) confidence, what experts call implicit assumptions. The certainty, without which it would be uncomfortable to live, is that the behavior of the people around us at the moment is more or less predictable for the next moment in time, that is, it corresponds to our expectations within certain limits. This concerns not only such banal motor processes as the way a person moves in a busy pedestrian zone or on a mountain slope filled with skiers, but, first of all, the expected behavior, actions on the part of other people. (3) During a reception or a party, we will, of course, not consciously think about the danger or safety of this situation without reason. But we orient ourselves, without realizing it, precisely in such a way that we gain implicit knowledge about whether peaceful behavior can be expected from those present. True, this does not always happen.
Everyone is familiar with situations where some a person who is not doing anything wrong at the moment evokes in us an unpleasant feeling, a sense of potential threat. It is only when we suddenly lose our sense of security and certainty that we realize how much we depend on implicit certainty. Mirroring phenomena allow you to predict situations - good or bad. They create in us a feeling that we call intuition and which allows us to anticipate, guess about future events. (4) Intuitive predictions cannot be ignored. Intuition is, so to speak, a special, softened form of implicit certainty, a kind of foreboding or seventh sense.[...]

When we perceive even a part of the sequence of actions, the mirror nerve cells in the brain, and thus in the psyche of the observer, spontaneously and independently of our will show the whole process. Perception of short parts of the sequence may be sufficient to intuitively know, even before the completion of the whole process, what result can be expected from the observed action. That is, mirror neurons, coming into resonance, not only make the observed actions spontaneously understandable to our own experience. Mirror neurons are able to complete observed fragments into a likely expected full sequence of actions. The programs accumulated in command neurons are not arbitrarily created, but are typical sequences based on the totality of all previous experience received by the individual. (5) Since most of these sequences correspond to the experience of all members of the social community, command neurons form a common interpersonal action space.
Intuitive representations arise in a person without the participation of his consciousness. For example, a person may have only an unpleasant feeling, but he does not know the reason for its appearance. This is due, among other things, to the fact that subconscious, that is, consciously not registered perceptions, can cause the activation of our mirror neurons. However, in different people this “inner sense” regarding the actions of other people is expressed to varying degrees. [...]

Much of what is attributed to mystical telepathic abilities finds its explanation here. People who are in close emotional connection with each other know the “paths of movement” of their loved ones. For example, our brain provides us with intuitive assumptions about what a loved one can do now, even if at the moment he is very far away. [...]

The faculty of intuitive understanding, this gift of our mirror nerve cells, in no way protects us from error and error. The perception of situations through the neurobiological system of mirror reflection can lead to the activation of programs that at first appear to the brain as a suitable continuation of a visible event, but then turn out to be erroneous. This is due to the fact that many everyday situations are ambiguous and allow for various options for continuing. In the interpretation of situations, individual previous experience plays an important role. Someone whose experience has shown that people who make a good impression often come in unexpectedly unpleasant ways will react differently to people who are pleasant than those with other backgrounds. For those who have often had to experience disappointment after the collapse of initially promising situations, this experience will be present in neuroscience programs as a typical sequence of events.
However, one-sided schemes of interpretation based on prior experience are not the only reason that intuition can be misleading. Unfortunately, it is not protected from the deception of consciousness either, because intuition is not everything. Where she fails, reason must come to the rescue. (6) Critical reflection on what we see in others and experience with them is of undeniable value. However, on the other hand, rational analysis is not immune to errors when it comes to interpreting our perception of another person. Estimates of interpersonal circumstances made on the basis of rational reasoning may well mislead us. Another shortcoming of our intellectual-analytical apparatus is its slowness. Thinking about someone takes more time than intuitive evaluation. Mirror neurons fire spontaneously and quickly. Their selection is available online.
Conclusion: intuition and rational analysis cannot replace each other. Both are important and should be used in conjunction with each other. The probability of a correct assessment of the situation is maximum when intuition and intellectual analysis of the situation come to similar conclusions and complement each other. The limits of both intuitive and analytical evaluation testify to the prominent role of language, in other words, the clarification of circumstances, situations, etc. in a conversation. Intuition can exist without language, but only language enables us to explain explicitly about intuitions.[...]

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My comments are based on the theory of abuse.

1. A normal person is able to adequately respond not only to the suffering of another person that he observes, but also to reports that this or that causes pain to the Other. What happens in case of abuse? The abuser sees, hears and knows about the suffering of his partner. This does not cause an adequate response in him: in his behavior, actions, reactions, words. Moreover, the degree of violence is constantly growing. This gives me the right to assert that the observed state of the victim gives the abuser, if not joy, then clearly some positive impressions. It is possible in such cases to speak of sadism - perverted and sophisticated cruelty.

2. It can be assumed that the suffering of the victim, read through the mirror neurons of the abuser, triggers a certain program of actions in him. And this is not a program of empathy and compassion. This is a program of violence. The more suffering the abuser sees, the greater his desire to torment his victim. The question of when and by whom a defective program of action was laid down is not a question without answers: parents (or other educators), society, lifestyle, environment, stereotypes, gender education, etc. See comment #5

3. One of the riddles for the townsfolk is the question: "Well, why doesn't she leave?" He beats, cheats, mocks, and the victim endures everything and continues to remain in such a relationship. There are many different answers to this question - and Stockholm syndrome, and identification with the aggressor, and the state of the victim's personality after a long period of violence. The mechanism of the work of mirror neurons gives us another answer: after the aggressor has admitted his guilt and repented, there always follows a "honeymoon" period, and the prediction of his expected behavior is triggered by the abuser's partner; like all normal people. Well, a person was mistaken, with whom he does not happen, but he realized and understood everything, now he is behaving perfectly, so everything will work out. The victim again and again "predicts" that the abuser's behavior will improve after the aggressor admits his mistakes. And abusers always admit in order to continue to torture, because non-stop violence will force the victim to flee before the abuser destroys her personality. This is one of the most insidious traps of abuse - the victim believes that her partner is a normal person. Any of us are brought up in the fact that other people are normal! That people can be wrong, etc. A critical mass of ugly deeds must accumulate in order for the victim to wake up. The size of this critical mass is different for everyone. Let's also take into account how girls are socialized: a woman must endure and forgive. It is equal to being a feminine, sweet, good, wise, strong woman. And everyone wants to be just like that, and that's fine!
And now let's add the gaslighting mechanism actively used by any type of abusers, when words, facts, deeds, emotions are denied, when the victim is shouted from day to day and the abuser, and from every iron that she is too dramatic, she did not understand that normal people have such emotions they don’t feel that everyone lives like that, that she blows an elephant out of a fly, etc. And she doesn't leave... The victim remains because her mirror neurons have been deceived by a person with psychopathology, because she is immersed in his plot of insanity.

4. The phenomenon that I encountered: all the victims of abuse with whom I had a chance to talk, recall that intuitively at the beginning (very beginning) of the relationship they did not like their abuser. I will quote "I literally got used to it. And then I realized that I love it."

5. The programs that trigger the mirror neurons of abusers were formed 1. or in childhood, 2. or in a traumatic situation (here I think 0.1%), 3. or are a product of society. Most likely this is a combination of 1 and 3. This is a system of values ​​laid down by the family, a learned way of thinking from the parental environment, multiplied by gender education, social processes in society and the circle of contacts of the abuser. Since any abuser does not have a normal stable ego structure, having not passed the milestone of 3 years in psychological development, is not able to see the subject in anyone other than himself, then we can safely say that the tolerance for violence that exists has a huge impact on his programs. today in society, as well as the lack of experience of "getting a bat in the butt" of fair retribution in his lived life scenario. Alice Miller writes extensively about how abuse experienced in childhood, which the child could not cope with in adulthood, splashes out on other people. She does an excellent job of illustrating this with the example of Hitler's biography. I think that to this is added the lack of retribution from the victims and society for bestial behavior in adulthood. The abuser, with the naivety and innocence of a three-year-old child, denies the damage done so successfully that even the victim begins to believe in it, and even the environment believes almost unequivocally. Moreover, after a devastating abuse, the victim simply does not have the resource to engage in retribution - to collect himself and carry his legs. Moreover, the stereotype works - revenge is not good. But I'm not talking about revenge here. A worthy retribution for any abuser is the publicity of his art. But in this case, we are confronted with shame in the victims of abuse. False in its essence shame: it should be a shame to someone who acts like a non-human.

6. You can leave the abuser only through a change in the paradigm of thinking, because the abuser will play on your mirror neurons, like on a balalaika. Only through comprehending the experience of relationships, through reviewing actions, through understanding what is happening, cleared of various stereotypes and clichés, will you be able to free yourself. Forever and ever. Critical thinking, reflection is necessary to get rid of heartache, never again return to this abuser, and not fall into another abuse.

Business owners and heads of large corporations in Europe are actively spending budgets on themselves and their teams, ordering lectures and trainings from neuroscientists. A scientific approach to emotions has recently been considered to increase sales, influence the outcome of negotiations, and make business more human.

Neuroscientists have managed to prove to business that it is more profitable to learn how to manage emotions than to ignore them. People are tired, they run away from office stress. If you are a manager who regularly “brains” his top managers and keeps the entire large office at bay, you are living in yesterday, losing productive people, and with them your profit. To achieve maximum productivity, your employees must be at their peak. However, it is you who can push them out of the zone of maximum productivity if you do not pay attention to how you interact with them.

For the first time, they started talking about mirror neurons in 1992 - they were discovered and described by the Italian scientist Giacomo Rizzolatti (now he heads the Institute of Neurology at the University of Parma and is an honorary doctor of St. Petersburg State University). These are brain cells that fire and generate impulses when we follow the actions of other people - and, like a mirror, automatically "reflect" someone else's behavior in our minds, allowing us to experience what is happening as if we ourselves performed these actions.

At a minimum, mirror neurons allow us to understand the truth about partners and subordinates, to predict their actions (mirror neurons are the neurophysiological basis of empathy).

Is it important to you what a potential investor thinks about the upcoming contract? Is he committed to serious investments or is he playing a double game? He may be an excellent verbal actor, but if you have the technique of mirroring emotions and analyzing them, you will get the right answer to your question. You can call it the power of intuition, the inner voice - but from the point of view of neuroscience, this is the theory of mirror neurons. To be more specific: when a person frowns, he activates 17 facial muscles, when he smiles - 46. The conceptual mechanism is arranged in such a way that first the emotion of another person is reflected on our face, and then gives an impulse to the brain, our "motor dictionary" decodes this impulse and turns on a suitable (not rational, but emotional - this is an important point) response reflex - and all this happens in 0.08 seconds. Are you being offered a controlling stake? Logically, you should be aroused, but if your mirror neurons considered a different reality, you do not feel uplifted, but annoyed, withdrawn, a desire to hide or leave the meeting. You felt falseness - you mirrored it.

It would seem that everything is primitive and easy. But not really. In order to truly mirror a difficult interlocutor (I have never met others in big business), it is pointless to technically copy his gestures - this will not work. You will need to put yourself in a resourceful state, turn on empathy. Advanced businessmen have been pumping this skill for years. What to advise to beginners? At a minimum, try to focus as much as possible on the partner’s face during negotiations. Often the executives I advise complain that their faces are not mirrored. And my first question to men in this case is: “How often do you practice Botox injections?” For a man whose facial muscles are "frozen" by injections, it is much more difficult to apply the mirroring technique.

With women it is easier - they naturally have more mirror neurons than men, they know how to "speak with their eyes." Not surprisingly, every year corporations are increasingly offering women the positions of CEO and board members. Empathy, increased sensitivity, willingness to build a dialogue, to listen - this is what the business of the future is built on.

Mirror neurons, translated into the language of business, are brain cells that affect the “human factor”. And the human factor has a direct impact on sales.

In 2016, scientists conducted a study, as a result of which they found out that when a waiter has an angry, dissatisfied face, his customers order less - people mirror, they literally lose their appetite, and restaurateurs lose money. We're back where we started: to get the Deal of the Year, your developer must be at their peak. If you are an authoritarian tyrant, the team “mirrors” you, this increases stress for each employee and business efficiency drops.

It is possible by force of will. But today you can no longer run a successful business with a cold face, because competitors breathe in the back, and they have learned to create an emotional connection with the client (we call this “emotional infection” - and, fortunately, emotions of joy are “contagious” than sadness). What is your advantage then? What can I say, even if programs are being developed for devices with artificial intelligence that allow for emotionally colored communication between technology and a person.

Mirror neurons, by the way, open up great prospects in medicine. This year we published the results of a study on how sensitive, empathic techniques of a doctor's work with a patient influence the result. It is much more accurate to make a diagnosis, and the well-being of not only the patient, but also the doctor himself improves.

It is mirror neurons that provide the “crowd effect”, the popularity of a certain artist, and even success in social networks. Experts call it the "mirror virus". The “elevator look” trend on Instagram, when at some point even the most serious people could not resist taking a selfie in an elevator, is a very accurate example.

It is impossible to stop the "viral" spread, it either disappears by itself, or another virus comes to replace it. Advanced companies take this fact into account - and launch "viruses" themselves. They spend huge budgets on neuromarketing.

Most often, a hint is enough for us - the smell or sound of some action, so that the mirror neurons responsible for this action turn on. American scientist Alan Hirsch, for example, separately studies the phenomenon of the influence of smells on sales. He has developed a lot of fragrant compositions for different types of business. For example, the essence "Honest Car Dealer" is often used in car dealerships. And by order of the Chicago plastic materials plant, Alan created an essence with the smell of freshly ironed linen, which is impregnated with garbage bags.

In experiments on macaques with the introduction of microelectrodes into the F5 zone (frontal cortex). Then a similar type of neurons was found in other areas of the cortex - in the associative parietal (lower parietal) and temporal (upper temporal) cortex. In this regard, the point of view is popular that the activation of mirror neurons occurs not due to any one neuron, but as a synergistic result of the work of a neural network.

In humans, brain activity consistent with mirror neuron behavior was initially detected in the frontal and parietal regions by indirect methods such as MRI and electroencephalography (see brain diagram). In 2010, the research group of M. Jacoboni et al. recorded the extracellular activity of 1000 neurons in the frontal and temporal cortex. Some of these neurons responded both to the performance of an action and to the observation of the action being performed.

The cost of research in the field of mirror neurons, according to The Economist, is growing almost exponentially every year, and the direction itself is predicted to play the role of one of the main trends in the development of science in the coming years.

Mirror neurons are responsible for imitation.

Some scientists call their discovery the most important development in neuroscience in the last ten years. One of them is Vilayanur Ramachandran, who believes that these neurons play a key role in the processes of imitation and language learning. However, despite their extreme popularity, no decent computational model has been proposed to date to describe how the functioning of mirror neurons embodies cognitive functions such as imitation.

The function that mirror neurons perform is not completely clear and is the subject of scientific controversy. These neurons can be involved in empathy, in understanding the actions of others, and in learning new skills through imitation. Some researchers argue that mirror neurons can model observed events and actions, while others attribute their function to the acquisition of language-related skills. There is also a point of view that violations of their functioning may underlie some mental illnesses, in particular autism. However, the link between mirror neuron dysfunction and autism remains a matter of debate, and it does not appear that mirror neurons are associated with some of the major symptoms of autism.

Michael Wartburg
Mirror neurons

“Man alone cannot,” conjured Hemingway's favorite hero in his dying half-forgetfulness.
"It can't, it can't," culturologists, sociologists, psychologists, and neurophysiologists echo it. And now - an amazing series of experiments to study the so-called mirror reflection.
The “Main Theme” of this issue tells about the reflection of communications and mutual understanding at the level of countries, peoples, large groups of people. In the experiments, which will be discussed below, the phenomena of reflection at the level of groups of neurons and local zones in the cerebral cortex of higher mammals are studied.
It is noteworthy that although the action begins with neurons, it ends with a solution to the problem of the origin of speech in humans, touching along the way on the “theory of gesture”, which was very popular in its time and sharply debatable - the connection of initial sound statements with gestures. Speech is the very special ability of our species, which gives rise to its truly immense communicative possibilities. And which makes it possible to effectively solve problems and conflicts in the space of reflexive relations.
We start with reflection (neural) - we end with reflection (universal).

Who hasn't watched another person try to turn a stubborn nut or thread through an ungraspable eye of a needle? And who at the same time did not experience a strange sensation in the muscles - as if they were tensing in an attempt to repeat the movements of this person, as if trying to help him? What is it in us that follows these movements so closely and reproduces them so precisely, even mentally?

This question, long of interest to many neuroscientists, recently received an unexpected solution, which, in turn, gave rise to a whole range of new questions and led to the emergence of curious and intriguing hypotheses. It turned out that special neurons were to blame for everything, which, due to the specifics of their action, were called “mirror neurons”.

These neurons were first discovered by Italian scientists Gallese, Rizzolatti and others from the University of Parma. In the early 1990s, they began to study the monkey brain. By implanting electrodes into it, they studied the activity of neurons in one specific zone of the monkey brain - zone F5. In humans, it corresponds to Broca's area in the left hemisphere, associated, as it is believed today, with the process of speech. The F5 zone in monkeys is located in that part of the cortex that is in charge of thinking and executing movements, and the neurons in the F5 zone become active (“fire” signals) when the monkey performs any purposeful motor actions.

And so, showing the monkeys what they should do, the experimenters unexpectedly discovered that the neurons of the F5 zone fire as if the monkeys themselves were performing the actions that a person was performing before their eyes. If the objects with which this action had to be performed simply lay on the ground, the F5 neurons remained passive. In other words, they reacted only to the demonstration, and they reacted like a mirror - mentally repeating the observed action. Therefore, the researchers called them "mirror neurons".

The fact that the mirror neurons actually “repeated” the observed action, and not just fired upon observing it, was confirmed when the experimenters encouraged the monkeys to do the same action with their hands. It turned out that in this case, exactly the same neurons are excited as during the demonstration, and the nature of the firing of signals is also the same. On the other hand, mirror neurons turned out to be highly selective. Each of their groups reacted to some specific action (and did not even react to slightly different ones), and they reacted in a strictly defined way. All this strengthened the impression that mirror neurons were precisely mirror neurons: with their help, the brain of monkeys, as it were, comprehended the brain of experimenters in its external manifestations, in physical actions.

Approximately the same thing happens, apparently, in the dog's brain when it rushes at a person, when he has just decided to make a threatening movement. This phenomenon is usually explained by the fact that the dog sees those barely noticeable, even unconscious changes in body stance, position of arms and legs, etc., which the brain has already ordered the body to make in preparation for the most threatening movement. But how does she know that these microscopic changes really herald a threat? Perhaps here, too, the dog's neurons, mentally reproducing the observed inconspicuous human movements, create in the dog's body the tensions characteristic of it when it attacks itself. In other words, the dog's brain "reads" the human brain.

The discovery of mirror neurons unexpectedly brought Italian researchers directly to a long-standing mystery - can animals understand their own kind, and if so, in what way. It is known that baboon mothers often do not respond to the calls of their cubs lost in the forest. The experimenters who discovered this fact explained it by the fact that baboons are not able to understand that the behavior of their kind is similar to their own behavior. Not seeing the cubs, they do not understand what their cries mean.

Scientists see this as one manifestation of a common problem that can be defined as the problem of “reading” another brain. Undoubtedly, even monkeys are to some extent capable of such "reading" - at least when they see their own kind in front of them. The experiments of Italian scientists described above show that monkeys are able to partially “read” even the human brain. Humans are certainly endowed with this ability - each of us can give many examples of this. But scholars cannot agree on how such "reading" occurs. Some believe that it is carried out with the help of the "theory of the other": our brain, accumulating life experience and generalizing it with the help of reasonable hypotheses, gradually creates a kind of "model" of how another person acts in certain circumstances, which follows expect from him. According to another theory, “reading” another occurs with the help of a kind of imitation: we put ourselves in the place of another and mentally imitate what he should think, feel and do.

The discovery of mirror neurons not only leads to this fundamental problem, but also tends to give preference to its solution, which explains the phenomenon of “reading the other” with the help of imitation. (This, by the way, reinforces the position of those scientists who believe that the processes of imitation play a crucial role not only in cultural, but also in biological evolution.) But at first, mirror neurons were found only in monkeys. Do people have them too? Of course, it is impossible to check this by implanting electrodes into the human brain - people are not monkeys. But indirect experiments carried out by Luciano Fadigio showed that when observing certain certain movements, the corresponding muscles of the experimental people involuntarily contracted as if they themselves were preparing to make such movements. And then Rizzolati and Grafton used newly developed direct brain imaging techniques to observe neuronal activity. It turned out that people also have something like mirror neurons, and they are concentrated in Broca's area - the same one, if you remember, which corresponds to the F5 zone in monkeys.

The significance of this discovery is all the more significant since Broca's area, as already mentioned, is associated with speech. Based on this, Italian researchers have put forward a bold assumption that mirror neurons were the main factor in the appearance of speech in humans. In their opinion, these neurons became the first bridge between people.

This could have happened in the following way. Observing the actions of another person, the primitive hunter, just like we do today, mentally reproduced these actions using mirror neurons. Simultaneously, these neurons gave orders to his own muscles to perform the same actions. The muscles were tensed accordingly, but the actions themselves were not performed - they were suppressed by strong inhibitory impulses, usually given in such cases by the spinal cord. Sometimes, however, the tension overcame the inhibition and broke through in an involuntary and short “imitative” action. Such an action, according to Italian scientists, was the germ of a gesture that made it possible for another to see that he was “understood”. In other words, it was the germ of communication. At the next stage, speech itself was born from such gestures, the control of which, as before - the control of gestures, was concentrated in the area where mirror neurons are concentrated in people - in Broca's area.

However, in recent months, Gallese's group seems to have discovered the presence of mirror neurons in some other areas of the human brain, no longer associated with motor skills, but with sensations. And this prompted Italian researchers to come up with an even bigger hypothesis, according to which mirror neurons and the simulation they carry out of what happens in the brain of another person can also explain such phenomena as empathy for another person, compassion, as well as empathy, or "reading" feelings of another person. The hypothesis is fascinating and intriguing, but it still needs to be confirmed before being discussed.

Mirror neurons - supercells or a bloated concept?

I already wrote that mirror neurons are the most replicated concept in neuroscience. Discovered by Italian researchers in experiments on monkeys in the 1990s, these brain cells involved in the process of controlling movements are mirror-like and activated when observing the movements of someone else. The new study, which has just been released to the public, adds a few touches in a calm and measured tone to what we know about these amazing cells today.

But first, a little about why there is such a hype around mirror neurons. Neurologist V.S. Ramachandran believes that these cells have shaped our civilization; in fact, according to him, they are the basis of everything human, since they are responsible for empathy, speech and the emergence of human culture, including the spread of fire and tools. According to Ramachandran, autism is a consequence of the malfunctioning of mirror neurons. (Note in parenthesis that this year's detailed study did not find conclusive evidence for his views on autism. And other experts debunked Ramachandran's theory that mirror neurons are inextricably linked to the origin of culture: the activity of these cells can be changed with simple training tasks, proving that mirror neurons are as well shaped by culture as they are influenced by it.)

To get an idea of ​​the extent of this neurological bullshit, try searching for "mirror neurons" on the Daily Mail website. Let's say this year the publication published that the most popular romantic films are popular because they activate our mirror neurons. And another article says that it is only thanks to mirror neurons that patients in hospitals improve when they are visited. In fact, there is no scientific evidence behind any of these statements, and each of them is an example of extreme simplification.

A quick search on Twitter can also show how deeply ingrained the notion of omnipotent empathic mirror neurons is in the public mind. “Mirror neurons are responsible for the fact that we wince when we see someone else’s pain!” - With deceptive confidence, WoWFactz twitter tells its 398 thousand followers as recently as this month. "Mirror neurons are so powerful that we can even 'mirror' each other's intentions!" says self-improvement author Dr. Caroline Leaf in a tweet sent a few weeks ago.

In fact, we don’t yet have research that proves that mirror neurons are necessary for empathy – and there is reason to believe that empathy is quite possible without them.

Many brain-damaged patients who can no longer speak are still able to understand other people's speech, and those who have lost the ability to express their own emotions still perceive others.

And just recently, two London-based neurologists published an introductory article in the respected journal Current Biology entitled "What we know today about mirror neurons." To the unhealthy hype that usually surrounds mirror neurons, James Kilner and Roger Lemon of University College London offer a balanced and objective look at the existing literature on the subject.

They acknowledge that it is difficult to explain the activity of mirror neurons in the human brain using neuroimaging technologies. Therefore, they focus on 25 studies based on the analysis of direct records of the activity of individual brain cells in monkeys. These studies found motor cells with mirror-like properties in the frontal lobes of the brain responsible for controlling movement (in the so-called premotor cortex and precentral gyrus) and in the parietal lobe, near the top of the head.

So, some motor cells show a mirror response only when the monkey sees a living being in front of him; others also react to motion recorded on video. Some mirror neurons are capricious: they only respond to specific movements; others respond to movements of a much wider range. There are even those that “turn on” in response to the sound of some special movement. And yet another type of cell exhibits mirror suppression: during the observation of movement, their activity decreases. Another study in monkeys identified neurons that are sensitive to touch: they fire when a monkey sees a touch on the same spot in another animal (Ramachandran calls these neurons "Gandhi cells" because, in his opinion, they destroy the boundaries between human beings).

Significantly, Kilner and Lemon dwell on data that show how mirror neuron activity in monkeys varies depending on the angle of observation, on the opportunity to receive a reward due to the observed movement, and on the purpose of this movement (for example, whether it is not aimed at grab some object and eat it). These details are significant because they show that the activity of mirror neurons is caused not only by incoming sensory information, but also by inferences formed somewhere in other areas of the brain and concerning the meaning of the observed phenomena. This is noted not to underestimate the admiration for the work of mirror neurons, but to show that they are not at the beginning of the causal chain - rather, they are built into a complex system of brain activity.

Finally, it is important that Kilner and Lemon sum up briefly the current state of development of the question of the functionality of mirror neurons in humans.

The method of recording the activity of individual brain cells, used in experiments with monkeys, is not applicable to humans - except in exceptional cases, such as necessary operations on the brain. The only study of its kind published so far reveals the existence of mirror neurons in the frontal cortex and in the temporal lobe of the human brain.

Neuroimaging studies done on humans also point to the existence of something similar to mirror activity in many of the areas of the brain where such activity has been found in monkeys. However, these studies were only focused on the observation of actions, and therefore cannot show whether the same areas of the brain are involved in action and observation of action.

Other neuroimaging studies have been based on the principle of adaptation (the more neurons are fired, the less excitable they are). If a certain area of ​​the brain has mirror properties, signs of fatigue in it should appear both after the action and after observing it. In fact, the results of two of the five adaptation studies are ambiguous, and the existence of mirror properties remains unproven. Perhaps this is because mirror neurons do not adapt at all - but this still needs to be clarified.

James Kilner and Roger Lemon can only be applauded for their long awaited review.

Also, there are many types of mirror neurons. And that we still need to prove whether they exist in humans, and if so, whether they are similar to apes. As for the functional significance of these cells... Don't be fooled: the road to understanding has just begun here.

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If you see a person eating a lemon, the same parts of the brain will automatically be activated in your brain as if you were actually eating a lemon. As a result, you can even taste it and wrinkle your face at such a sour fruit. All this happens due to the presence of mirror neurons in the brain, which contribute to the manifestation of understanding and empathy for other people. However, their functions are not limited to this.

Mirror neuron theory

In the early 1990s, the scientific world started talking about a new discovery in neuroscience. The Italian neuroscientist G. Rizzolatti discovered the so-called mirror neurons. During the work of the research group under his leadership, the method of registering the responses of individual nerve cells was used. The results were amazing.

It was found that during the performance of any actions by a person and while observing how these actions are performed by someone else, the same brain neurons are activated in the same way. This is the unique feature of mirror neurons.

Thus, the foundations for their further study were laid. Today they have become one of the most popular objects of research in neuroscience. In the 2000s, linguists also became interested in mirror neurons. Scientists saw in them a possible explanation for the long-standing question of how language acquisition is carried out.

Functions

V.V. Kosonogov in his work "Mirror neurons: a brief scientific review" highlights the results of research in this area. In particular, the author touches on the topic of the dynamics of views on the functions of the studied group of neurons. The first definitions of the functions of mirror neurons were obvious - activity during imitation. Later, new hypotheses began to appear that connected this discovery with a number of pressing problems of modern biological and humanitarian disciplines.

As it turned out, the neurophysiological level of imitation is due to a group of cells located in several areas of the cerebral cortex, and most likely developing from birth. Through imitation, phenomena and problems such as:

• empathy, which refers to the ability to understand the feelings and emotions of other people and empathize with them;
• human language and speech;
• understanding of someone else's consciousness;
• acting skills, involving getting used to the role;
• a construct that describes the ability to understand the mental content of other individuals;
• autism;
• the development of socioculture, carried out through imitation.

Imitation

Imitation refers to the reproduction by an individual of the behavior, actions, movements of another individual. Learning by imitation or the so-called "imitation learning" involves the individual formation of new models and forms of behavior, but only through direct perception of the actions of others.

In this context, the influence of mirror neurons on the behavior of children is very great. After all, imitation plays a key role in the acquisition of social, communication and motor skills. Many modern scientists, for example, V. Ramachandran and L. Oberman, attach great importance to imitation as an important component of the process of social and scientific and technological development.

Behavior switches

Mirror neurons, according to V.V. Kosonogov, can be considered as some kind of behavior switches that are located in the associative zones of the cerebral cortex and connect the motor and sensory sections.

When a person perceives an action performed by another individual, then a certain group of neurons located in the sensory regions is excited. Moreover, it is excited according to a certain pattern, which is characteristic of this particular action. Next, a reaction occurs between the layers of mirror neurons, as a result of which a certain group of motor neurons of the cortex is activated and imitation is carried out.

empathy

In Greek, "empathy" means "compassion". This term is understood as the emotional responsiveness of one individual to the experiences of another. In the process of empathizing, a person feels feelings identical to those observed. Empathy can be manifested not only in relation to the observed or imaginary feelings of other people, but also to the experiences of the heroes of various works of art, theatrical productions, and cinema.

Empathy plays a fundamental role in social life, as it ensures that the feelings, goals and needs of one individual are understood and shared by another. In a sense, empathy is part of the process of understanding someone else's mind. This means that in many ways it is similar to imitation.

Yet the neurobiology of empathy is quite different from the neurobiology of imitation in its general sense. This difference is due to the fact that in the first case, the parts of the brain that are traditionally associated with emotions play an important role. Very generally, we can say that the neuroanatomical basis of empathy is a system of mirror neurons and the limbic system, while scientists pay special attention to the amygdala and the insula.

Speech

Many scientists believe that in the process of human evolution, speech arose on the basis of imitation of various sounds and gestures. Human speech, in their opinion, is mediated by a system of mirror neurons found in the Broca's area of ​​the human brain. Traditionally, it is associated with speech.

Mirror neurons allow people to imitate each other and, presumably, to understand the subtle movements of the lips and tongues of others. This gives impetus to the evolutionary development of language abilities. At the behavioral level, speech can be considered as the most complex ability to quickly create motor programs for the articulatory organs.

Thus, with the help of brain mirror neurons, through the process of imitation, a person learns to speak and understand speech. Violation of the work of these neurons can lead to various kinds of mental disorders associated with problems in speech, including autism.

Understanding other people's thoughts

The term "understanding of another's consciousness" by scientists means the ability of a person to draw conclusions about the entire set of his mental states that are the cause of his actions and deeds. These states include the following: intentions, desires, hopes, emotions that are the cause of the actions of another individual.

Thus, understanding someone else's consciousness is the ability of a person to reflect the consciousness of other people. The ability to understand the intentions associated with the actions of others is a fundamental component within social behavior.

Today, on the understanding of someone else's consciousness, due to mirror neurons, in psychology, explanations of the mechanisms of learning, the development of a person's thinking and his ability to interact in society, as well as good acting abilities are built.

Autism or malformed mental development

Currently, many scientists who are engaged in the study of the problem of autism tend to assign a large role in the symptoms of this disease to the participation of the mirror neuron system of the brain.

As a rule, at the behavioral level, autism is characterized through difficulties that arise during social contacts, the inability to understand and use verbal and non-verbal methods of communication, lagging behind in schooling, and a lack of understanding of the metaphorical meaning of words and sentences.

These symptoms also complement the dysfunctions of the brain representation of the actions of other individuals, imitation, empathy, understanding of someone else's consciousness. These abilities are successive links in one chain and serve to ensure social interaction between people.

V. Ramachandran and L. Oberman, considering dysfunctions of the recently discovered mirror system of the brain as the cause of autism, talk about the possibility of discovering new approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of this disorder.

How to fix "broken mirrors"

What happens when the mirror neurons themselves are damaged? As V.V. Kosonogov, massive damage to these neurons is not so easy, since they are distributed throughout the cerebral cortex.

For example, if a person has experienced a stroke, then only some of these neurons are damaged. Another example, when a person has damage to the left side of the brain, he is sometimes unable to understand the actions of other people.

The most serious damage to mirror neurons in the brain is associated with genetic disorders. And most often, this happens when a diagnosis of autism is made.

Due to the fact that in the brain of autistic people the mechanism of reflecting the emotions and actions of others is "broken", they lose the ability to understand what others are doing. They cannot show empathy, because they cannot experience such emotions at the sight of joy or sadness. All this is alien to them, unfamiliar and may even frighten. Therefore, autistic people try to hide and avoid communication.

According to scientists, there is a possibility of the most complete recovery of children with autism if it is done at a very early age. At the very first stages, they recommend to show great sentimentality and sensitivity when interacting with such children.

Thus, the mother and specialist must ensure maximum social and tactile contact with the child. This is necessary in order to develop motor and emotional skills. Games with a child are very important, but not competitive, but those where success comes only with joint efforts. So the child will eventually be able to understand that being with someone is not scary at all, and even, on the contrary, is important and useful.

Neurobics

American neuroscientist L. Katz and writer M. Rubin came up with a technique for training the brain - neurobics, which they offered to the world through their book "Fitness for the Mind". The authors offer 83 fun exercises that help improve memory and develop intellectual abilities. Selecting the ones you like, you can immediately start training.

At the heart of neuroscience is the task of activating new neural pathways. When a person has to perform the same routine work, it becomes difficult for him to focus on something new. The concentration of his attention falls, his memory begins to weaken.

But if you do daily things not on the usual autopilot, but in some unexpected, even somewhat chaotic way, then the brain will tune in to building fresh connections between nerve cells and restoring them if they have been lost.

fun exercises

As examples of exercises for the development of mirror neurons, aimed at increasing concentration, improving memory and intelligence, we can cite the following simple techniques that nevertheless have a scientific justification:

• Try to be an ambidexter. This means increasing the inclusion of the left hand for right-handers, and the right hand for left-handers.
• Learn and develop new skills and abilities.
• Try on different images, change the image.
• Make rearrangements at home, change the interior.
• Memorize jokes and anecdotes, come up with interesting stories and use them in conversation.

Routine and habits lull the brain. Novelty, on the contrary, has a stimulating effect on the sensory inputs of the brain, and contributes to a brighter perception of life, making it more colorful and memorable.

Physical exercise

Traditional physical activity also has a significant impact on brain activity. Researchers at the University of Illinois, USA, led by A. Kramer, found that regular moderate physical activity increases the volume of the human cerebral cortex in the frontal and parietal regions. These areas of the brain are responsible for working memory, attention and its switching.

According to scientists, this requires 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity each week, and in addition to this daily walks of at least 500 meters.

How thoughts put the sick on their feet

As J. Rizzolatti notes, modern scientific research on mirror neurons is aimed at the practical application of the data obtained. The introduction of new knowledge is already successfully carried out in various spheres of life, including medicine.

Motor mirror neurons cause a person to reproduce in his thoughts the same action that he sees. This happens regardless of whether it is done directly by another person, or whether it is shown on a TV or computer screen.

It has been repeatedly observed that while watching boxing matches, muscles tense up in people, sometimes even fists clench. This is a typical neuroeffect. It is just based on a new technology for the recovery of patients after strokes, Alzheimer's disease and other diseases in which a person's memory forgets movement.

The essence of the new technology is as follows: if the patient's neurons are not completely "broken", but only their work is disrupted, then with the help of a visual shock, it is possible to activate nerve cells and make them reflect movements. This will restore the correct functioning of mirror neurons.

To do this, a person needs to show the necessary actions under certain conditions. This technology is called “action and observation therapy”. Experiments have shown that therapy provides a significant improvement in the rehabilitation of patients who have had a stroke.

However, the most surprising result, according to the scientist, was found when using this therapy in a different direction - to restore people who were seriously injured in car accidents. For example, when a person puts a cast on his leg, he then needs to learn to walk again. Usually in such cases, the painful gait persists for quite a long time, the patient limps for a long time.

Traditional training and training take a lot of time. At the same time, when a specially created film with appropriate movements is shown, the necessary motor neurons are activated in the brain of the victim, and the person begins to walk normally in almost a few days. Even for scientists, it looked like a miracle.

How to cheer yourself up

Thanks to mirror neurons, people have the ability to subconsciously perceive and feel the emotions of other people or movie characters. Thus, it turns out that while watching dramas, horror films, negative news or tragic reports on TV, a person is automatically charged with the same emotions. As a result, he may feel upset, scared, sad. It can activate the production of the stress hormone - cortisol, which provokes disturbances in attention, memory, sleep, and the functioning of the thyroid gland.

Fortunately, the principle of mirror neurons works in a similar way in a constructive and creative way. If a person communicates with positive, cheerful people, watches films with such heroes, then the same positive emotions arise in his brain.

Despite the fact that mirror neurons and their functions were discovered quite recently, the results of the research are already finding their practical application. Moreover, they are applicable in everyday life of a person. Understanding the principle of their work allows everyone to develop memory and intelligence, manage their attention, improve their mood and health, and also spread the vibes of their cheerfulness to those around them.

Ecology of life. Science and Discoveries: When Giacomo Rizzolatti, an Italian neuroscientist, published his 1992 paper on mirror neurons, he could not have imagined how profoundly this discovery would affect cognitive neuroscience over the next 20 years. It was even more difficult to predict that the discovery of mirror neurons would affect disciplines outside of neuroscience, namely psychology, sociology, philosophy, and even novelists.

Giacomo Rizzolatti, an Italian neuroscientist who published his paper on mirror neurons in 1992, had no idea how profoundly this discovery would affect cognitive neuroscience over the next 20 years. It was even more difficult to predict that the discovery of mirror neurons would affect disciplines outside of neuroscience, namely psychology, sociology, philosophy, and even novelists (1).

Since the discovery of mirror neurons, many scientists in various laboratories around the world have been conducting fruitful research in this area. Scientific hypotheses that arose at the end of the 20th century now quite successfully explain not only a number of phenomena in social life and supplement modern knowledge about language and speech, but also determine the neurophysiological mechanisms of some diseases and open up new approaches to their treatment.

About mirror neurons and the "mirror mechanism"

"Mirror Mechanism"

The discovery of mirror neurons revolutionized psychology and neuroscience. Mirror neurons are unique brain cells that fire when we follow the actions of others. These cells, like a mirror, automatically "reflect" someone else's behavior in our head and allow us to feel what is happening as if we were doing these actions ourselves.

The mirror mechanism is the main brain mechanism that transforms sensory representations of the behavior of others into one's own motor or visceromotor representations of that behavior. Based on its location in the brain, the “mirror mechanism” allows for a range of cognitive functions, including the understanding of actions and emotions. In each case, it makes it possible to know the behavior of others, which mainly depends on one's own motor or visceromotor representations (2).

It has been established that there are two types of mirror neurons: motor, or so-called action neurons, and emotional. The work of the latter helps a person on a subconscious level to understand the emotions of other people, based on the data of the visual analyzer, that is, the eye. Watching someone else's facial expressions or gestures, we involuntarily begin to experience other people's emotions.

So why has the discovery of mirror neurons had such a significant impact on "cognitive" disciplines? There are two most likely reasons.

First of all, this discovery put the problem of how we understand others at the forefront of neuroscience.

Secondly, by showing that mirror neurons are predominantly motor neurons, it has been suggested that the motor system is involved in understanding the actions and intentions of others (1).

At present, a fairly large amount of knowledge has been accumulated about the relationship between social cognitive function and motor activity. The direct correspondence of visual actions and their motor representations is the most important functional property of the mirror neuron. The results of many studies support the so-called internal modeling as a basic concept for mirror neurons. They are thought to play an important role in social cognition (3).

visual push

Currently, Professor J. Rizzolatti and his colleagues are working on the practical application of their discovery, including in medicine. They are based on the fact that mirror motor neurons stimulate a person to reproduce other people's actions that he observes from the side, for example, when watching a television or video program.

In particular, it has been recorded that when watching a boxing match, fans often tense their muscles, clench their hands into a fist, and even try to play a right hook. This behavior is a typical neuroeffect and underlies the new technique of rehabilitation after a stroke, as well as other pathological conditions in which a person forgets how to perform certain movements.

If the patient's neurons are not permanently damaged, but only their functioning is disrupted, then using a “visual push” (that is, demonstrating the necessary action under certain conditions), you can activate nerve cells and make them "reflect" movements, in other words, start functioning again in the previous mode. This method is called "action-observation therapy" (from the English. Action-observation therapy).

After injuries and accidents

This therapy was tried to be used to restore the health of people after serious injuries., in particular, obtained in car accidents. We are talking about situations where the victim with damaged lower limbs has to learn to walk again. Usually in such cases painful gait, lameness, etc., persist for a long time.

Usually, rehabilitation using traditional methods takes a lot of time. However, if a patient is shown a specially created film with appropriate movements, then the necessary motor neurons are activated in his brain, which helps to significantly reduce the rehabilitation period.

After a stroke

Thanks to action-observation therapy, a significant improvement in the process of rehabilitation of patients after a stroke is achieved. A recent study by researchers at the University of Southern California (USA) found that the brains of stroke patients show strong cortical motor activity when observing others exercise (4).

Using magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers monitored the brains of 24 people (12 of whom had had a stroke and the other 12 were healthy controls) as they observed people who performed physically difficult activities with their hands. "strokes" (raising a pencil, tossing a playing card, etc.).

It has been found that the brain of a healthy person responds to visual stimuli with activity in the motor regions of the cerebral cortex, which are activated when an action is observed. However, in stroke patients, activity in these areas of the damaged hemisphere was stronger when observing activities that were most difficult for them to perform.

Thus, watching others exercise leads to the activation of the motor area of ​​the cerebral hemisphere damaged by stroke. This, in fact, is the goal of therapy - to help people who have had a stroke to partially restore the mobility of their hands.

Autism

The most serious damage to mirror neurons is associated with genetic disorders. Most often this happens in autism.

Scientists from Cambridge have combined various diagnostic methods to identify autism in children of different ages based on the level of development of the ability to understand someone else's consciousness. This has led to a link between autism and the mirror neuron system (5).

Since in the brain of such patients the mirror mechanism of “reflection” of the actions and emotions of others is disturbed, autistic people just can't understand what other people are doing. They are not able to rejoice or empathize, because they simply do not experience similar emotions when looking at those who are nearby. These incomprehensible manifestations are unfamiliar to them, they are frightened, therefore people with autism prefer to avoid contact with what frightens them.

At the same time, according to G. Rizzolatti, it is possible to fully restore autistic children if done at a very early age. At the very initial stages, when communicating with such children, you need to show very strong emotional activity.

The mother and specialist must constantly talk to the child, as well as make tactile contact in order to develop not only motor, but also sensory and emotional skills.

In addition, you should play with your child as often as possible. However, competitive games are not suitable. It is important to choose a game in which the result/success can be achieved only through joint efforts (assembling the constructor, folding puzzles, etc.). Only in this way the child will be able to understand that being with someone is not scary, but on the contrary, it is useful (1).

In perspective

Scientists see an important area for future research in assessing the sensitivity of mirror neurons to early "perturbations" of the social environment and critical periods. Clinical studies of disorders of early social interactions, such as in children who experience a severe lack of early social stimulation or who, for genetic reasons, have a deficit in social communication, may present an interesting task to study the ontogeny of this mechanism and determine its functional role.

Another important question that will be fundamental to a deeper understanding "mirror mechanism", is to find out its neurochemical and molecular basis (1).

It is expected that this new information will be extremely useful not only for a better understanding of the mirror mechanism itself, but also for its practical application in the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders in which so-called social competence is compromised.

A better knowledge of the molecular and neurochemical basis of this mechanism will be a breakthrough in the creation of new treatments and interventions based on reliable results of experimental studies.

Literature:

1. Ferrari R., Rizzolatti G. Mirror neuron research: the past and the future // Philos Trans R Soc 1. Lond B Biol Sci. 2014 Jun 5; 369 (1644): 20130169.

2. Rizzolatti G., Siniaglia C. The mirror mechanism: a basic principle of brain function // Nat 2. Rev Neurosci. 2016 Dec;17(12):757-765.

3. Murata A., Maeda K. What mirror neurons have revealed: revisited // Brain Nerve. 3. Jun 2014; 66(6):635-46.

4. Garrison K.A., Aziz-Zadeh L., Wong S.W., Liew S.-L, Winstein C.J. Modulating the Motor 4. System by Action Observation After Stroke // Stroke. 2013 Aug; 44(8):2247-53.

5. Kosonogov V. Mirror neurons: a brief scientific review / V. Kosonogov. - Rostov-5. on-Don, 2009. - 24 p.