It is a complicated issue! If you read and supposedly understand only one book like say a nursery book which has all the alphabets so in fact has everything! Then you do not have any doubts! You feel like you know everything and everything is clear!
The more you read is when you realize that what you know is so less! There is so much knowledge to get!
So while the Novel Mastery by Robert Greene tells about the work of V.S. Ramachandran and ‘mirror neurons’ (we will come to this!) in a positive light; while the novel Called Behave by Robert Sapolsky states how it is overhyped!
So two amazing books having opposing viewpoints! Now do not feel bad! That is how research must be! That is how knowledge is gained!
By not simply nodding your head just because one book says so! You must also use that ‘Matter’ between your ears!
Now whether they agree or not, the fact remain Then again the mirror neurons sound interesting!
Mirror neurons are a specialized class of brain cells that fire both when an individual performs a specific action and when they observe another person performing that same action!
It is like the neuron responsible for Sympathy, empathy and compassion! (They are all different but then that is the blog for another day!)
This dual firing apparently allows the brain to “mirror” others’ behaviors as if the observer were acting themselves!
They were first identified in the 1990s by researchers at the University of Parma, led by Giacomo Rizzolatti, while studying the premotor cortex of macaque monkeys and have been subsequently also found in birds, mice, and of course humans!
In primates, they are primarily located in the ventral premotor cortex (area F5) and the inferior parietal lobule. In humans, activity consistent with mirror neurons has also been detected in the supplementary motor area and primary somatosensory cortex!
They have been theorized to provide a “felt understanding” of others, although many of these roles remain subjects of scientific debate!
The neurons apparently also facilitate learning by observation, especially in infants, by mentally rehearsing observed movements.
Of course the chief focus is that some researchers believe they are the neural basis for empathy, as the same brain regions for feeling an emotion (like disgust or pain) activate when seeing someone else experience it~
It was once widely proposed that mirror neuron dysfunction caused the social deficits in autism, but more recent evidence suggests this link is likely oversimplified or unsubstantiated.
Some scientists argue that their importance is overhyped and that mirror-like activity might simply be a byproduct of learned associations rather than a distinct class of specialized cells.
Then again many researchers like V.S. Ramachandran are exploring “action-observation” therapies to help stroke victims regain motor functions by leveraging the mirror system’s ability to trigger motor pathways through sight!
Whether the Mirror Neurons have some ‘great power’ or not is debatable but then do try to make the man or woman in the mirror happy!
Mirror also is shown to the society when you make movies like one made by Neeraj Pandey!
Now stop staring at the mirror and sleep!
Shubh ratri…
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