I have been following the idea of mirror neurons for a while. Basically, it means our body, physically and mentally actually, mimicks what we see. This seems like a minor thing but this has really wide impact on our understanding of humans.
For instance, scientists are quite sure people suffering from autism does not mirror other people. This fits with lack of empathy.
But this goes really deep into how we humans learn etc.
"We are hard-wired to feel what others experience as if it were happening to us," he says. Down the road in San Diego, Vilayanur Ramachandran, director of the Center for Brain and Cognition (http://psy.ucsd.edu/chip/) at UCSD, offers, "We used to say, metaphorically, that 'I can feel another's pain.' But now we know that my mirror neurons can literally feel your pain."
New article on it, although a bit basic:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/11/05/mirror_neurons/
It makes sense. Without such instincts there would be no reason for us to learn. We cannot at a young age without learning language understand how important speaking and communicating will be in later life yet we do it anyway. Alot of our actions can be simplified to fitting into a group etc but when you really think about it the fundamentals like why do we all learn a language and why do we walk etc must come from a more basic physical reason.
If empathy comes from these neurons I don't see how this is any different to just imagining what it's like for them, but I do see how early interactions with people can be heavily affected by these. It'd be interesting to see more detailed work on the subject.
Quote from: T-Bag;212297It'd be interesting to see more detailed work on the subject.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neurons
Check out the links