I have discussed before in my “research, research everywhere…” post my issues with being able find sources, but many of them have the same information. It is similar in this source, however there is a good bit of new mixed in with all of the old information so, although this may be little shorter than normal, I will only summarize the new and more relevant issues discussed in this article. This article written by Lea Winerman discusses an aspect that has been slightly allusive to me until now.
She discusses a study done by Marco Iacoboni in which mirror neurons were shown to be used in determining intention. In the study, the participants were shown a video of a woman at a tea party picking up her cup. Then they were shown a video of the same tea party with crumbs and dishes scattered on the table indicating it was over. The same woman was shown picking up her cup in this context as well. Finally the cup was shown alone in no context. The EEG results showed much more activity in the mirror neuron area during the videos of the tea party than when the cup was removed from context. This shows that the brain was working more to recognize that in the first video the woman was lifting the cup to drink from it and in the second video she was lifting it to clean it. Less brain stimulation occurred during the video of the cup out of any context. The brain worked less to recognize a simple picture on a screen than it did when processing intention and context. "This suggests that the neurons are important for understanding intentions as well as actions," Iacoboni says. Vittorio Gallese, MD, PhD, at the University of Parma is very experienced with mirror neurons and has this to say about their importance in society “This neural mechanism is involuntary and automatic, with it we don't have to think about what other people are doing or feeling, we simply know. It seems we're wired to see other people as similar to us, rather than different. At the root, as humans we identify the person we're facing as someone like ourselves."Works cited:
Winerman, Lea. “The Mind’s Mirror”. APA Online . Volume 36, No. 9 October 2005. 7 Mar. 2007. < http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct05/mirror.html>
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