More Mirror neurons

After reading Adam’s post I had questions about a couple of the statements toward the end.

1. “A good example of mirror neurons is smiling. Have you ever had someone smile at you on a bad day and caught yourself smiling as well, unconsciously.”

2. “That makes me think we can transfer our emotions…”

As it turns out there is a mirror neuron system that does exactly that. The multiple mirror neuron systems, which reside in sever areas of the human brain, not only perform and understand the actions of other; they sense “others intentions, the social meaning of their behavior and their emotions.” This means that mirror neurons allow us to understand the minds of others, simply by feeling.

Mirror neurons are the brain cells that analyze scenes and seemingly know what another person is feeling. A 2005 study published in the Public Library of Science revealed that mirror neurons can interpret if a person is picking up a cup intends to drink from it or clear it away. These complex cells may even be related to autism; some researchers believe broken mirror neurons may be a contributing factor. The difference in skill levels in sports is based on mirror neurons. Someone who plays a sport regularly can anticipate what will happen next in a certain event.

Mirror neurons do not only mimic actions, they convey emotion and understand behavior. This higher brain function separates human beings from other species.

Blakeslee, S. (2006) Cells That Read Minds. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/science/10mirr.html?ei=5090&en=2d497999fb9a642a&ex=1294549200&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

December 22 classical and operant conditioning

I really enjoyed learning about behaviorism. I took a psychology course my Freshman year where I had first read about Pavlov’s dogs, so this section on behaviorism was a nice refresher. According to Berger the goal for behaviorists is to find out how actions and environmental influences shape actions in people like reading a book or making dinner (39). Pavlov focused on classical conditioning, a learning process that connects a meaningful stimulus with a neutral stimulus.  B.F. Skinner was a behaviorist who agreed with Pavlov that classical conditioning explained some behavior but argued that operant conditioning, animals behave in some way and a response occurs, was more crucial (39). I have 5 cats and 2 dogs and I’ve noticed some forms of both classical and operant conditioning in my own home. For instance my cat, Milo, likes to drink from the sink. He hears the sound of running water and immediately comes running to the kitchen. My dad plays ball with my dogs every day at 3 o clock. If he’s running late they still go to the door at 3. And lastly one of my other cats, Lulu, gets fed special food because she’s sick. Every time my mom puts the food in the bowl she hits the spoon against the bowl to get the excess food off of it. The cat comes running out to the kitchen every time she hits the spoon to the bowl. So as you can see classical and operant conditioning are everywhere.

December 22 mirror neurons

Something I found interesting during my readings was mirror neurons. I had taken another psychology class called human relations and we discussed mirror neurons a lot during the course. I remember hearing a quote that said "when you smile, half is for yourself, and the other half is for the rest of the world." I thought this went a long with mirror neurons because we have all always heard that smiling is contagious. Well according to Berger, Mirror neurons are "brain cells that respond to actions preformed by someone else, as if the observer had done that action" (14). What I thought of was a child mimicking someone, but in reality this happens not just to be aggravating. A good example of the unconscious mirror neurons working is smiling. Have you ever had someone smile at you on a bad day, then you caught yourself smiling as well unconsciously. I bet you did not do that to be aggravating and mimic the person who smiled at you. This makes me think that we can transfer our emotions through mirror neurons, and maybe we should think twice about when we are in a bad mood what it is doing to those around us. Also, that if the people we are with are in a bad mood and it is getting to us, maybe we can use these mirror neurons to try and bring them up. Instead of letting them bring us down too, we can ignore their negative attitude and surpass it with a positive one. Maybe they will have a positive attitude in the end as well.