Mirror Neurons in Cognitive Psychology

1 Mirror Neurons in Cognitive Psychology Alondra Garcia National Louis University Psy 305 Prof Paul 03/10/2024 2 Mirror Neurons in Cognitive Psychology Describe what mirror neurons are and what stimuli they respond to. Mirror neurons are neurons in the premotor cortex that were initially observed by researchers to have the same response to the stimuli of both performing an action and observing the same action being performed by someone else (Goldstein, 2015). Therefore, these neurons fire and respond to an action as if the person were doing it, even though the activity is being done by someone else. This discovery was made by observing monkeys during a study, and there is evidence that these neurons are present in humans. Mirror neurons are thought to respond to a variety of stimuli, ranging from watching someone do an activity to seeing a unique facial expression that is associated with a given emotion. Describe at least one theory of the function of mirror neurons. Given the nature of how mirror neurons work, which entails trying to mirror or mimic other people’s actions or state of mind, one of the most prevailing theories is that they are one of the key areas of the brain that facilitate social characteristics in human beings. Social characteristics entail the creation of shared values and beliefs, which are learned by observing what other people are doing. It is, therefore, theorized that human beings’ ability to create bonds and propagate culture through learning and mirroring other people’s actions is facilitated by mirror neurons (PBS, 2024). The ability to simulate what other people are doing enables key activities like learning new skills and facilitates key processes in social interaction, such as the ability to know how an action can positively or negatively impact another person. How might mirror neurons be related to our feelings of empathy? 3 The common definition of empathy is the ability to put oneself in another person’s position, which essentially means trying to simulate their situation. Given this condition, neuroscience believes that human beings’ ability to understand other people’s emotions, sensations, and pain comes from the ability to simulate these emotions. It has been observed that the same areas of the anterior cingulate cortex that are activated when people feel pain are the same ones that are activated when people observe others in pain (Xiao et al., 2021). Therefore, mirror neurons are a key part of accomplishing feelings of empathy, which are achieved by simulation or mirroring what the other person states to understand what they are going through. Provide at least one example of how mirror neurons can influence our behavior in everyday life. Mirror neurons can influence daily behavior in several ways. One of the most renowned responses is contagious yawning, where people yawn from observing other people doing the same action. Given this is an involuntary action, it shows the power of mirror neurons to influence our behavior even in ways that we cannot control. This ability to respond to what other people are doing or going through could also influence how we behave when we witness other activities, such as someone being hurt, where we involuntarily show facial expressions that represent pain. Another way mirror neurons influence daily behavior is the ability to enjoy entertainment activities, such as music or other performances. Our ability to enjoy a musical performance and express this enjoyment is determined by how we can mirror the performance of the artists, where we can extract pleasure from simulating having the same skills and consequently enjoying the performance. Conversely, it also means that mirror neurons influence our ability to express displeasure and disapproval at things we do not like. When one is watching 4 a bad performance, they can express displeasure due to the ability to simulate the performance and realize it is not good, hence expressing their disapproval. 5 References De Weck, M., Perriard, B., Annoni, J., & Britz, J. (2022). Hearing someone laugh and seeing someone yawn: Modality-specific contagion of Laughter and yawning in the absence of others. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.780665 Goldstein, E. B. (2015). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience (4th ed.). Wadsworth Publishing Company. PBS. (2024). Mirror neurons [Video]. PBS LearningMedia. https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/hew06.sci.life.reg.mirrorne urons/mirror-neurons/ Xiao, X., Ding, M., & Zhang, Y. (2021). Role of the anterior Cingulate cortex in translational pain research. Neuroscience Bulletin, 37(3), 405-422. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264020-00615-2