What are mirror neurons?
Humans are able to empathize with one another, and while such a statement might not seem utterly groundbreaking, it’s essential to consider that our entire way of life relies on the simple fact that humans need to be able to compare themselves to each other. Capitalism breaks apart if there’s no economic competition in much the same way that the main premise of Pokemon—that one must catch them all—falls apart if the player refuses to play the game. In the case of empathy as a whole, the game is such that one must constantly compete with and attempt to better understand their fellow humans. While there are a number of poorly understood mechanisms that allow humans to relate to one another, the mirror neuron, as a functioning component of a healthy nervous system, is the hypothetical instrument that allows humans to feel what other people feel. Not just metaphysically, but physiologically as well. That immediate sensation of empathy that surges through an arm when one watches an amputation is a result of mirror neurons within our nervous system.
How do mirror neurons work?
Mirror neurons have been found in the premotor cortex, the supplementary motor area, the primary somatosensory cortex, and the inferior parietal cortex. That is to say, mirror neurons have been found in a number of locations responsible for the processing of somatosensory information, as well as the body’s response to such stimuli.
Due to the nature of studying the human nervous system—and the brain in particular—there are reasonable amounts of concerns regarding the precise existence and role of mirror neurons. To begin with, it’s difficult enough determining the root of brain activity using an MRI, an MRI, a PET scan, or a CT scan. It’s next to impossible to precisely measure the activity of an individual neuron within a mass or bundle of other neurons.
As such, the current understanding of mirror neurons is the direct result of a series of assumptions made by observing the brain’s response to the observation of certain stimuli. Earlier, for instance, I made the statement that mirror neurons are responsible for feeling empathy, but that statement is a misrepresentation of the truth for two simple reasons, and hundreds of more complex reasons.
First of all, there is no acceptable definition of empathy that underscores the complete scope of the connections that humans create with even mundane objects. Next, the measurement of such a condition is impossible, simply because the underlying mechanisms of the feeling humans call empathy is poorly outlined.
Why are mirror neurons important?
The simple truth of neuroscience is that we have a genuinely poor understanding of the brain as an extension of our emotional system. However, it’s not fair to those who dedicate their lives to the study of the brain to claim that the brain is an organ too complicated to study, or one that the human species will never understand.
Quite the contrary, it’s the discovery—and subsequent challenging—of neurological structures like mirror neurons that fuels the fervour to learn more about the neurological universe. Mirror neurons are, therefore, important, because their existence allows us to propose a simple, but incredibly important, hypothesis: That ability to feel or to know something outside the scope of human comprehension is genuinely a result of our brains.
What is the future of mirror neurons?
The human ability to empathize and connect with the universe is not a specifically human trait. After all, the discovery of mirror neurons in other primates signifies that the ability to empathize isn’t solely human. Of course, the discovery of neurons in birds that function similarly to neurons in primates also lends credence to the possibility that primates aren’t so special either.
The brain—of any organism—is able to process information in a way that continues to perplex and boggle. What, then, is the future of mirror neurons? Perhaps a better understanding of these constructs will allow humans to finally come to terms with the fact that we aren’t the only intelligent life in the universe.
As always, I’m excited for the truly absurd possibilities.