Neuroscience is Awesome!
Dec. 2nd, 2006 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
semiotic_pirateFirst, neuroscience gave us the God Machine... Now, we are hearing about Mirror Neurons. Fascinating, eh? Monkey see another monkey doing something and understands how they are doing it and then Monkey do. We always had that Monkey see Monkey do saying, now there is science supporting what we already knew was true. It also gives credence to the saying that you can't understand someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes. Empathy.
I was listening to a story about the source of human creativity. There was a significant portion about the link between what is now described as mental illness, manic-depression specifically, and levels of creative thought. A singer-songwriter named Johnston was mentioned specifically along with several other brightly burning stars. Poets were said to be expecially sensitive to these illnesses because of the need for introspection in the creative process. Virginia Woolfe and many other poets, especially those with products of deep melancholy were discussed.
Mirror neurons, let's get back to those pesky, wonderful things. A man named Ramachandran was being interviewed. He originally was looking for the creative drive of humans within our brains. Instead, he found mirror neurons.
In humans, mirror neurons are found in the inferior frontal cortex, close to Broca's area, a language region. This has lead to suggestions that human language evolved from a gesture performance/understanding system implemented in mirror neurons. Mirror neurons certainly have the potential to provide a mechanism for action understanding, imitation learning, and the simulation of other people's behaviour. The fact that mirror-neuron activity is impaired in autistic children fueled the speculation about the importance of mirror-neurons for social cognition.
Studies also link mirror neurons to understanding goals and intentions. Ramachandran thinks that these neurons were responsible for each of our technological leaps throughout history. All it takes is one person to create a new technique. This is why I think a hands-on learning process should be implemented more often in school curriculum. Yes, it is very easy to learn about a concept and how something works. I also think this is why we have universal-type gestures that we can communicate through when conversing with people of another language. This may also be where and how we process body language signals, though I may be overstepping there. Here's a great primer on our little helpful buddies.
What is that saying about imitation and flattery? However, when we think of imitative learning through observation, we must also consider violent video games and violence on television as well as pornography when thinking about mirror neurons because no matter how we FEEL about a particular set of motions, those neurons will continue to work regardless. So yes, we learn violence by observing it. There's your link people. Objectification via mirror neuronal action.
Some people are referring to it as mind reading although they aren't referring to telepathy.
I was listening to a story about the source of human creativity. There was a significant portion about the link between what is now described as mental illness, manic-depression specifically, and levels of creative thought. A singer-songwriter named Johnston was mentioned specifically along with several other brightly burning stars. Poets were said to be expecially sensitive to these illnesses because of the need for introspection in the creative process. Virginia Woolfe and many other poets, especially those with products of deep melancholy were discussed.
Mirror neurons, let's get back to those pesky, wonderful things. A man named Ramachandran was being interviewed. He originally was looking for the creative drive of humans within our brains. Instead, he found mirror neurons.
In humans, mirror neurons are found in the inferior frontal cortex, close to Broca's area, a language region. This has lead to suggestions that human language evolved from a gesture performance/understanding system implemented in mirror neurons. Mirror neurons certainly have the potential to provide a mechanism for action understanding, imitation learning, and the simulation of other people's behaviour. The fact that mirror-neuron activity is impaired in autistic children fueled the speculation about the importance of mirror-neurons for social cognition.
Studies also link mirror neurons to understanding goals and intentions. Ramachandran thinks that these neurons were responsible for each of our technological leaps throughout history. All it takes is one person to create a new technique. This is why I think a hands-on learning process should be implemented more often in school curriculum. Yes, it is very easy to learn about a concept and how something works. I also think this is why we have universal-type gestures that we can communicate through when conversing with people of another language. This may also be where and how we process body language signals, though I may be overstepping there. Here's a great primer on our little helpful buddies.
What is that saying about imitation and flattery? However, when we think of imitative learning through observation, we must also consider violent video games and violence on television as well as pornography when thinking about mirror neurons because no matter how we FEEL about a particular set of motions, those neurons will continue to work regardless. So yes, we learn violence by observing it. There's your link people. Objectification via mirror neuronal action.
Some people are referring to it as mind reading although they aren't referring to telepathy.
