“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”-Rumi
Have you any time thought why you cry while watching a tragedy seen in a movie? Have you noticed why you laugh while watching the comedy show? The mirror neurons which are activated in your brain is responsible for the subject reaction.
What Is Mirror Neuron?
A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another. In fact neuron “mirrors” the behaviour of the other, as though the observer were itself acting. Such neurons have been directly observed in human and primate species, and birds. Mirror neurons are found in inferior frontal cortex and superior Parietal lobe of the human brain.
The striking implication of mirror neurons is that the same brain region that controls action also supports perception. If observing behaviour occurs in the same area as actually behaving, then social interaction would seem to play a large role in cognition.
Behaviour Of Monkeys
I have to share a true story of moneys which suddenly arrived in my village before 45 years. It is a real story when I was studying in the school. Four monkeys stayed almost for one year in the village, one of them male another female and two of their young ones. We used to throw some food to them and they instantly caught and ate them. When we threw banana, the young ones did not know how to open the banana. When we used to peel the banana, the monkeys followed and ate like the men. I was astonished by this learning activity but I knew in details later on during my masters in psychology.
It was the work done with monkeys in Rizzolatti’s lab that gave a name to the multitasking mental cells that make this possible. Mirror neurons fire when monkeys break peanuts in their hands, when they see others break peanuts — even when, in total darkness, they merely hear peanuts being broken. “It’s almost like the monkey is watching his own action reflected by the mirror.”
Mirror neurons haven’t been pinpointed in people with the same precision that electrodes can pinpoint them in monkeys. Still, several recent functional imaging studies support a social side to human cognition, with which people internally replay the actions they view in another before acting themselves.
In a 2003 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences[1], a research team that included Iacoboni found that imitating and observing facial expressions activated the same regions of the brain. A study in Science a year later showed activity in similar neural regions whether a subject actually experienced a painful stimulus or simply observed a loved one receiving the same shock. To many researchers, these and similar findings suggest that mirror neurons play a large role in empathy.
Quality Of Humaneness
You must have observed especially when you are with your young child that when you make angry face, child starts crying. But when you smile or laugh your child starts laughing just like you. When you have certain acts of happiness or angriness, the observer’s mirror neurons are activated and sends the signals to motor neurons and subject behaviour is manifested. This clearly means that there is effect of negativity and positivity in others brain and their relative behaviour.
I was surprised while travelling in train during a halt for five minutes in a station when my wife started picking up fruits which were thrown on the platform from a basket of vendor due to heavy rush of passengers. She was handing over each pieces to him after leaving her baggage with me. She was so empathic during situation that she almost wept. I did not have much feeling during that incident, may be, due to nervous damage caused through parade and protruding nails in my shoes to my brain as I was soldier.
Sympathy And Empathy
Sympathy, constructed from the Greek[2] sym, meaning “together,” and pathos, referring to feelings or emotion, is used when one person shares the feelings of another, as when one experiences sadness when someone close is experiencing grief or loss. Empathy is a newer word also related to “pathos.” It differs from sympathy in carrying an implication of greater emotional distance. With empathy, you can imagine or understand how someone might feel, without necessarily having those feelings yourself.
Eye Contacts And Smiles
You never know the effects of your eye contacts or the smile you have given to your near and dear or the strangers. Always put your legs in shoes of others. Your pains are not the pains of others. You may be narrating the story of death of your relative but the person in conversation with you might not be interested as he or she may be having unbearable pain in his tooth. If you want to help others or build your community you can always have smiles on your face with intense eye contact. This will make profound effect on others. We can build the good versions of people who are coming in our contact and make earth a better place for each other and live happy and peaceful life.
Take Away
1. Prefer empathy over sympathy because empathy fuels connection while sympathy drives disconnection.
2. Smile is an act of compassion.
[1] Source: www.psychologicalscience.org
[2] Source: www.merriam-webster.com
