MIRROR NEURONS! WHAT ARE THEY?

Mirror neurons were found in the early 1990’s when Italian researchers found new individual neurons in the ventral premotor region F5 of macaque monkeys which fired when the monkeys grabbed onto an object and also when it observes another primate grab onto an object.

These neurons fire if one repeats the action that was previously observed. This shows the role of mirror neurons in action recognition. They are found in the premotor cortex, the supplementary motor area, medial temporal cortex, the primary somatosensory cortex, and the inferior parietal cortex. Additionally, the mirror neurons are found to be responding to mouth actions, facial gestures and sound of actions. Serving to their name mirror neurons are found to be the decisive factor for the “intention understanding”.

An fMRI study conducted by Sourya Acharya provided the evidence for intention understanding. In the study, volunteers were presented with hand actions without context and with context. It was seen that the hand actions executed with contexts showed firing of mirror neurons and none for those without context. Mirror neurons fire not just for imitating the observed action but also to understand the intention behind it. There are theories existing that speculates mirror neurons are the neurological basis for empathy, emotion, language learning and communication and self-awareness. Nevertheless, we know that mirror neurons are crucial for “social cognition”. Does it also regulates social cognition and prosocial behavior in children?