The Empathic Brain

The problem is that seeing what is in the world is not the same as understanding the world.

What, though, does it mean for a premotor neuron to fire while you are observing the actions of others?

Mirror neurons “mirror” the behavior and emotions of the people surrounding us in such a way that the others become part of us.

At the beginning of the 1990’s, colleagues of mine in Parma, Italy, discovered some special brain cells they coined “mirror neurons,” which dramatically changed the way we look not only at the brain, but also our understanding of social interactions.

Mirror neurons make us fundamentally social —for better and worse.

Since mirror neurons contribute to our connecting with other people, a dysfunction of these cells can lead to an “emotional disconnection” with others. Autistic people are emotionally cut off from the rest of us.

Seeing other people eat chocolate triggers a feeling for what it would be like to do the same.

Empathy is deeply engraved in the architecture of our brain.

They become active not only when you eat the chocolate, but also when you see another person eat it.