Mentally simulating the actions of others is thought to be a key component of empathy. Yet new research suggests that our so-called mirror neurons may also expose hidden divisions. A study published in October in the journal PLOS ONE reveals that these copycat neurons do not reflect all people equally.

Mirror neurons were discovered in the early 1990s, and their existence was a neuroscientific revelation: brain cells not only fire when we perform a given action, they also fire when we see someone else doing the deed. Much subsequent work has suggested that mirror neurons undergird social cognition. Now emerging research is finding that our mirror neuron system distinguishes between people who are physically and culturally similar and those who are not. The new work probed these differences further. In the study, investigators asked 17 young adult Jewish men to review the biographies and photographs of eight individuals who physically resembled the participants. Half these characters, portrayed by actors, were identified as neo-Nazis. The subjects reported they strongly disliked the anti-Semitic characters but not the others. Next, the participants underwent functional MRI scans while watching a video of each character drinking from a water bottle. The researchers focused on the ventral premotor cortex, a region typically active when we carry out an action or watch someone else do so. They found that neurons in this region activated differently when subjects viewed detestable and likable characters.

Because mirror neuron activity is thought to be a very basic part of brain function—and it can be seen in many animals besides humans—the new finding supports the notion that our brain is predisposed to distinguish “us versus them.” This distinction can be beneficial, encouraging caution around those with harmful intentions, or dangerous, further entrenching prejudices. To weaken unwelcome biases, lead author Lisa Aziz-Zadeh, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Southern California, suggests that exposure and perspective taking could go a long way.

This article was originally published with the title Mental Mirrors Reflect Hatred.

10 Comments

1. 1. Maniaparna 06:19 AM 3/7/13

   If mirror neurons fire to every event seen we would merely a robot. The subjectivity and individuality would be lost.

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2. 2. Ronald King 11:25 AM 3/29/13

   Until we develop awareness of what influences us, in my opinion, we are basically mechanistic with the illusion that we have an individual free will.

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3. 3. Inger B 08:53 AM 4/2/13

   I have worked to release my emotional issues for many years and have reach a condition of awareness in which I can communicate with the particles. I can explain what is described in this article. Take a look at my website: www.earthgrids.com

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4. 4. jeoshua in reply to Maniaparna 09:18 AM 4/2/13

   You seem to be misunderstanding what this article is about. Mirror neurons do, indeed, fire for every action that we watch, located in a similar part of the brain as that which would be activated were we, ourselves, doing these actions. It is a part of how we sense and experience the world, and it is part of a sense that science is just learning about.
   
   This article shows that subjectivity does play a big role in these neuronal actions. So to say that mirror neurons deny subjectivity is exactly the opposite of what this article is saying. They actually seem to, in some sense, rely on subjectivity and our views on the subject we are watching.

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5. 5. elliot.c.brown 08:06 PM 4/3/13

   This is a fascinating study that reveals a lot about the underlying brain activity associated with our everyday social interactions.
   
   A recent study from our group has shown that mirror neuron related activity can be influenced by reward and punishment, which could help to explain the findings from this study and some others.
   
   http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393212004721

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6. 6. Piume 02:43 AM 4/4/13

   Miror actions are of course some sort of heart full or sort of a police work as I found in the things that had been hided in hearts.Either open actions or hide ,it sensibly affect the brain neuronal in any means.
   In other meaning, mirror reflections can observed how you reflect in sort of a action and how you look forward the completion, the way others view you and of course you can carefully observe your reactions and change your completion is a possible.

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7. 7. elliot.c.brown 05:52 AM 4/4/13

   It looks like the link did not fit well into the comment field, so here is another:
   
   http://goo.gl/HgxmE
   
   "Modulation of motor cortex activity when observing rewarding and punishing actions"
   Elliot C. Brown, Jan Roelf Wiersema, Gilles Pourtois, Martin Brüne (Neuropsychologia, 2013)

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8. 8. HertfordshireChris 03:10 AM 4/8/13

   I am currently working on an “ideal brain” model (think of physical science's “ideal gas” model with neurons instead of molecules and links between neurons like collisions between molecules). One of the features of this model is that any network of neurons can work in two ways – recognising or doing – and the two roles are dynamically interchangeable. This suggests that there is not a class of “mirror neurons” because in theory all neurons can work in this dual manner.
   
   Of course some activities are more relevant to recognition and some more relevant to doing, and there are some where it would be difficult to carry out the kinds of experiments that lead to scientist postulating that there was a special class of neuron.
   
   What is interesting is that a basic feature of how neurons work could also be important in understanding how animals and people interact. The relevance of the mechanisms to empathy and social interactions is extremely interesting – but one must be careful to recognise that how much attention the mind gives to something will be affected by how relevant the activity is seen to be – and the observed levels of “mirror neuron” activities in experiments may be more related to motivation to pay attention than any specific factor in the part of the neural network being monitored.
   
   What I find more interesting is that the ability of the mind to mirror what other people/animals are doing could be very relevant to some kinds of learning. Our brain sets up a neural pattern which recognises the activity and the tries to execute it to repeat the actions.

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9. 9. BobalongJim 06:55 AM 4/12/13

   It occurs to me that the selective firing of mirror neurons is precisely the mechanism that allows species that can interbreed to remain separate. It is probably why young animals only learn from their own and not pick up random actions from other species.

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10. 10. Dr.d 11:26 PM 4/14/13

    
    In our Volume V(?) "Neurophilosophy of Consciousness" <http://www.delasierra-sheffer.net/ID5-Exercise-Physiology-org/index.htm> , especially Chapters 7-9 we elaborate in detail our submodel of the role of 'mirror neurons' in achieving an introspective search for self making it possible to distinguish self from others. This is the basis of an uniquely human capacity to empathize and a theory of mind and free will. Evolved animals cannot consciously make altruistic decisions against self interest because they are permanently trapped inside a subconscious, biopsychosocial prison to preserve biological integrity, psychic well being and social acceptance inside the pack. Our human species is the only one privileged to transcend the subconscious reflex state thanks to our inherited proto language machinery. See also my Word Press blog. Dr.d

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