Mirror Neurons

There is a type of neuron in our brain called the mirror neuron which may be the primary reason behind a being's ability to learn from others.

Scientists that discovered this neuron came across it while doing experiments on monkeys to determine what parts of the brain were connected to certain motor movements. By accident, it was found that the part of the brain they were examining would fire neurons in a specific way when it took the action of grabbing a peanut. The researchers then found that when a person picked up the peanut, the brain would fire neurons in the same pattern that it had done so when the monkey had picked up the peanut.

Since then, ideas have been floating like crazy as to what it means if we have proof that we really are acting out everything we perceive in our minds as it is happening. It has been theorized that they are connected to a multitude of functions including empathy, learning, language, etc.

What I find most interesting is V.S. Ramachandran's theory that mirror neurons are a key ingredient in what makes up self-awareness. His idea is that we can use mirror neurons to observe our past selves or other aspects of our Self in a reflective way.

My own thoughts are that this may lead to proof of the subjectivity of human experience. If we are always acting out what's happening around us in our minds, can it be inferred that we are all acting it out slightly differently?

The way this could be experimentally tested would be to have two people observe the same action taking place, and then observe the difference in reactions of their mirror neurons. I would assume that the reactions each person's brain has would be pretty different and thus show how differently people perceive reality.

What do people think of this? Are mirror neurons a breakthrough discovery, or could they just be another self-evident observation telling us something we already knew.

overview
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron#Possible_functions

science journal article on mirror neurons
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661398012625

Interesting video in NOVA on mirror neurons
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/mirror-neurons.html

What I find most interesting is V.S. Ramachandran's theory that mirror neurons are a key ingredient in what makes up self-awareness. His idea is that we can use mirror neurons to observe our past selves or other aspects of our Self in a reflective way.

Most likely something we already knew. But let's take this the next step out in the beyond. Out of Body experiences where detail is recalled but the brain and physical body (in one sense) is mort. How does consciousness transcend death - return- and have perfect recollection of things, events, people, conversations, etc? Is self reflective in this sense? Or is consciousness the key (soft ware program) where as the brain and neurons the hardware (using a computer as an example)?

As a very small child I recall pure states of conscious awareness. The same can be said in a dream state, in an OBE and even in a NDE. Consciousness transcends the physical body as it is also a continuum. So I wonder how being self-reflective plays out as perhaps this comes later - after an experience occurs and then one has recall. Or perhaps I'm just off topic here.

As to the acting out slightly differently - I suspect this is the case as each individual and their human components are slightly different based on genetics and a host of other external physical variables.

Dear Carol, what wonders me that we humans search for the truth reanchor our believes in many other human mind projected ideas. I think we are so blind what to believe nowdays, that there is nothing else to do just wonder how strange this world is. I personally think also that he is materialist, scientist, blind uncouscious, trying to figure out how god creates us and maintains us. Materialist ignore soul, they recognize that humans have soul, but they can not contemplate that soul has body.

There was famous scientist who wrote fat scientific book about ant, everything about ant, his life was dedicated to ant life. He is the best in knowledge of the ant in the whole science world. Before he died he said he could publish a few more books about ant. His soul definately got ant's body, I think maybe cool ant's body....



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran



Phantom limbs

Main article: Phantom limb
When an arm or leg is amputated, patients continue to feel vividly the presence of the missing limb as a "phantom limb". Building on earlier work by Ronald Melzack (McGill University) and Timothy Pons (NIMH), Ramachandran theorized that there was a link between the phenomenon of phantom limbs and neural plasticity in the adult human brain. In particular, he theorized that the body image maps in the somatosensory cortex are re-mapped after the amputation of a limb. In 1993, working with T.T. Yang who was conducting MEG research at the Scripps Research Institute,^[20] Ramachandran demonstrated that there had been measurable changes in the somatosensory cortex of several patients who had undergone arm amputations.^[21][22] Ramachandran theorized that there was a relationship between the cortical reorganization evident in the MEG images and the referred sensations he observed in his subjects. He presented this theory in a paper titled "Perceptual correlates of massive cortical reorganization."^[23] Although Ramachandran was one of the first scientists to emphasize the role of cortical reorganization as the basis for phantom limb sensations, subsequent research has demonstrated that referred sensations are not the perceptual correlate of cortical reorganization after amputation.^[24] The question of which neural processes are related to non-painful referred sensations has not been resolved.

Mirror visual feedback


Main article: Mirror box
Ramachandran is credited with the invention of the mirror box and the introduction of mirror visual feedback as a treatment for a variety of conditions associated with phantom limb pain, stroke, and regional pain syndrome. Several research studies using mirror therapy have produced promising results.^[25][26] However, mirror therapy has produced conflicting results in randomized controlled trials,^[27] and the applications of mirror therapy are still under experimental evaluation.^[28]

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Each living entity has soul. We are like minimalistic light from creator - source lets say like sun. Our soul is different substance and not of matter. However we got attached to the materialistic things and we forget about soul. Because this uncounsious state, we start using our senses, which are very poor and adopted to experience matter, a bit to see, a bit to hear... Our mind is subtle body of matter. It is from matter, not from soul. Soul knows everything and soul recognizes soul, but we are too busy to hear it, be are too preoccupied to experience this matter and let our mind to conclude things the way our eyes and mind will understand. To be conscious in knowledge we need to clean our mind as much as possible. Then we start know that all is temporary and know that matter is temporary, we start seeking for opposite of untruth, opposite of temporary towards the light, towards the truth...

namaste

devakas

Crazee wrote:
What do people think of this? Are mirror neurons a breakthrough discovery, or could they just be another self-evident observation telling us something we already knew.

I think they are another way to explain who we are looking from the wrong angle.

Perception - The reality beyond matter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqnEGu8VF8Y


Love from me
mudra