Mirror Neurons Research Paper

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This paper discusses 9 sources that explore the world of mirror neurons. Winerman discusses the first time mirror neurons have been discovered in any animals. The discovery was by Dr. Rizzolatti. Fecteau, Leone, and Theoret talk about the three different forms of empathy, motor, cognitive, and emotional empathy. There are also different parts of the brain that controls the little mirror neurons. There is the superior temporal sulcus, the premotor cortex, and the parietal lobule. A very interesting phenomenon is the phantom limb phenomenon. It is when someone with an amputated limb still has the sensations of the arm there. Empathy and Imitation Have you ever thought about why we can empathize with other people? Have you ever wondered about how we imitate other people, just by seeing them? Only recently did scientists discover that we empathize with and imitate other people because of mirror neurons. From feeling what others feel so we don 't interpret what they are saying in the wrong way to copying a dance move from your instructor. We need empathy to start friendships, …show more content…

The neurons in the monkeys ' F5 section would fire when the monkey made an action like grabbing for a banana. Then Rizzolatti found that when a collegue was grabbing a banana, in some monkeys, their motor neurons will fire. The amazing things was that the motor neurons that fired the second time were the neurons that fired in the first experiment. This was the first significant breakthrough for mirror neurons. After this discovery, the scientists wanted to see these neurons in humans. "Rizzolatti and neuroscientist Luciano Fadiga, MD, PhD, recorded motor-evoked potentials... Iacoboni and his colleagues found activity in some of the same areas of the frontal cortex and the parietal lobule in both situations. "(Winerman, 2005) Monkeys and humans have many things in common. This includes many of the neurons of the