Open AccessMirror neurons: Enigma of the metaphysical modular brain
Author(s) -
Sourya Acharya,
Samarth Shukla
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of natural science, biology and medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.236
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 2229-7707
pISSN - 0976-9668
DOI - 10.4103/0976-9668.101878
Subject(s) - mirror neuron , imitation , neuroscience , autism , action (physics) , cognitive science , metaphysics , neuron , psychology , philosophy , epistemology , physics , developmental psychology , quantum mechanics
Mirror neurons are one of the most important discoveries in the last decade of neuroscience. These are a variety of visuospatial neurons which indicate fundamentally about human social interaction. Essentially, mirror neurons respond to actions that we observe in others. The interesting part is that mirror neurons fire in the same way when we actually recreate that action ourselves. Apart from imitation, they are responsible for myriad of other sophisticated human behavior and thought processes. Defects in the mirror neuron system are being linked to disorders like autism. This review is a brief introduction to the neurons that shaped our civilization.