Mirror Neurons- what happens when we connect with others.

New discoveries about the brain are being found by scientists concerning neurons. What they have found is a new type of neuron called mirror neurons. They found the neurons by inserting electrodes into the brain. They are a “subset” of the motor command neurons and are located in the frontal lobes of the brain. They participate in the imitation and emulation of actions. For example, they activate when we do something and when we watch someone else do the same thing we are doing, but depending on what is done affects the type of mirror neuron activates.

There are a few different types of mirror neurons. Some are involved in action, and others are involved in touch. Empathy neurons are mirror neurons linked to touch. They occur when we watch another person being touched. Ramachadran refers to these neurons as the “Ghandi” neurons. These neurons exist in the somatosensory cortex.

Even though the neurons in our brain react when we observe a person being touched, we don’t actually feel it. Ramachadran explains that we can’t feel it because of the pain receptors in our skin telling our brain we are not being touched. There is an exception though. If we numb someone’s arm or if they have a phantom limb and they watch someone else’s arm being touched, they would feel it in their arm.

Although this discovery is recent, Dr. Ramachadran hypothesizes that this special type of mirror neural system developed about 100,000 years ago, long after our brains had reached its…