Edited by Doctor Alessio Dini
Mirror neurons are a type of neurons whose existence was first detected in the mid-1990s by Giacomo Rizzolatti and colleagues at the Department of Neuroscience of the University of Parma. Discovered in macaques, the researchers observed that certain groups of neurons were activated not only when the animals performed a certain action, but also when they observed another subject perform the same action.
The function of mirror neurons has been the subject of many hypotheses: these neurons may be important for understanding the actions of other people, therefore for learning through imitation.
Mirror neurons allow us to physiologically explain man's ability to relate to other individuals; in our brain, by observing a certain action, the same neurons are activated that come into play when we do it; in this way we can understand the actions of our fellow men with ease (comparative system with similar actions performed in the past). This clarification is very important, in fact it would seem that the mirror neuron comes into action only when the subject observes a behavior that he himself has previously carried out .
The recognition of the emotions themselves is based on this "mirror mechanism". It has been experimentally demonstrated that when we observe a manifestation of pain in others, the same neuronal substrate connected to the first-person perception of the same type of emotion is activated (we therefore perceive the same emotion).
Other confirmations come from clinical studies on patients suffering from neurological diseases: once the ability to feel an emotion is lost, one is no longer able to recognize it when it is expressed by others.
Experimental evidence seems to indicate that even the understanding of language, in some respects, could depend on mechanisms of this type; according to some hypotheses, human language has evolved through the information transmitted with gestures and finally the mirror system has been able to understand and encode / decode such information.
It is now certain that this system has all the potential necessary to provide a mechanism for understanding actions and for learning through imitation and simulation of the behavior of others.
The functioning of mirror neurons may offer a biological explanation for some forms of autism, given that the experiments conducted seem to indicate a reduced functioning of this type of neurons in autistic children. The latter probably do not understand the meaning of the gestures and actions of others (they do not understand the common emotions expressed by the faces and attitudes of those around them).
Let us think of the learning of children (the way they walk, talk, eat, etc.): they learn by watching the adult and imitating him. The imitations, therefore the external stimuli, are the basis of our development, without them our brain is "paralyzed".
All this therefore makes us understand that there is a natural, biological mechanism that puts us in relationship, that makes us feel good or not with others.
