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| Blog: Monkey See,
Monkey Do |
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Hallo... I think
PBS makes having a TV worth it!
Recently on NOVA there was a piece about a recent brain discovery
named, Mirror Neurons. When you watch a sports event,
a movie, a person in distress, a person laughing, and such, our brain
reacts, but how?
It all started with a monkey who was fed peanuts in an Italian lab.
Each time the monkey reached out for the peanut, a certain neuron
fired in the brain. Then one day, a lab technician reached for a
peanut in front of the monkey (I guess he was hungry) and the same
neuron fired in the monkey's brain! Did you get that? The monkey did
not move, but his brain mirrored the action. It was as if the monkey
actually reached for the peanut himself.
When we watch a game of basketball, we feel and behave as if we are
playing the game. We move with the players, calling out cheers and
jeers, we feel their pain when a foul is called, and we feel their
happiness when a goal is scored! Our brains mirror it all and the
mechanism is just amazing!
To learn more about Mirror Neurons or watch the program online go to
NOVA -
Science Now
February 16th, 2005
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