Mirror neurons: building and understanding civilization

What are mirror neurons and what role have they played in evolutionary terms?

Years ago, one of the most important discoveries in the history of neuroscience happened by chance and changed our conception of how the brain works: mirror neurons. The mirror neurons are involved in processes such as learning complex behaviors through observation (also called vicarious learning) and understanding the behavior of others through empathy.

Thus, research on these neurons has become one of the fundamental pillars for understanding phenomena such as the involvement of empathy in the development of social skills, the construction of cultural schemas and how it is transmitted through generations and how behaviors are generated from the understanding of behavior.

Serendipity: The unexpected discovery of mirror neurons

In 1996, Giacomo Rizzolatti was working in partnership with Leonardo Fogassi and Vottorio Gallese to investigate the functioning of motor neurons in the frontal cortex of the macaque monkey during the execution of hand movements when grasping or stacking objects. For their research, they used electrodes placed in the areas where these motor neurons are located, recording how they were activated while the monkey performed a behavior such as grasping pieces of food.

Rizzolatti recalls that "when Fogassi, standing next to a fruit bowl, picked up a banana, we observed that some of the monkey's neurons reacted, but how could this happen if the animal had not moved? At first we thought it was an error in our measurement technique or perhaps an equipment failure; then we found that everything worked fine and that the neuron's reactions occurred every time we repeated the movement, while the macaque observed it". So it was that, as has already happened with many other discoveries, mirror neurons were found by chance, a serendipity.

What are mirror neurons?

The mirror neurons are a type of neurons that are activated when executing an action and when observing that same action executed by another individual. They are neurons highly specialized in understanding the behavior performed by others, and not only understand it from an intellectual perspective, but also allow us to connect with the emotions that are manifested in the other. So much so that, in this way, we can feel completely moved when watching a beautiful love scene in a movie, such as, for example, the passionate kiss between two people.

Or, on the contrary, we can feel sad when watching many of the scenes that the news or newspapers show us every day about unpleasant situations that people live through, such as wars or natural disasters in regions of the world. When we see someone suffering or in pain, mirror neurons help us read that person's facial expression and, in particular, make us feel that suffering or pain.

The amazing thing about mirror neurons is that it is an experience like a virtual reality simulation of the other person's action.. In this way, mirror neurons are closely linked to imitation and emulation. Because in order to mimic the behavior of another person, the brain needs to be able to adopt the perspective of that other person.

What is the importance of mirror neurons?

Knowing how this system of neurons specialized in understanding the behavior of others works is of great relevance, since it allows us to make hypotheses to investigate and understand many of the social and individual phenomena. And when I speak of these phenomena, I am not only referring to those that occur today, but also to how the skills and abilities that we possess today, such as the use of tools, the use of language and the transmission of knowledge, were initiated and developed throughout the history of human evolution. the use of tools, the use of language and the transmission of knowledge and habits that today constitute the foundations of our cultures.

The beginning of civilization

It is here that we come across the contributions of the Indian neurologist V. S. Ramachandranwho defends the relevance of mirror neurons in the understanding of the beginning of civilization. To understand this, we must go back in time to 75,000 years ago, one of the key moments in human evolution, where the sudden appearance and rapid spread of a series of skills took place: the use of tools, fire, shelters and, of course, language, and the ability to read what someone is thinking and interpret that person's behavior. Although the human brain had reached its present size almost 300 to 400 thousand years ago, it was only about 100,000 years ago that these skills appeared and spread.

Thus, Ramachandran considers that about 75,000 years ago 75,000 years ago this sophisticated system of mirror neurons emerged, which made it possible to emulate and imitate the behavior of other people. Therefore, when a member of the group discovered something accidentally, such as the use of fire or a particular type of tool, instead of gradually disappearing, it spread rapidly, horizontally, through the population and was transmitted vertically through the generations.

In this way, we can see that the human being develops a qualitative and quantitative leap within his evolution, since through learning by observation, emulation and imitation of behaviors, human beings can acquire behaviors that other species take thousands of years to develop. Ramachandran illustrates how this happens with the following example: "A polar bear will take thousands of generations (perhaps 100,000 years) to develop fur. However, a human being, a child, can watch his parents kill a polar bear, skin it and put the fur on its body, and learn it in one step. What the polar bear took 100,000 years to learn, he learns within minutes. And once it learns it, it spreads in geometric proportions within a population". This is the basis for understanding how culture and civilization began and developed. The imitation of complex skills is what we call culture and is the basis of civilization.

Understanding Civilization - Expanding the Science Paradigm

Through this hypothesis developed by Ramachandran we can understand many of the social phenomena that occur in our cultures, as well as realize why we are essentially social beings. The discovery of mirror neurons opens a space for the relationship between neurosciences and humanities, bringing to the forefront relevant issues related to leadership, human relationships, culture and the transmission through generations of habits that make up our culture.

Further research into mirror neurons not only allows us to broaden the scientific paradigm for the sake of understanding culture and social phenomena, but also helps us to develop therapeutic methods within the field of psychology and psychiatry that may prove to be more effective.

The human brain remains an unknown and involves many mysteries about its functioning at a global level, but we are getting closer and closer to understanding the complex processes that identify the human being. Through research like this we can reach conclusions that travel from reductionism to a more accurate and global vision, with the aim of understanding why we are the way we are and the influence of brain processes in society and how culture also shapes our brain.

As well said Antonio Damassio in his book "Descartes' Error”:

"Discovering that a given feeling depends on the activity of several specific brain systems interacting with various organs of the body does not diminish the status of that feeling as a human phenomenon. Neither the anguish nor the exaltation that love or art can provide is devalued by knowing some of the innumerable Biological processes that make them what they are. It should be precisely the other way around: our capacity for wonder should be enhanced by the intricate mechanisms that make such magic possible.”.