Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id SAA17343 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 30 Jan 2001 18:16:16 GMT User-Agent: Microsoft Outlook Express Macintosh Edition - 5.0 (1513) Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 13:13:53 -0500 Subject: Re: Mirror neurons From: William Benzon <bbenzon@mindspring.com> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Message-ID: <B69C6E8F.6F23%bbenzon@mindspring.com> In-Reply-To: <3A76F332.FF82C86B@pacbell.net> Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
on 1/30/01 12:00 PM, Bill Spight at bspight@pacbell.net wrote:
> Dear Mark,
>
>> From "Read My Mind" in New Scientist, 1/24/01
>>
>> "Vittorio Gallese, Giacomo Rizzolatti and their colleagues at the
>> University of Parma have identified an entirely new class of
>> neurons. These neurons are active when their owners perform a certain
>> task, and in this respect are wholly unremarkable. But, more
>> interestingly, the same neurons fire when their owner watches someone else
>> perform that same task. The team has dubbed the novel nerve cells 'mirror'
>> neurons, because they seem to be firing in sympathy, reflecting or perhaps
>> simulating the actions of others.
>>
>
> What makes them novel? How do they differ from other neurons? Just
> because they fire in certain situations is not enough to say that they
> are a different *kind* of neuron. Most people listen to music primarily
> with their right brain, but musicians listen with both hemispheres. That
> has been well known for many years, but no one felt it necessary to
> postulate special "rehearsal" or "music" neurons to explain the
> phenomenon.
Some broad classes of neurons are identified on morphological grounds, e.g.
pyramidal cells, stellate cells. But it is quite common to class neurons
based on their response characteristics, which is what is going on here. No
one familiar with the technical literature is confused by this practice as
it is quite common.
>
>> Many neuroscientists are starting to think that in higher primates,
>> including humans, these neurons play pivotal role in understanding the
>> intentions of others.
>
> It would not at all suprise me to find that cats or rats show similar
> patterns of neuron firing.
I would, and I suspect the folks who've done the work on mirror neurons
would be surprised as well.
Bill B
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