“Six years ago, Edge published a now-famous essay by neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran, entitled “Mirror Neurons and imitation learning as the driving force behind “the great leap forward” in human evolution“. This was the first time that many in the Edge community heard of mirror neurons which were discovered by Iaccomo Rizzolati of the University of … Continue reading Mirror Neurons and the Brain in the Vat

Researchers at Duke University have shown with functional MRI that the degree of activation of the posterior superior temporal sulcus [PSTS], a brain region activated when people observe others’ actions but not perform them themselves, correlated with personality ratings of subjects’ degree of altruism. (Hindustan Times ) This has some relationship to the ‘mirror neurons’ … Continue reading The brain theory behind altruism

“Metaphors make for colorful sayings, but can be confusing when taken literally. A study of people who are unable to make sense of figures of speech has helped scientists identify a brain region they believe plays a key role in grasping metaphors. Vilayanur S. Ramachandran of the University of California at San Diego and his … Continue reading Brain Region Linked to Metaphor Comprehension

“Humans are hardwired to feel empathy, suggests a new imaging study showing that certain pain-processing regions of the brain light up when a loved-one is hurt. But no one actually ‘feels’ the physical pain of the ones they love. The UK researchers suggest that empathy is the result of our brain running a virtual simulation … Continue reading Humans are hardwired to feel others’ pain

“New findings from a Queen’s behavioural expert in eye/hand movement provide the first direct evidence that our brain patterns are similar whether we are actually doing something or simply watching someone else do it. It’s an insight that could have significant implications for the assessment of people with various movement disorders such as some stroke … Continue reading Brain patterns the same whether doing or just watching

Thanks to mark wood for pointing me to these: Scientists need no longer be afraid to ask the big questions about what it means to be human with empirical evidence now answering ancient philosophical questions about meaning and existence. Lecture 1: Phantoms in the Brain – Professor Ramachandran shows how phenomena such as Capgras’ delusion … Continue reading Reith Lectures 2003 – The Emerging Mind

Misleadingly vague title for a very important finding. Preliminary observations of stroke patients with problems relating emotionally to others suggest that in order to feel empathy, people must be able to imitate the actions of others. In other words, to understand what others are feeling, you must put yourself physically in their shoes. Stroke can … Continue reading Emotion Gets Physical:

Social Cognitive Neuroscience Goes Hollywood. Thanks to wood s lot for pointing to the American Psychological Association’s coverage of the recent first Social Cognitive Neuroscience conference in Hollywood; these are the people grappling with how minds and social environments are linked. Let me take this one step further, and recommend that you scroll down until … Continue reading

“…(I)s there something about cinema that leads it to shy away from the spiritual? Some observers feel cinema is less than ideal for exploring religious or spiritual subjects.According to one argument, contemporary audiences expect so much spectacle, escapism, andstar power for their ticket money … that sky-high production costs lead studios to avoid anything toothoughtful … Continue reading

Forget me not. Neuroscientists are pushing the envelope, even if the work remains reductionistic and inferential for now, of understanding the biological basis of social affiliation. Recall the posts below on mirror neurons in primates, and autistic subjects’ failure to use facial recognition circuitry in the brain in interpersonal perception. Now this elucidation of the … Continue reading

V.S. Ramachandran: “The discovery of mirror neurons in the frontal lobes of monkeys, and their potential relevance to human brain evolution — which I speculate on in this essay — is the single most important “unreported” (or at least, unpublicized) story of the decade. I predict that mirror neurons will do for psychology what DNA … Continue reading

One of the vexing issues in understanding and treating depression is that, although antidepressant medications change the levels of neurotransmitters implicated in depression almost immediately, they do not have clinical effects for several weeks or even several months. Somehow, a change in serotonin levels, say, has to be accompanied by a change in the way … Continue reading Brain Protein Crucial to Depression Discovered