The Empathic Brain [Kindle Edition]

The discovery of mirror neurons is perhaps the most exciting recent development in the altogether-lively field of neuroscience. Christian Keysers, who was part of it almost from the beginning, has written a lively, accessible account of both the science and the human story of discovery.

First discovered in macaque monkeys, mirror neurons are so-called because they fire when an individual performs or observes an action, and when she experiences an emotion herself or observes that emotion in someone else. When you see somebody doing something, you unconsciously run a sort of internal simulation of their behaviour, using some (not all) of the neurons in your pre-motor cortex you would use if you were performing that action yourself. And when you witness another person's emotional state, some of the same neurons in your emotional centres are activated, as would be if the emotion originated within yourself.

A variety of experiments furnish evidence for mirror neuron activity in humans. Keysers and his colleagues think the results explain much about human powers of intuitively understanding the minds of others, and our ability to engage in the complex social interactions which have made us the dominant species on this planet. Through simulation, we internalize, and hence understand, other people. Mirror neurons promise to explain much about how we learn from others, why demonstration has a greater pedagogical value than narration, how we come to be so proficient with language, and why we are engaged by stories and theatre, finally answering Hamlet's question, "What's Hecubah to him, or he to Hecubah, that he should weep for her?" Keyers also explores the question whether autism and related disorders may be caused by a failure of the mirror neuron system.

Although the tide of evidence keeps rising, the mirror neuron theory is far from universally accepted. Interpretations of the evidence go far beyond the established facts, and in the case of mirror neurons, the devil lies not in the details but in the generalizations. The famous neuroscientist VS Ramachandran was so taken with mirror neurons that he called them "Ghandhi neurons--because they dissolve the boundaries between self and other." Keysers is not so incautious, and takes pains to point out that mirror neurons are not "magic"; despite them, people often misunderstand one another. But Keysers is most definitely a champion of mirror neurons, and if his book has a shortcoming, it may lie in failing to give serious consideration to critics. Neuroscientist Gregory Hickok and philosopher Patricia Churchland are two who have charged that the bolder claims about mirror neurons made by Keysers, Ramachandran and others are overblown. Keysers makes no serious attempt to answer such criticisms. Nonetheless, The Empathic Brain is perhaps the best introduction available to the positive claims of the mirror neuron theory, and should hold the interest of anyone who is seriously interested in what we are.