You, Me, and Mirror Neurons (part 4)
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5
Could a person develop a particularly sensitive system of mirror neurons? How?
And (since this is all about my self obsession) why would *my* mirroring system be more reactive, in particular?
Remembering that this is a lot of speculation based on a quick googling of cutting edge neuro science, here’s a few uneddycated guesses:
- It might be a genetic twist of fate, either inherited or by chance. I didn’t run across any studies that had a thing to do with this, and I don’t see a lot of evidence of it in my family tree…but it’s a possibility.
- Environmental impact on brain development. I’m a twin. Twins often mirror each other incessantly, even as infants; it’s part of our learning process. Because this intense mirroring/learning happens in the brains earliest development, it might have a very marked impact on the development of mirror neuron systems. It’s also interesting to ponder the fraternal/identical differences - identical twins might mirror each other better, but be less likely to extend the mirroring outside the “self” of the twinset. (I’m fraternal)
- Familiarity and Experience Throughout my life, I’ve focused on feelings, making an informal experiential study of emotions, intent, and motivation, both my own, and others. The resulting familiarity might have increased my mirror neuron responses to these sorts of things, just like a dancer’s familiarity with a dance move increases their mirror neuron response to that move.
- Intentional blurring of ego boundaries. I’ve practiced many different methods of trance and meditation, much of it pseudo-Buddhist, focused on compassion and dissolving boundaries of ego between self and others. Mirror neurons are sometimes called “Dalai Lama” Neurons, for the very reason that they don’t seem to recognize the boundary between self and other. Could mirror neurons be activated more strongly by this sort of practice? It makes some sense, to me.
So… there are differences between people’s mirroring systems, and there are some reasons that mine in particular might be more sensitive/reactive. That reactivity might make it easier for me to “get into the heads” of other people and understand them, better than some other people without that sensitivity.
(Still with me? Do i sound too egotistical?)
