Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others
By:
Marco Iacoboni
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What accounts for the remarkable ability to get inside another person’s headto know what they’re thinking and feeling? Mind reading” is the very heart of what it means to be human, creating a bridge between self and others that is fundamental to the development of culture and society. But until recently, scientists didn’t understand what in the brain makes it possible. This has all changed in the last decade. Marco Iacoboni, a leading neuroscientist whose work has been covered in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal, explains the groundbreaking research into mirror neurons, the smart cells” in our brain that allow us to understand others. From imitation to morality, from learning to addiction, from political affiliations to consumer choices, mirror neurons seem to have properties that are relevant to all these aspects of social cognition. As The New York Times reports: The discovery is shaking up numerous scientific disciplines, shifting the understanding of culture, empathy, philosophy, language, imitation, autism and psychotherapy.” Mirroring People is the first book for the general reader on this revolutionary new science. Marco Iacoboni is a neurologist and neuroscientist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He has appeared on Good Morning America, the Early Show, and Morning Edition, among other TV and radio programs. What accounts for the remarkable ability to get inside another person’s headto interpret what they're thinking and feeling? Mind reading’ is at the very heart of what it means to be human, creating a bridge between self and others that is fundamental to communication and to the development of culture and society. But until recently, scientists didn't understand what in the brain makes it possible.
This has all changed in the last decade. Marco Iacoboni, a leading neuroscientist whose work has been covered in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal, explains the groundbreaking research into mirror neurons, the smart cells” in our brain that allow us to understand others. From imitation to morality, from learning to addiction, from political affiliations to consumer choices, mirror neurons seem to have properties that are relevant to all these aspects of social cognition. As The New York Times reports: The discovery is shaking up numerous scientific disciplines, shifting the understanding of culture, empathy, philosophy, language, imitation, autism and psychotherapy.”
Mirroring People is the first book for the general reader on this revolutionary look at the science that explains the innate human ability to understand and mirror others. "Marco Iacoboni has written a fascinating and wonderfully accessible account of one of the most exciting developments in recent neurosciencethe discovery of 'mirror neurons.' If you want to know more about the biological basis of empathy, morality, social cognition and self-awareness, read this book."Sam Harris, founder of The Reason Project and author of the New York Times best sellers, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation "Accessible, entertaining and far-reaching about the practical implications of the discovery."Christopher F. Chabris, The Wall Street Journal
"In Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others, Iacoboni chronicles one of the most compelling neuroscientific breakthroughs in recent decadesand one which appears to hold the keys to understanding our emotional interconnectedness . . . Popular science books written by scientists often tend to make for tough reading. One of the pitfalls of being a specialist of any kind is that one tends to fall out of touch with how uninformed about one's chosen field the masses are. But with Mirroring People, Iacoboni joins the ranks of that handful of scientists-turned-popular-authors who are able to bridge that gap so naturally that they make the rest of us feel smart with them. Indeed, one of the great contributions of this book is Iacoboni's willingness to repeatedly venture outside the realm of strict science, helping to unpack the philosophical implications of the experiments he documents."Craig Hamilton, Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness
"People cry when they watch sad movies or wince when they see athletes fall. This sense of shared experience is thought to be at the core of human society. How empathy physically happens, however, wasn’t known until neuroscientists in Italy stumbled upon a possible explanation 15 years ago. Iacoboni, one of those pioneers at the University of Parma, describes how he and his colleagues initially sought to find which neurons fired when a monkey moved its hands. They attached tiny electrodes to individual cells in the monkeys’ brains, and the monitor buzzed when the monkeys snatched a peanut. Yet once when a lab assistant was preparing for the experiment and moving around peanuts, the neurons in the wired-up monkey began to firethe same neurons that fired when the monkey itself picked up the peanuts. More experiments confirmed that a set of neurons fired both when monkeys performed an action and when they saw the action performed. The team named the cells mirror neurons, and studies have since extended to humans. Iacoboni, now at UCLA, explains ongoing research on how the neurons might account for group behavior and how dysfunctional mirror neurons might lead to disorders such as autism. The history of mirror neuron research is short enough to be clearly described for the nonspecialist reader, and its future exciting enough to attract anyone interested in human interaction. A book by a top researcher will be a boon to anyone wishing to separate what is actually known about mirror neurons from the hype."Amy Maxmen, Science News
"Mirroring People is the first popular account of the research behind one of the most exciting discoveries in contemporary science: mirror neurons. Explaining how these brain cells might change our notion of free will, act as neural precursors to language, and shed light on human empathy, Iacoboni nimbly takes us through the experiments that led to these findings. These aren't mind-reading cells, he argues, but they do provide insight into the predictive abilities of the brain."Seed magazine
"Mirror neurons, which fire not only when you perform an action but also when you watch others perform the same action, are hot new territory for investigation. In this account of mirror neuron research, Marco Iacoboni explains the role they play in group cohesionand so how they will help us understand everything from why violent video games are dangerous to why we respond to TV adverts. Iacoboni, a colleague of the original research team, is a leading light in the field and talks with an authority and casualness that could only come from the inside."New Scientist
"A fascinating account of an unexpected discovery that is changing the way that psychologists and neuroscientists think about everything from language to social interaction."Daniel Gilbert, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of Stumbling on Happiness
"Marco Iacoboni has written a fascinating and wonderfully accessible account of one of the most exciting developments in recent neurosciencethe discovery of 'mirror neurons.’ If you want to know more about the biological basis of empathy, morality, social cognition and self-awareness, read this book."Sam Harris, founder of The Reason Project and author of the New York Times best sellers The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation
"Those of us who thirty years ago began to speculate about the social brain never guessed what riches were in store. Iacoboni's book is both a thrilling account of how research on mirror neurons is revolutionising our understanding of inter-subjectivity, and a passionate manifesto for what he calls 'existential neuroscience.’ Mirroring People does for the story of mirror neurons what The Double Helix did for DNA."Nicholas Humphrey, author of Seeing Red: A Study in Consciousness
"A superb introduction to one of the great discoveries of contemporary science: we come wired for empathy and cooperation, and evolution has equipped us to care, not just compete. Think of evolution as the survival of the most caring and best cared for. This is a book you must read."George Lakoff, author of The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century Politics with an 18th-Century Brain
"This book vividly conveys the current excitement in the field of mirror neurons and it should provide a valuable antidote to 'Neuron envy'a widely prevalent syndrome in psychology. The author explores the broader implications of the research for understanding the neural basis of human nature."V.S. Ramachandran, M.D., PhD, Director, Center for brain and cognition, University of California, San Diego
"Pioneer researcher Iacoboni balances technical detail with engaging historical perspective, humor, and idealism in this exploration of discoveries made through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In the past 15 years, fMRI has jolted psychology and philosophy as well as neuroscience, and this book explores implications for language, empathy, sense of self, autism, control and inhibition, violence and drug abuse, and advertising and politics. Why is conversation easier fo...
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Release Date: 2008-05-13
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Great, Fascinating Science...it's only that the writing is inadequate. - There are few people working on the science of Mirror Neurons today: Antonio Damasio (author of The Conscious Brain: Facts and Consequences, The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness and Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain), Giacomo Rizzolatti (author of Mirror Neurons and the Evolution of Brain and Language (Advances in Consciousness Research, 42)) and Vitorrio Gallese (author of Mirrors in the Brain: How Our Minds Share Actions, Emotions, and Experience) being some of the most prominent in the field. The work being done by these four men is widely cited throughout the field of psychology.
Iacoboni's book is useful for bringing the average reader up-to-speed on the research behind mirror neurons. My only complaint is that there is something off kilter about the writing style...I can't really articulate what it is other than to say that I felt as though I was frequently waiting for Iacoboni to get to the point. Perhaps it is because English is not his first language (I am not certain about this), but suffice it to say that I felt a certain kind of tension while reading this book. With that aside, I think this is a decent book and recommend it although I would recommend Damasio's newest book first - The Conscious Brain: Facts and Consequences.
As a last word, I really appreciate Iacoboni's last chapter the best; in this chapter he states this: "In my lectures on mirror neurons I often conclude by saying that our research should be called existential neuroscience. I say this because the themes raised by mirror neuron research map well onto themes recurrent in existential phenomenology." He later adds, "The existentialists have constantly reminded us that what is worth understanding and knowing is our existence, the human condition, and that engagement and involvement are superior to a detached stance. Mirror neurons are brain cells that seem specialized in understanding our existential condition and our involvement with others. They show that we are not alone, but are biologically wired and evolutionarily designed to be deeply interconnected with one another." It was in this last chapter that Iacoboni really did his best writing I believe.
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Overview of recent neuroscience discoveries regarding mirror neurons - In this fascinating book, Marco Iacoboni wordily explains his research into mirror neurons, generally in language that laypeople can understand. He convincingly issues a challenge to the individualistic foundations of Western thought. People imitate one another, Iacoboni argues, on a neurological level: People's brains respond to the actions of others, almost as though they were doing those actions themselves. What's more, different levels of neural activity occur depending on context and purpose. The human world is social, and each person's actions have immediate, neurological implications for everyone else. Because of the number of fields Iacoboni touches on, and the broad implications mirror neurons have for society, getAbstract recommends his book to readers who are interested in communication, advertising, cognitive science and philosophy.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Another step in understanding the brain - For something like 150 years, economists have argued with sociologists and psychologists as to whether human behavior, including decision-making, is rationalistic, individualistic, and self-aware -- or if it's often the result of forces that act on us unconsciously. In recent years, neuroscience and related fields have weighed in on the side of unconscious motivators. Joining other books like "Brain and Culture" by Bruce Wexler and "Mindless Eating" by Brian Wansink, Marco Iacoboni's "Mirroring People" is another step forward in understanding how our minds actually work, as opposed to how armchair theorists would like them to work.
Other reviewers have described the book pretty well, so I won't really get into that here. But just briefly, it's a well-researched, easy-to-read account of what scientists have learned about mirror neurons, the mechanism through which the brain uitilizes what we perceive other people doing and feeling. Mirror neurons are the key to understanding why we play better tennis after watching a pro match on TV, or why we're likely to laugh if people around us are laughing.
I'll add another note, in case no one else has mentioned it: often after describing an experiment, the author then asks the question that a reader may fairly ask: couldn't the results have a different explanation? He then answers this by describing other experiments done to eliminate other likely possibilities. The result is that the reader comes away feeling that Prof. Iacoboni has been careful to get all the facts he can before coming to a conclusion.
There are about 16 pages of notes at the end, giving references that the reader can follow up on to learn more. No need to take anything on faith here. :-) An excellent work!
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Mirroring Others, Ourselves and Our Selves - "Mirroring People" starts out as an easy to read, casually narrated science-popularization tale and gradually evolves into a thought-provoking discussion of the nature of Self, behavioral causality, and neurolaw, neuroethics, and neuropolitics. The narrative makes sense: science first, social implications second. The tone is personal (you catch many a colorful glimpse of author's home country (Italy) and home life). The author, a neuroscientist, builds the suspense by connecting data dots into a hypothesis and then presenting research findings. He is committed to his conclusions and laconically emphatic about their interdisciplinary implications. Towards the end of the book, very appropriately, Iacoboni reveals himself a social visionary with a global message of empathy and compassion.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D., author of "Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time" (New Harbinger, 2008) [...]
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
The Science of Imitation - If you want to know the neurological reasons for empathy, and imitative violence, you need to read "Mirroring People." Recently, using experiments on monkies, scientists have discovered mirror neurons. Basically, through electrodes attached to the brain, they found certain neurons firing in response to the actions of other monkies. They called these mirror neurons. Through mirror neurons, the monkies enact in their brain the perceived act and consequence of the action they are observing. They mirror neurons exist in the area roughly equivelant to the "Broca" area in the human brain, which is the area of language. So the kind of electrodes they used on the monkies haven't been implanted in humans, but noninvasive brain scanning has been done using the same kinds of experiments, and that humans have mirror neurons is a strong conclusion.
What this suggests is that symbolic language, culture, and civilization itself are largely due to our ability to imitate, and this comes from mirror neurons. Iacobini is sympathetic to Blackmore's Meme hypothesis, which is that we humans have big brains because of our ability to imitate, and that imitation on a large and signfiicant scale is what makes us human.
Iacobini offers much food for thought. He talks about how mirror neurons offer the basis for empathy, sympathy, and unfortunately, imitative violence. Indeed, he suggests that our notions of free-will will probably have to be revised. One of the most fascinating aspects of this book for me was the author's description of how he and his colleagues tested specific hypothoses about mirror neurons- the reader gets to see science in action. If you enjoy popular science books, and are interested in learning about why we are the way we are, you should read "Mirroring People."
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