Evidence For Mirror Systems In Emotions

Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 20 Jul 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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Why do we feel tears well up when we see a loved one cry? Why do we wince when we see other people hurt themselves? Here we review evidence that when people observe the actions and tactile sensations of others they activate brain regions that are also active when they perform similar movements and feel similar sensations themselves.

We show that the same process may also apply to emotions: the perception of emotions activates a rich mosaic of regions in the brains of observers involved in experiencing the observers' own emotions, including the sensory and motor brain areas involved in generating their own facial expressions. As a consequence, we cry and wince vicariously with the pains and sorrows of others, because they are no longer merely a visual stimulus: our brains transformed the tears of others into our own.

These vicarious representations may be necessary for generating the compelling insights we have into the feelings of others. Through interaction with higher cognitive functions, they could be at the core of important social functions, such as empathy, mind reading and social learning.

Source
Royal Society Journal