Research with different species yield significant data on the role of these neurons in the behavior. Mirror neurons allow us to understand others, understand their moods and, ultimately, act adaptively from the standpoint of the species to which we belong. These nerve cells are essential for an individual to interact appropriately with peers, hence becoming more numerous studies aimed at deciphering their secrets.
Although the species in which it has conducted a large number of investigations of mirror neurons is the macaque scientists believe that these neurons are involved in behaviors as diverse as birds singing in the herding behavior of dogs and, ultimately, a large number of socializing behaviors.
Neurons that reflect the actions of others:
Mirror neurons are nerve cells located in the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain. Regulate the imitative behavior, ie, that allow us to reproduce the behavior of others. The Italian researchers Giacomo Rizzolatti, Leonardo Fogassi and Vittorio Gallese were his discoverers in the 90, while conducting a study of brain activity using electrodes inserted macaques in various regions of the brain of these animals.
The researchers found that when the monkey performs a movement, like grasping an object or bite, they activate certain neurons in your cerebral cortex, which inferred that these neurons were transmitting commands to the muscles. However, a detailed study revealed that these neurons are also activated when the monkeys watched other animals performing the same actions. It seemed, therefore, that acted as a mirror or reflection of the actions of other individuals.
Research and discovery in human:
Once identified mirror neurons in monkeys, began his search in humans. In 2010, I. Fried and R. Mukamel, the Ronald Reagan Medical Center, first registered the activity of these nerve cells in the course of research with human patients with epilepsy.
The researchers recorded the activity of single and multiple neurons in both motor regions of the brain and in other areas related to vision and memory, finding that the distribution of these cells is broader than previously thought from studies with macaques, which are located in more regions of the brain than previously thought.
Today we know that mirror neurons are central to the development of babies, as they are responsible to learn to identify and imitate the gestures of adults from the earliest stages of development. Its function is essential to establish empathic behavior and it is believed that the dysfunction associated with these neurons is related to autism.
Empathy in the animal world:
Mirror neurons play a fundamental role in the learning of chimpanzees, dogs, dolphins, whales and many other species of mammals. Importantly, research with monkeys have found that mirror neurons seem to be oriented almost exclusively to specific behaviors of the species itself and, moreover, as with other brain structures, are subject to critical periods or tender out of which plasticity is minimal.
Mirror neurons in birds:
Mirror neurons allow not only identifying and replicating mammalian facial expressions, as they discovered in 2008, neurobiologists at Duke University through his research with male samples savanna banana.
In this case, the researchers proved the existence of neurons that are activated when the bird emitted a particular song sequence, but when I heard the same sequence of notes issued by a con-specific. Thus, this system would be involved in the process of song learning in birds.
From this discovery, it is proposed that mirror neurons perhaps, they are not unique to mammals, can be part of the genetic background of all vertebrates (fishes, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals), although this chapter comparative neurobiology of the yet to be completed.
