The discovery of mirror neurons was made by Giacomo Rizzolatti, Vittorio Gallase, and Marco Iaccoboni while recording from the brains of monkeys that performed certain goal-directed voluntary actions. For instance, when the monkey reached for a peanut, a certain neuron in its premotor cortex {in the frontal lobes} would fire. Another neuron would fire when the monkey pushed a button, a third neuron when he pulled a lever. The existence of such command neurons that control voluntary movements has been known for decades. Amazingly, a subset of these neurons had an additional peculiar property. The neuron fired not only {say} when the monkey reached for a peanut, but also when it watched another monkey reach for a peanut! These were dubbed "mirror neurons" or "monkey-see-monkey-do" neurons.
( John Brockman )
[ The Mind ]
www.QuoteSweet.com