I can read your mind...and you can read mine too!

Good FRIDAY Morning everyone!!! Woohoo!!! It's Friday and it's gonna be a long weekend ahead. Hahaha. And to make it better I have a half day today cos my company is sending us for a "team-building" event at Sentosa for the whole afternoon! Yeah! The only problem is that it's a team building event for all the IA students, who happen to be scattered all over Singapore, working in different departments, and on different projects, so I really wonder how much of a "team" we really are... Well, no matter, a half day away from work is always good right?

Onwards to today's article, which also has something to do with interacting with people. It's about scientists saying that essentially, we are all mind readers, and we do it everyday, unconsicously. In fact the simple word for it is Empathy. How we generate feelings and thoughts of empathy has always troubled scientists, but now they are saying that we basically can "read" other people's minds and are hence able to feel empathy for the other person.

This idea originated in 1996 when 3 neuroscientists were probing the brain of a live monkey (something very cruel), when they found a cluster of brain cells that "fired not only when the monkey performed an action, but likewise when the monkey saw the same action performed by someone else". They called these cells "mirror neurons." When scientists performed the same experiments on humans, they found that these mirror neurons not only reacted to actions but to sensations and emotions as well.

These mirror neurons fit in with an explaination for the development Theory of Mind called the Simulation theory. Simulation theory basically states that we are all mind readers and place ourselves in another person’s "mental shoes," using our own mind as a model for theirs. This means that when we interact with others, we not only observe their actions "we create internal representations of their actions, sensations and emotions within ourselves, as if we are the ones that are moving, sensing and feeling." Hence making us, in a way, mind readers.

Although this theory might not be as fantastic as the mind readers of sci-fi and comics, but it does serve an important purpose - the treatment of autism. The main theory is that autistic people have damaged or impaired mirror neurons, and are thus unable to simulate the experiences of others, a sort of "mental blindness". Hence, if neuroscientists can one day learn to repair these neurons, autism could be cured. This would definitely be good news for countless parents around the world with autistic children, cos if you have ever met such children, you'd understand their parent's worry.

Empathy allows us to feel the emotions of others, to identify and understand their feelings and motives and see things from their perspective. How we generate empathy remains a subject of intense debate in cognitive science.

Some scientists now believe they may have finally discovered its root. We're all essentially mind readers, they say.

The idea has been slow to gain acceptance, but evidence is mounting.

In 1996, three neuroscientists were probing the brain of a macaque monkey when they stumbled across a curious cluster of cells in the premotor cortex, an area of the brain responsible for planning movements. The cluster of cells fired not only when the monkey performed an action, but likewise when the monkey saw the same action performed by someone else. The cells responded the same way whether the monkey reached out to grasp a peanut, or merely watched in envy as another monkey or a human did.

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