En 1996 el equipo de Giacomo Rizzolatti, de la Universidad de Parma (Italia), estaba estudiando el cerebro de monos cuando descubrió un curioso grupo de neuronas. Las células cerebrales no sólo se encendían cuando el animal ejecutaba ciertos movimientos sino que, simplemente con contemplar a otros hacerlo, también se activaban. Se les llamó neuronas espejo o especulares. En un principio se pensó que simplemente se trataba de un sistema de imitación. Sin embargo, los múltiples trabajos que se han hecho desde su descubrimiento, el último de los cuales se publicó en Science la semana pasada, indican que las implicaciones trascienden, y mucho, el campo de la neurofisiología pura. El sistema de espejo permite hacer propias las acciones, sensaciones y emociones de los demás. Su potencial trascendencia para la ciencia es tanta que el especialista Vilayanur Ramachandran ha llegado a afirmar: "El descubrimiento de las neuronas espejo hará por la psicología lo que el ADN por la biología". Rizzolatti ha pasado fugazmente por Madrid para participar en el simposio El Sustrato de la Sociedad del Conocimiento: El Cerebro. Avances Recientes en Neurociencia organizado por el Instituto Pluridisciplinar de la Universidad Complutense y por la Fundación Vodafone.

Pregunta. ¿Qué le parece el hecho de que se comparen las neuronas espejo con el ADN?

Respuesta. Es un poco exagerado, pero quizá Ramachandran tenga razón porque el mecanismo de espejo explica muchas cosas que antes no se comprendían.

P. ¿Qué explica?

R. Por ejemplo, la imitación. ¿Cómo podemos imitar? Cuando se observa una acción hecha por otra persona se codifica en términos visuales, y hay que hacerlo en términos motores. Antes no estaba claro cómo se transfería la información visual en movimiento. Otra cuestión muy importante es la comprensión. No sólo se entiende a otra persona de forma superficial, sino que se puede comprender hasta lo que piensa. El sistema de espejo hace precisamente eso, te pone en el lugar del otro. La base de nuestro comportamiento social es que exista la capacidad de tener empatía e imaginar lo que el otro está pensando.

P. ¿Se puede decir que las neuronas espejo son el centro de la empatía?

R. El mensaje más importante de las neuronas espejo es que demuestran que verdaderamente somos seres sociales. La sociedad, la familia y la comunidad son valores realmente innatos. Ahora, nuestra sociedad intenta negarlo y por eso los jóvenes están tan descontentos, porque no crean lazos. Ocurre algo similar con la imitación, en Occidente está muy mal vista y sin embargo, es la base de la cultura. Se dice: "No imites, tienes que ser original", pero es un error. Primero tienes que imitar y después puedes ser original. Para comprenderlo no hay más que fijarse en los grandes pintores.

P. Uno de los hallazgos más sorprendentes relacionados con este tipo de neuronas es que permiten captar las intenciones de los otros ¿Cómo es posible si se supone que la intención de algo está encerrada en el cerebro del prójimo?

R. Estas neuronas se activan incluso cuando no ves la acción, cuando hay una representación mental. Su puesta en marcha corresponde con las ideas. La parte más importante de las neuronas espejo es que es un sistema que resuena. El ser humano está concebido para estar en contacto, para reaccionar ante los otros. Yo creo que cuando la gente dice que no es feliz y que no sabe la razón es porque no tiene contacto social.

P. Pero para que el sistema de espejo funcione es necesario que exista previamente la información en el cerebro que refleja. ¿No es así?

R. En el útero de la madre se aprende el vocabulario motor básico, o sea que ya tenemos ese conocimiento, el básico, que es puramente motor. Más tarde, al ver a otras personas, el individuo se sitúa en su propio interior y comprende a los demás. La visión es la que proporciona el vínculo.

P. ¿Hacia dónde irán ahora sus investigaciones?

R. Queremos estudiar las bases neuronales de la empatía emocional en animales. Me gustaría ver si las ratas, al igual que los monos [en los que se han identificado ya varios tipos de neuronas espejo], tienen el sistema de espejo porque en ese caso, las podríamos utilizar para la investigación médica, porque los monos son animales demasiados preciosos como para hacer este tipo de trabajos.

P. ¿Y en humanos?

R. Estoy convencido de que los trastornos básicos en el autismo se dan en el sistema motor. Estos pacientes tienen problemas para organizar su propio sistema motor y como consecuencia no se desarrolla el sistema de neuronas espejo. Debido a esto no entienden a los otros porque no pueden relacionar sus movimientos con los que ven en los demás y el resultado es que un gesto simple es para un autista una amenaza.

* This Greater Good section, Research Digests, offers short summaries of recent studies on happiness, empathy, compassion, and more. Quick to read, easy to digest—we review the research so you don’t have to! Subscribe to the Research Digests RSS feed to receive future digests.

Managers with Empathy Might Improve Employee Health
"A Daily Investigation of the Role of Manager Empathy on Employee Well-Being"
Scotta, B.A., et. al. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, November 2010, Vol. 113 (2), 127-140.

Feeling sick at work? Maybe you need a more empathic manager. This study followed 60 employees at an IT company over two weeks, finding that employees were less likely to report feeling sick if they had a manager with a strong inclination to take an employee’s perspective and feel what he or she was feeling, whether it was positive or negative emotion. These employees also felt happier after making progress toward their goals at work than other employees who made similar strides but didn’t have an empathic manager. The authors suggest that managers who demonstrate empathy foster a climate of support and understanding at work, which boosts employee well-being—and, in turn, might make these workplaces more productive and cost-effective. —Bernie Wong

Two Degrees of Separation Can Still Reduce Prejudice against Muslims
"Prejudice against Muslims: Anxiety as a Mediator between Intergroup Contact and Attitudes, Perceived Group Variability and Behavioural Intentions."
Hutchison, P. and Rosenthal, H. Ethnic and Racial Studies, January 2011, Vol. 34 (1), 40-61.

Surveys suggest that there has been a considerable rise in prejudice against Muslims around the world since September 11. How can relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims be improved? In this study, non-Muslim participants from a London University were asked about the frequency and quality of their contact with Muslims. People who had more frequent high-quality contact with Muslims had more positive attitudes toward them, were more likely to see the unique qualities of individual Muslims (rather than stereotyping them as a group), had stronger intentions to act positively toward Muslims, and had less anxiety about interacting with Muslims. What’s more, the researchers uncovered the same attitudes among people who knew non-Muslims friendly with Muslims but didn’t have Muslim friends of their own. These findings are promising because they suggest not only that coming into contact with Muslims can reduce anti-Muslim prejudice but that simply knowing non-Muslims with Muslim friends can achieve the same goal. —Neha John-Henderson

When it Comes to Relationships, Reality Might Be Overrated
"Positive Illusions About a Partner's Personality and Relationship Quality."
Barelds, D. P.H.; Pieternel, D. Journal of Research in Personality, 45 (1), February 2011, 37-43.

When it comes to your relationship, it seems that reality might be overrated. In this study, researchers mailed surveys to 84 couples, asking each participant to answer questions about their personality, their partner’s personality, and their relationship quality. Researchers found that more agreeable and conscientious men and more extroverted women were more likely to see their partner more positively than their partner saw himself or herself. Although participants were generally accurate in measuring their partner’s personality compared to what the partner said about himself or herself, the results show that those who did hold “positive illusions” about their partner tended to be more satisfied with their relationship. —Bernie Wong

Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran explains what mirror neurons tell us—and what they don't—about empathy and other skills.

This week Greater Good editor-in-chief Jason Marsh is reporting on highlights from the recent Being Human conference in San Francisco, including a round-up of some of the key themes and speakers, and an interview on the evolutionary roots of altruism with Yale psychologist Laurie Santos. Today, we present an interview with neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran on mirror neurons, the subject of his Being Human talk.

Did you ever have that sensation where you’re watching someone do something—serve a tennis ball, say, or get pricked by a needle—and you can just feel exactly what they must be feeling, as if you were in their shoes?

Scientists have long wondered why we get that feeling, and more than two decades ago, a team of Italian researchers thought they stumbled on an answer. While observing monkeys’ brains, they noticed that certain cells activated both when a monkey performed an action and when that monkey watched another monkey perform the same action. “Mirror neurons” were discovered.

Since that time, mirror neurons have been hailed as a cornerstone of human empathy, language, and other vital processes. But there has also been something of a mirror neuron backlash, with some scientists suggesting that the importance of mirror neurons has been exaggerated.

V.S. Ramachandran has been one of mirror neurons’ most ardent scientific champions. Ramachandran (known as “Rama” to friends and colleagues), a distinguished professor of neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego, conducted early research on mirror neurons; he has since called them “the basis of civilization” in a TED talk and touted their significance in his recent book The Tell Tale Brain.

“I don’t think they’re being exaggerated,” he said a few days ago at Being Human. “I think they’re being played down, actually.”

In his presentation at Being Human, Ramachandran discussed how research on mirror neurons and “phantom limbs” suggests an extraordinary human capacity for empathy. (See this post for more details.)

After his Being Human talk, I sat down with Ramachandran to discuss what we know—and what we don’t—about these celebrated brain cells. Below is a condensed version of our conversation.

Jason Marsh: First, could you explain a little bit about what mirror neurons are and how they were discovered?

V.S. Ramachandran: Well, basically Giacomo Rizzolatti and Vittorio Gallese and some of their colleagues in Italy discovered mirror neurons. They found these neurons in the frontal lobes of the brain—the pre-frontal areas of the brain—among what were originally found as motor command neurons. These are neurons which fire when I reach out and grab a peanut, another set of neurons which fire when I reach out and pull a lever, other neurons when I’m pushing something, other neurons when I’m hitting something. These are regular motor command neurons, orchestrating a sequence of muscle twitches that allow me to reach out and grab something or do some other action.

A subset of these neurons also fire when I simply watch another person—watch you reach out and do exactly the same action. So these neurons are performing a virtual reality simulation of your mind, your brain. Therefore, they’re constructing a theory of your mind—of your intention—which is important for all kinds of social interaction.

JM: So you’ve talked about the role of mirror neurons in motor skills. I wonder if you could elaborate on the role of mirror neurons in affective experiences, in emotional experiences. VR: Well, people have asked me that already, and I don’t know much about it. All I know is they are involved in empathy for, say, touch or a gentle caress or pain. For example, pretend somebody pokes my left thumb with a needle. We know that the insular cortex fires cells and we experience a painful sensation. The agony of pain is probably experienced in a region called the anterior cingulate, where there are cells that respond to pain. The next stage in pain processing, we experience the agony, the painfulness, the affective quality of pain.

Ramachandran speaking at Being Human. Ramachandran speaking at Being Human.

It turns out these anterior cingulate neurons that respond to my thumb being poked will also fire when I watch you being poked—but only a subset of them. There are non-mirror neuron pain neurons and there are mirror neuron pain neurons.

So these [mirror] neurons are probably involved in empathy for pain. If I really and truly empathize with your pain, I need to experience it myself. That’s what the mirror neurons are doing, allowing me to empathize with your pain—saying, in effect, that person is experiencing the same agony and excruciating pain as you would if somebody were to poke you with a needle directly. That’s the basis of all empathy.

JM: Just to clarify: When you talk about mirror neurons and non-mirror neurons, what percentage are you talking about?

VR: Between 10 and 20 percent [are mirror neurons]. For motor neurons, I think it’s a higher percentage—maybe about 20 percent. For sensory neurons, it’s about 10 percent. But these numbers are not all that accurate.

JM: So could you elaborate on the social implications and broader practical implications of mirror neurons?

VR: Well, [mirror neurons] enable me to see you as an intentional being, with purpose and intention. In fact, we suggested nearly a decade ago that mirror neuron dysfunction may be involved in autism. People with autism, ironically sometimes they mimic constantly what you’re doing, but it’s also true that they’re bad at imitation and they don’t have empathy, they don’t have a theory of mind, they can’t infer your intentions, they don’t engage in pretend play. In pretend play, what I do is temporarily say, “I’m going to be this superhero,” so you do role play. That requires a theory of mind.

So take all the properties of mirror neurons, make a list of them, and list all the things that are going wrong in autism—there’s a very good match. Not every symptom, but many of the symptoms match beautifully. And it’s controversial: There are about seven papers claiming that it’s true, using brain imaging, and maybe one or two claiming that there’s no correlation [between mirror neurons and autism].

JM: From your perspective, what do you think are some of the biggest misconceptions around mirror neurons—speculations that have yet to actually be validated by science?

VR: Well, I think as with any new scientific discovery, initially people are very skeptical. When people discovered that these neurons do exist, and that they exist in humans, then people went overboard and said they do everything. And I myself am partly responsible because I made this playful remark, not entirely serious, that mirror neurons will do for psychology what DNA did for biology and open up a whole new field of investigation. Turned out I was right, but it’s overdone—I mean, a lot of people, anything they can’t understand, they say it’s due to mirror neurons.

Music can make us feel nostalgic, melancholy, or energized. It can make us want to dance. And, a new study suggests, it can make us feel more connected to other people, especially when we play music together.

The study, recently published online in Psychology of Music, suggests that interacting with others through music makes us more emotionally attuned to other people, even beyond the musical setting. © omgimages

Researchers at the University of Cambridge observed 28 girls and 24 boys, all between the ages of 8 and 11, from four different schools in the United Kingdom with a similar socioeconomic makeup.

Roughly half of these children were randomly assigned to a special music program that the researchers designed, where children met once a week in small groups for an entire school year to play games that encourage interaction, imitation, and “mindreading” through music. For example, in the “Mirror Match” game, the children had to repeat or match a short piece of music played by another student. In the “Improvising Rhythm” game, the children had to coordinate their playing even as the rhythm was being constantly changed.

The other half of the students also participated in weekly games that encouraged interaction and imitation, but their games were without music, using techniques like storytelling and drama instead.

Before and after participating in either of the two groups, all children in the study took an array of tests to measure their “emotional empathy,” or their ability to experience another’s emotional state as their own.

In one of these tests, children viewed a brief movie clip showing a character in an emotional scene. Each child was then shown pictures of faces expressing six different emotions, and was asked to select the expression that most closely matched his or her own feelings after viewing the clip. Children demonstrated greater emotional empathy if they selected the expression that corresponded most closely with the character’s emotion.

The children also had to say whether they agreed with 22 statements designed to measure empathy, such as “I really like to watch people open presents, even when I don’t get a present myself.”

The results show that after the school year ended, empathy increased significantly among children in the music group but not in the group that played non-musical games.

That finding was somewhat surprising to the researchers, says Tal-Chen Rabinowitch, a doctoral student at Cambridge’s Center for Music and Science and the lead author of the study.

“In a way we expected the children who participated in the control games group interaction program to also show an enhanced capacity for empathy following the program,” she says.

The increased empathy among children in the music group suggests that interacting through music may hone our general ability to share the psychological states of others.

Still, Rabinowitch says she and her co-authors are hesitant to draw any definitive conclusions from this single study, since the number of students involved was small. In their Psychology of Music paper, they write that more research, involving larger groups of students, is needed to strengthen the link between music and empathy, and to explore how long the emotional effects of group music training can last.

This research is important, they argue, because prior studies have suggested that empathy is vital to kind and cooperative behavior, and to motivating people to stand up against bullying.

“Therefore,” says Rabinowitch, “if there is a way to educate for empathy using music as an enjoyable and welcoming medium, then it is important to be aware of this and understand how it can be done.”