Neurons: Connecting People

-->Neurons: Connecting People

There are one hundred billion neurons in human brain. Each neuron makes a thousand to ten thousand contacts with other neurons that are in the brain. VS Ramachandran talks about how they put electrodes in different parts and record the activities of the brain. There is a group of neurons called mirror neurons that are located in the frontal part of the brain. Also there are ordinary motor command neurons in the front of the brain. These neurons fires when a person does a specific action. However, it was found by Rizolatti that some of these neurons will fire when somebody else does the same action. It’s like almost creating a virtual reality simulation of the other person’s action.

What is the significance of these mirror neurons? There must be imitation and emulation. But how and why is “imitation” is important? When we take a look at the evolutionary road, and go back about hundred thousand or seventy-five thousand years ago, we see that usage of tools, shelter, language, theory of mind etc. has evolved due to the sudden emergence of a sophisticated mirror neuron system. And he gives an example of Darwinian theory; it takes hundred thousand years for a polar bear to evolve and has its fur. However, a human child can watch his/her parents kill the polar bear and put the fur in the body and learn it in 5 – 10 minutes. Then it spreads geometric proportion across a population. This is the basis.

As there are mirror neurons for action, there are mirror neurons for touch. As an illustration, when somebody touches you, your mirror neurons will fire. They also fire when you watch somebody else being touched. But how do we emphasize with the person but not literally feel the touch? Because, we have receptors in our skin that goes to our brain and signals that “don’t worry, you are not being touched.” But if you remove your the arm, anesthetize the arm, there is no sensations coming in and if you watch somebody being touch, you literally feel it in your hand. In another words you dissolved the barrier between you and other humans.

In the end, I think the most important part of the video was “…this is not in some abstract metaphorical sense, all that’s separating you from him, from the other person, is your skin. Remove the skin, you experience that person’s touch in your mind.” This means there is no independent self away from other human beings. Also I liked the part where he says “you are connected not just via Facebook, and internet, you are actually quite literally connected by your neurons.”