Mirror Neurons Part I: Meaning
In the 1990’s, mirror neurons were “discovered” by accident, when an Italian brain researcher reached for his lunch. His macaque monkey subjects were watching him, implanted with electrodes. The researcher noticed with astonishment that, as he extended his arm, the same areas of their brains lit up as his - even though they were sitting still.
In the past twenty years, research has suggested that everything we notice in the others around us registers in our own brain/body systems. It is as if we were performing these actions ourselves. Our involuntary responses, as we watch others, are an important part of our learning and growth. Our entire observational life, from the moment of our birth, is our neurological rehearsal for everything that is happening around us.
Everything Counts! For us as parents and teachers, this is both a wonderful and terrifying thought. The wonderful part is that everything counts. We smile; our children smile back. We sing; our children sing back. We perform complex and interesting activities - and as our children watch us, they grow the neural pathways that they will need to eventually perform these activities on their own.
The terrifying part is that everything counts. We frown; our children frown back. When lose our tempers, our children learn to expect and experience the same kind of stress in life that we do. And they are learning to react to it in exactly the same way.
Mirrors and Development. But a mirror’s reflection is never exactly the same as the original. The same kinds of neurons may fire in the adult and the child brain, but what the experience means will be different to each of them. The developmental age of the mirroring person has a lot to do with how these reflections are interpreted.
In Jean Piaget’s most famous experiment, two identical beakers were filled with identical amounts of colored water. Next, the contents of one beaker was poured into a taller, thinner container - and, of course, the level of the bright liquid rose. Children, up to the age of seven years old, said that now this taller beaker held more water.
Their mirror neurons were operating; the children experienced the activity of pouring and seeing the water level rise; they saw no new water being introduced. But where the adult might marvel that it now looked as if there was more water, the children simply accepted the reality of that appearance. To a young child, the physical world is molten, constantly re-forming. The rabbit pops out of the empty hat, how wonderful! Why not?
The observer mirrors the action. When we see someone yawn, we find ourselves yawning in response. The observer mirrors the emotion as well - the terrified look on the face of the actress creates an empathic terror in our own hearts.
But the meanings we make of our reflections are not necessarily the same as those of the actor we mirror. Meaning is dependent upon many things – our culture, our life experience, our belief systems. And our developmental age. (For a developmental model based upon meaning-making, I recommend Robert Kegan’s book, The Evolving Self – also mentioned in The (Im)Permanence of Objects, Movement Matters 10/6/11).
It is an interesting exercise to release our usual sense of meaning, and see the world as a four year-old might. It can be surprisingly difficult to detach the actual data of our everyday life from the assumptions we have about it!
One way in is to simply watch a young child, without agenda, perhaps asking a key question now and then. Whenever I do this, I am surprised at what I discover. I am always humbled. It makes me realize how much I assume about the world, and how little I really know.
Comments
Thanks, Martha! I do recommend Kegan’s The Evolving Self for more info like that . . . but I looked on the web for something more compact, and found an article that encapsulates both Piaget’s and Kegan’s stages of development. The Kegan one is a little confusing, because there are no ages attached to it, so here are some ballparks for those!
Incorporative - babies,no separation between mind and body, no awareness that there is an “I” to “have” a body!
Impulsive - babies, toddlers - four years old is kind of the peak - “I am my impulses!” Mind = body. Starts shifting around age five, usually on to the next stage by 7 or 8 years old. Until then, there isn’t really a separate conception of “me” and “you.”
Imperial - I have a separate existence, but other people don’t - they exist totally FOR me! I can keep secrets, but it never occurs to me that they might have some. This is an age when we adults get into trouble, because kids are adult-like enough that we have expectations that they just don’t have the conceptual/emotional framework to fulfill. Age 7 or 8 to adolescence.
Interpersonal - You have a separate existence
- and you are JUST LIKE ME! This is when kids
start wanting to hang out with each other and talk,
share stuff - not just legos or secret codes, but
feelings.
(However, some kids (and adults) never get here at all.
You can actually function perfectly well in the
material world at the imperial stage, and a lot of
people do.) This is adolescence, on up into
indefinite adulthood.
Institutional - I can hold my own space, and
accept that you can hold yours - you don’t have to be
just like me, or hold my values, for us to interact.
This is the “professional” model of adulthood.
Interindividual - Sometimes people get beyond this, into a state of mind that is more like a four year old’s - but having gone through the complete range of development to get there. All people, all minds, are one people, one mind. The Dalai Lama is an example of this; but you don’t have to be a spiritual leader to have this perspective.
here’s the link, enjoy!
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=11433
eve
Martha Osborne Portland Oct 26, 2011
I loved reading this: “Children, up to the age of seven years old, said that now this taller beaker held more water.” This is exactly the type of thing I am needing to know about early childhood development. Cool. Thanks.