Mirror Neurons are cells in the brain that fire both when humans act and observe others acting. These made big news about 1 year ago, and are being
retouched by all of the big science news outlets, but this time around there seems to be some skepticism into all of the "myths" that came
before.
The striking implication of mirror neurons is that the same brain region that controls action also supports perception, writes Günther Knoblich,
Rutgers University, in the June 2006 Current Directions in Psychological Science. If observing behavior occurs in the same area as actually behaving,
then social interaction would seem to play a large role in cognition.
www.sciencedaily.com...
Mirror neurons have become the "left brain/right brain" of the 21st century. The idea that these cells could make a hero out of Wesley Autrey
began with a genuine and important discovery about the brains of macaque monkeys. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, neuroscientists found a
population of cells that fired whenever a monkey prepared to act but also when it watched another animal act. They called these cells "mirror
neurons." It didn't take long for scientists and science writers to speculate that mirror neurons might serve as the physiological basis for a wide
range of social behaviors, from altruism to art appreciation.
www.slate.com...
In any case, there's no doubt that they fire when you observe others act, and it seems pretty safe to say that they're the ones responsible for
phenomena like yawn-chain-reactions. For these obvious reasons I call them "Sheeple Cells". While the "Sheeple" phrase carries derogetory
connotations, the sheeple cells phrase does not as these are something that we all have, unless you have autism for example.
These cells are quite arguably the primary basis for learning social behavior and the thinking patterns that come with such. Learned concepts, like
social norms, each become
biases or
attitudes. Interconnected arrays of these attitudes become
mindsets. Often leaders will
attempt to converge these mindsets, or rather social group mindsets into one 'greater mindset'. For example, the Nazi's converged nationalism,
race, political party and even religion into one mindset, so therefore to question ones political party is to question everything else. This has
happened in more recent times with Bush converging religion, nationalism, and political party.
It's important to understand that these behaviors and thought patterns, learned primarily starting at the mirror neurons, become physical structures
within memory stores in the brain. The more you 'use' or 'excite' these attitudes or mindsets the 'stronger' and more 'hardwired' they become
in the physical constructs inside your brain (practice makes perfect). The harder wired they become the harder it will be for you to 'see past'
these hardwired / learned behaviors, and this is the essence of being "biased". In terms of the phrase "sheeple", which can apply to many concepts
and ideologies in the human experience, to be "sheeple" in
whatever is to be shown that you follow but continue to do so even after being
shown how wrong the "leadership" may be, for example. The "sheeple" effect is thus the inability overcome ones learned biases, and in this society
we're trained to be self-centered and irrational and to follow blindly or ignore our way to the truth.
So naturally people who are over pseudo-individualistic and deny any possibility that they may infact "follow" will draw up huge Skepticism in light
of science that points out that our brains are genetically wired to be waiting to observe others, so that it can activate as if they themselves are
doing it, whether they like it or not.
[edit on 7-5-2007 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]
