During the quarantine days we all give ourselves to watching something - TV shows, competitions, movies - we sometimes find ourselves in what we're watching. Maybe even your family members are having that moment. And our affair starts here: in a place where we call 'It's like living that moment'.
We always look for the reason to be caught up in it. Frankly, we do not pay much attention because crying for a character who died in a movie, getting excited as if he was really competing in a competition, being loving in a romantic scene of the series are actually feelings we all experience. Now let's get to the bottom of these emotions we experience, namely mirror neurons to enable us to experience them.
Something was discovered by chance in an experiment to study the movements in monkeys' brains. When a monkey doing nothing watched a monkey eating a banana, they noticed that the same neurons were active in both monkeys. In other words, the ape that did nothing seem to be eating a banana, and there was movement in the neurons in his brain. However, he was just watching the actual monkey eating a banana. Scientists wanted to be sure of the existence of mirror neurons to prove their accuracy with other tests. They found that there was the same brain activation in many motor functions, not just when eating a banana. This was a very interesting discovery for them, because literally, apes had mimetic neurons in their brains that were activated without acting. Well, if there were apes that were most likened to humans, did we have the same thing?
They tried it on epilepsy patients because they were reluctant to do the experiment on healthy people and found it difficult. And the result was just like the apes, so when we see someone eating a banana or using any motor function, the same neurons are activated as that person.
When you look at it now, it may be easier to make sense of things actually. For example, we have known for years that yawning is contagious or that we are affected by movies, series and competitions that we have just mentioned, sometimes even if you are not hungry, your appetite suddenly rises while you are eating, and when a negative person enters your friend environment, you also exploit your energy … Actually, all of them are because we have mirror neurons. . We owe all and more of these events to their ability to imitate. Even the thought that even languages may have developed thanks to 'mimetic' neurons is not in the middle.
So who benefits best from these neurons? In my opinion, parents who have children, of course. Because when the child is born, he is kind of unaware of everything. It learns everything from you and the environment over time by living, seeing, examining and observing. Love, happiness, sadness, pain… Actually, as a parent, you are still shaping your child - apart from genetics, of course.
For example, if you smoke and your child sees this constantly, you cannot expect him to stop smoking in the future. Because there is a scientific fact called mirror neurons! Already, when you drink, your child's already activated by imitating the same neurons. Besides, it would not be right to expect this from an ethical point of view, apart from the scientific truth.
Or let's look at reading books, the most obsessive subject of parents. If you are a parent who has never opened the cover of the book, it is not right to constantly print 'read' to your child. Because it's still the same. Your child and its mirror neurons will take you as an example until a certain age - until they open up to the environment. For a while, you are both friends, family and everything. So he tends to do whatever he sees from you, idolizes you, you are a powerful source of authority for him. Apart from these, the mirror neurons that we talk about all the time are active and alert to imitate you.
In other words, our mirror neurons, which no one predicts that the effect will be so great as you will understand, actually has a really important place in every aspect of our lives. Even I can give you an example of mirror neurons from my own memories:
I was a student who had nothing to do with the kitchen until I went to college and even had a home in college. Pasta, eggs etc. I hadn't touched anything other than simple things like But I remember watching my mom do something in the kitchen since I was little. Usually when he was doing something, we would talk about what happened during the day or other topics - of course, I would tell and observe him most of the time. Of course, my observation periods would vary depending on the events that happened that day or our desire to talk, sometimes short, sometimes long, and sometimes little help. After I got home at college - that moment when you realized you were going to be hungry - I called my mother and asked for a recipe that could be made with home ingredients. Of course, my pace of doing it normally was slow because I had no experience. But I noticed that I still had a strange dexterity. And seriously, even though it was the first meal I made - not exactly like my mom's - it was very close to her meal. As if my mother was describing how to cook the food, she was visualizing her chopping things up, the spices she dreamed of… In this case, I realized later that mirror neurons were also effective. Because while I was watching my mother cooking, the same neurons were activated in me as if I was doing it. However, I was watching my mother do. So here I was like a child encouraged by his mother to read. Of course, the mother in my analogy was someone who read a book, not just encouraging with words. I was also a child affected by my observations and longed to read a book after a while.
I usually gave examples from children, but if we assume that I am 20 years old in my own example, we actually learn something in life. Even if I say children are the most advantageous, people who are still hungry to learn have an advantage as well. We just need to be aware of our neurons!
Remember, you have neurons in your brain that mimic everyone else, and they can be influenced by your environment. Now it's up to you to learn the existence of these neurons and use them. Let's see if you are still hungry to learn something new.
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