Mirroring People: The Science Of Empathy And How We Connect With Others

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Includes a new Afterword by the AuthorWhat accounts for our remarkable ability to get inside another person's head--to know what he or she is thinking and feeling? Marco Iacoboni, a leading neuroscientist, explains the groundbreaking research into mirror neurons, the "smart cells" in our brain that allow us to understand others. From imitation to morality, from political affiliations to consumer choices, mirror neurons are relevant to myriad aspects of social cognition. Mirroring People is the first book for the general reader on this revolutionary new science.

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Marco Iacoboni is a neurologist and neuroscientist originally from Italy. Currently he is at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, where he is director of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation La,boratory at the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Map­ ping Center. His brain imaging studies have pio­ neered the investigation of the mirror neuron system in humans. He lives in Los Angeles, Cali­ fornia. MIRRORING PEOPLE MARCO IACOBONI Picador Farrar. Straus and Giroux New York MIRRORING PEOPLE. Copyright © 2008, 2009 by Marco Iacoboni. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address Picador, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010. www.picadorusa.com Picador® is a U.S. registered trademark and is used by Farrar, Straus and Giroux under license from Pan Books Limited. For information on Picador Reading Group Guides, please contact Picador. E-mail: [email protected] Figures of brain areas with mirror neurons in macaques and humans courtesy of Sinauer Associated, Inc. Designed by Michelle McMillian ISBN-13: 978-0-312-42838-9 ISBN-lO: 0-312-42838-3 First published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux as The New Science of How We COlinect with Others First Picador Edition: July 2009 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Mirroring People: To my wife , Mirella, my daughter, Caterina, and my parents, Rita and Antonio Contents One: Monkey See. Monkey Do Neuro This! 3 Brain Surprises 8 The Fab Four 12 Mirrors in the Brain' 21 I Know What You Are Doing 27 I Know What You Are Thinking 30 I Can Hear What You Are Doing 34 Mirroring Tool Use 38 I Know That You Are Copying Me 42 Two: Simon Says Copycat Cells 47 Resonating Bodies 57 CO N TE N T S Do What I Say, Not What I Do 62 Harry Potter and Professor Snape 70 Getting a Grip on Other Minds 74 Three: Grasping Language Do You See What I Ani Saying? 79 Hand to Mouth 84 From Brain Mapping to Brain Zapping 89 Body Heat 92 Chat Rooms 95 Mirroring Speech and Other Sounds 101 Four: See Me, Feel Me Zidane's Head-Butt 106 Humans or Chameleons? 109 Empathic Mirrors 116 I Feel Your Pain 121 Maternal Empathy 126 Five: Facing Yourself Is It You or Is It Me? 130 The Mirror Recognition Test 135 Another Me 141 Zapping the Self 148 Two Sides of the Same Coin 154 x CO N TE N T S Six: Broken Mirrors Baby Mirrors 157 The Teen Brain 162 Imitation and Autism 168 The Mirror Neuron Hypothesis of Autism 172 Broken Mirroring 1 74 Fixing the Broken Mirrors 177 Seven: Super Mirrors and the Wired Brain Dark Waves in the Brain 184 In the Depth of the Human Brain 192 The Jennifer Aniston Cell 196 In Search of Super Mirror Neurons 200 Eight: The Bad and the Ugly: Violence and Drug Abuse The Bad: The Controversy About Media Violence 204 Are We Autonomous Agents? Mirror Neurons and Free Will 210 T