How Do You Affect Others Around You?
March 30th, 2009We affect the well-being of others more than we realize. Take for instance this recent research:
Recently neuroscientists made an interesting observation. They noticed that when a person moved his arm to pick up a book off the table that a certain neuron in his brain was turned on. What was not expected, but also not totally surprising, was that the same neuron will fire if that person simply watches someone else deliberately reach for a book. These neurons were therefore called “mirror neurons” and are found in various parts of the brain that link motor action and perception.
Their discovery may hold a key to how we might better understand how people communicate, for it turns out that watching someone doing something deliberate (the act can’t be just a random moving of a part of the body) causes these mirror neurons to “turn on,” indicating that the brain can detect the intention of another person.
As Dan Siegel, neuroscientist, says, “Here is evidence not merely for a possible early mechanism of imitation and learning, but also for the creation of mindsight, the ability to create an image of the internal state of another’s mind. . . . Mirror neurons may also link the perception of emotional expressions to the creation of those states inside the observer. In this way, when we perceive another’s emotions, automatically, unconsciously, that state is created inside us.”
What emotional state do you pass to others? Anger? Frustration? Negativity? Happiness? Joy? Positivity?
