Follow Up: Monkey See... What Should We Do?

When I was looking at the senses I wrote about monkey see monkey do neurons. How the brain, in monkeys and in humans, follows along when we watch actions. The same neurons that fire when a monkey opens a nut fire when the monkey watches someone else open a nut. Hence the name. Though they are also called mirror neurons instead of monkey see monkey do neurons. Mirror neurons probably looks better in the scientific literature.

There are some interesting implications on what the existence of mirror neurons in our brains imply. After all if we act out what we see... then that may be the basis for empathy. If we can literally 'feel' in our minds what others are doing and experiencing then... is that how empathy forms?

Now I haven't been following up the science in detail so I don't know what the latest consensus is. And just because we can go through the motions doesn't mean that mirror neurons are the basis of emotional empathic responses. And even if that's shown to be true... it doesn't invalidate the other aspects of our nature and somehow just turn us into empathic beings.

Which is why a presentation from RSA Animate irks me so much. The Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce has put online a number of presentations and lectures given at events they've held. It's a fascinating series of talks on all sorts of topics. RSA Animate is a series of videos in which some of the lectures are played along with a sped up drawing of the key points, phrases, and ideas in the lecture. The 'animated' part is created using a large whiteboard. The effect is rather good. Lectures (or it seems edited versions of some lectures) are enhanced by watching someone draw notes for you as you watch.

One of the RSA Animate presentations is The Empathic Civilization by Jeremy Rifkin. Now the main substance is an interesting idea. Maybe even a very important one. But....

Part of the presentation is a few more details on the actual experiment that first showed mirror neurons. A few seconds later and he's telling us that research tells us we aren't wired for aggression or anger or violence but for sociability and affection and companionship.

Now I never thought human beings were 'just' violent at our cores. But I'm not sure we're 'just' empathic at heart either. As in much of science I suspect the reality is much more nuanced and grey than a black or white look at the world.

I'm not throwing out the overall idea of the talk. I'm not saying some of what he's proposing and talking about doesn't sound like a good idea. What I am saying is: Why do people take a little bit of research and assume that all the previous research and findings were completely wrong? I understand it's nicer to think of us as polite empathic creatures instead of violent self actualizers... but again... isn't probably more complicated than one or the other?

I like to think we all have better angels in our nature (to badly paraphrase) but I also know we aren't always angels. Humans are much more interesting than just angels or just devils. That's what I like about people.

The Senses: "Monkey See Monkey Do" Neurons

I found myself going from listening to an Australia Broadcasting Company program about the brain, movement, and dancers, to thinking that contrary to my expectations watching sports may be a cerebral activity.

It started with an episode of All in The Mind called The Dancing Mind. I don't think the audio of the episode is online. It helps to hear the conversation happening but we do get a complete transcript. So all is not lost. It's an eye opening read.

How did I get from The Dancing Mind to the cerebral nature of watching sports? Follow along and see.

Ever find yourself tilting and weaving with the action on television? Do you have a visceral reaction when watching dancers or acrobats? Do you jump out of your chair while watching sports? Especially sports you play yourself?

Maybe you get to blame your brain.

In school we're told we have five senses. Sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. The senses are used to introduce us to how we understand the world. It can lead students towards science and an understanding of the world around them. We're told the senses are how we perceive the world around us.

Like many things we're taught in school that's a grand oversimplification. We don't just have five senses and we perceive more than the world around us.

Our world includes ourselves. We have senses that help us perceive ourselves and our place in the world. We have the senses of equilibrioception and proprioception to help us understand our place and ourselves.

Here's an snippet from Jerome K Jerome's novel Three Men in a Boat on how some people don't admit they can sense their place in the world.

It is a curious fact, but nobody ever is sea-sick - on land. At sea, you come across plenty of people very bad indeed, whole boat-loads of them; but I never met a man yet, on land, who had ever known at all what it was to be sea-sick. Where the thousands upon thousands of bad sailors that swarm in every ship hide themselves when they are on land is a mystery.

We get seasick (sorry... sea-sick to borrow Jerome's spelling from 1889) when the world around us moves in ways we don't expect. We expect gravity to pull us straight down. We can sense it. We can also sense turning and acceleration. Balance and acceleration makes up the sense of equilibrioception.

If you close your eyes you can lift your arm without looking at it. You can touch your nose with your eyes closed. You know where your limbs are without staring at them. Imagine trying to walk if you had to look at your legs. Body awareness is the sense of proprioception. Sometimes also called the kinesthetic sense.

The kinesthetic sense is an interesting one. Our ability to understand the position of our bodies and the ability to coordinate complex actions is amazing. We can move from consciously thinking about our actions to making them automatic. We can perform complex tasks "without thinking". The term is muscle memory. It's why you can type without thinking of each key or drive a car without coordinating your feet on the pedals consciously. It's how we walk and run without working out each step in advance. It takes a while to learn. Just watch infants work out how to go from rugrats to toddlers.

It turns out research into muscle memory has found something quite interesting. When monkeys performed a task (picking up peanuts) certain neurons in their brains became active. When the monkeys watched another monkey picking up peanuts the same neurons became active. They acted out the task in their own mind while they watched it.

Hence the name "Monkey See Monkey Do" Neurons. It turns out we humans have the same sort of reactions to watching actions. The Dancing Mind covers this concept within the mind of dancers. Dancers who are injured may even be able to 'rehearse' mentally by watching the routines they will perform when they are healed. They can dance along within their mind.

Which may be why watching sports is so visceral. Why watching a dancer can make us feel like we're moving. It certainly helps understand why being in the audience of a physical spectacle is so satisfying. It turns out it really is a cerebral experience to watch a sport.