Mirror Neurons: Fire to Inspire

Abstract

Mirror neurons got a great deal of attention from connoisseurs and in scientific reports. Mirror neurons have the capability of observation and execution of action to code both “my action and your action”. Firstly they were found in an area of f5 region of ventral premotor cortex and inferior parietal lobule of monkey brain. Mirror neuron system (MNS) is the driving force behind the great leap forward in human evolution. Both monkeys and human are born with MNS. Sensory or motor experience may trigger the development of mirror neurons. Adult group show an intrinsic difference between goal directed and non –goal directed action observation condition. Recently neurons with mirror characteristics have been found outside the rostral part of inferior parietal lobule and inferior frontal gyrus. Human neuroimaging experiments confirm a wide overlap between cortical areas in human and areas where mirror neurons have been reported in macaque monkey. Still there is a lack of studies about MNS in neurosurgical patients so the goal is to describe the application of an fMRI protocol to identify the MNS in patient with mass lesion in premotor area. The goal of this review was to give a brief explanation of MNS covering their origin, observation, execution, innateness, evolution, development, empathy and recent developments like fMRI, neuroimaging and mapping.