MIRROR NEURONS

These neurons can be found in both humans and animals in the premotor cortex. When a human or animal observes someone else doing a motor action it triggers the feeling they get when they perform the action themselves. For instance; seeing someone else reach for food, as they are hungry, causes you to feel hungry. However, motor actions are not the only thing that activates mirror neurons, but show of emotion as well. For example; if someone smiles at you the mirror neurons are spark the feeling you get from smiling without actually performing the action. So, you will feel happy without having to smile.

Interestingly, mirror neurons allow us to interpret someone’s intentions, as we can differentiate how they interact with another person or object before they complete the action. Below is an example:

Mirror neurons give us the ability to read hand gestures, and understand and interpret what someone’s communicating to us, and so many researchers believe hand gestures are what language originated from. We are also able to do this with facial expressions, which allows us to empathise and socialise with others.

The study of mirror neurons, and understanding how it affects the way we see things will aid us in the making of ‘The Devils’ by John Whiting as ‘we want them [the audience] to see themselves in it’. We want the audience to enjoy it, be shocked by it, remember it, and to ‘have an insight into what life was like in the 17^th century’. Therefore, we will appeal to the mirror neurons, and use their manipulation on emotions and feelings, to bring the audience into our devilish 17^th century Loudon world.

“Observing the same action, such as grasping a cup, in different contexts elicits different levels of mirror neuron activity in one area of the brain that belongs to the mirror neuron system (right posterior inferior frontal gyrus). This finding shows that the mirror neuron system does more than code the observed action (“that’s a grasp”). It also codes the intention behind the action (“that’s a grasp to drink” or “that’s a grasp to clear the table”).” http://www.brainfacts.org/brain-basics/neuroanatomy/articles/2008/mirror-neurons/