How do we understand other people’s thoughts, feelings and intentions?

Описание: Recent brain-imaging studies found a set of “mirror neurons” in humans that mirror the behavior of someone who is being observed or watched. That is to say, when we watch someone doing something, the same pattern of brain activation that enables that person to do what he is doing is mirrored in our brain. It is as if we are doing these same things. Mirror neurons are activated or fired when a person observes the action of others. When someone watches another person who is, say, eating or playing some game, the mirror neurons of the observer will start firing as if he himself were eating or playing the game.
Such neurons are found in various parts of the brain. Activation of mirror neurons has been seen in the premotor and parietal cortex of the brain. This phenomenon was first discovered by a research team in Italy in the 1990s when studying the neuronal activity of macaque monkeys. Subsequently, many neuroscientists studied this particular behaviour of mirror neurons and established that these neurons play a significant role in learning processes, including imitation, the learning of games, and language acquisition.
Our brains automatically appear to mirror the actions of another person. When we do something, a similar kind of biochemical action is triggered in the mirror neurons of the other person’s brain. In other words, when we act, the mirror neurons of the other person will fire in a similar way. . Likewise, emotions trigger a similar kind of neuronal firing in the brain of the other individual. Hence, merely by watching others, we become emotionally entangled with them: we feel the other’s pain and suffering, happiness and joy, through the same neurological phenomenon.

People sometimes become so identified with the emotional states of others that even imaginary characters, and TV serials, serve as triggers. We feel other people’s emotions by unconsciously simulating them in our own brains. Though the phenomenon of empathy and compassion is universal, their extent differs from person to person. Not all are equally moved by other people’s actions and emotions.
Some are highly empathetic and compassionate, while others are indifferent or even cruel toward others. Many can watch gruesome acts committed by others with no sympathetic response. Many humans exhibit hardly any empathy at all toward “strangers” of other religions, cultures, or political affiliations. Though our brains are hardwired for empathy and have the ability to feel another’s emotions, there are those who, because of faulty early nurturing and conditioning, exhibit very little empathy and compassion, or may be lacking in it altogether.