: How We Mimic the of Those Similar to Us

BY ZOE FRANKLIN

ll around you exists an emotional joke out of earshot, and a smile tugs at the neurons responds as though we too feel Aecosystem. As you buy your cof- corners of our lips. While these instances that action.1 Feedback signals, however, fee in the morning, the barista thinks about can seem mundane, they highlight the fact prevent us from any sensation. But their date last night and as their pupils di- that what we view as “me” often extends without feedback signals, activating these late, yours dilate in response. As you wait to beyond our own bodies. Every day we ex- mirror neurons can create the illusion that cross the street, the person next to you taps perience these mysterious moments when we are having someone else’s experience. their fingers anxiously and your heart rate the boundary between ourselves and others Ramachandran calls these “Gandhi neu- increases. Whether you realize it or not, becomes blurred for just a moment. rons” as they “dissolve the barrier between you are continuously being influenced by Researchers call this spillover “emo- you and other human beings.”1 and influencing the emotional climate sur- tional contagion.” Emotional contagion is However, the MNS is more complex rounding you. seen as a primitive and automatic form of than simple mimicry. When faced with Human beings are experts at an in- that may be the foundation for the same emotional stimuli, why do some credible skill we often take for granted: more sophisticated forms of cognitive per- people get angry and others get scared? As understanding people’s mental states. We spective taking. How, then, do we “catch” we gather emotional from the are able to read and interpret the slightest another person’s emotions? external world, the MNS helps simulate changes in tone and body language. One A well-known player in emotional con- and create predictions about the world, essential part of this interpretation process tagion is our system (MNS) allowing us to choose from a repertoire of is our unconscious urge to mimic others. (Fig. 1). Vilayanur Ramachandran explains default emotional responses.2,3 This pro- We watch someone trip, and we wince that when we watch someone experience an cess begins by simulating others’ emotions as they hit the floor. Someone laughs at a action, like being touched, a subset of our through shared neural activation and a syn- chronization of bodily systems (Fig. 2). We can then select an appropriate emotional “But without feedback signals, activating these response and transfer emotional meaning from one person to another.4 mirror neurons can create the illusion that we are According to this model, emotional contagion is created from a combination having someone else’s experience. Ramachandran of autonomic and motor mimicry. The calls these neurons ‘Gandhi neurons’ as they ‘dissolve synchronization of our autonomic systems such as pupil dilation, blushing, and sweat- the barrier between you and other human beings’.” ing is involved in simulating the

18 Berkeley Scientific Journal |FALL 2019 eas of the brain involved are the dorsal and the brain associated with self-processing ventral medial prefrontal cortex, which are compared to those with opposing political associated with the processing of social beliefs. This similarity in neural activation stimuli. Studies have found both similar and also extends to our personal subjective ex- differential activation of these areas when perience. processing self-related versus other-related Our perception of being touched actu- content.5 These differences may be driven by ally increases when viewing images of those the “degree of self-relatedness of the other of a similar ethnic or political group being person.”6 Thinking about similar others may touched.9 in fact be a different type of self-reflection, However, defining similarity is compli- as we simulate their experience through cated. Each individual is a complex combi- self-projection, cognitively putting our- nation of traits, creating a constellation of selves in their shoes. similarities and differences between any One simple aspect of being similar two people. What determines whether an Figure 1: Magnification of a spinal cord mo- is physical similarity. A 2009 study by Xu, individual will simulate the experience of tor neuron. Zuo, Wang, and found that the per- another? Some theorize that we ultimately ception of another’s race changed how peo- search for information about shared beliefs 7 level: how much of an you may feel, ple responded to that person’s . They but in the absence of semantic knowledge while mimicking others’ motor responses scanned the brains of both Caucasian and will use physical similarities as a proxy. such as smiling or frowning is involved in Chinese participants as they were watching Others emphasize the evolutionary role of labeling the valence: what this emotion may videos of individuals being poked by a nee- racial membership in modulating empa- 8,10 be.4 A combination of autonomic and motor dle and were asked to rate how much pain thy. simulation therefore allows for a nuanced the model felt. When individuals watched As with many questions in social neu- understanding of the socioemotional world videos of racially similar models, activity in roscience, the answer is: it’s complicated. around us (Fig. 3). the anterior cingulate cortex and insula— As human beings, our innate urge to mimic regions of the brain involved in creating our others’ emotional states gives us an incred- personal experience of pain—increased to a ible ability to understand and share expe- SIMILARITY greater extent than when they watched vid- riences with others. However, in an age of eos of those in their racial outgroup. rapid globalization, it is important to con- Like catching a cold, we can catch oth- Similarity is not limited to visual ap- sider the extent to which our experience ers’ positive and negative emotions, but pearances. In Mitchell et al., participants of empathy depends on how we define our there’s one caveat. Researchers are finding read descriptions of individuals who had ingroups and outgroups. Can we expand evidence that we may be more severely “in- either liberal or conservative political be- our ingroup to view ourselves as “global fected” by people we view as similar to our- liefs and were asked to imagine these indi- citizens,” or is our emotional wiring up selves. viduals as well as their own personal polit- in such a way that empathy may require What may be the neural basis for view- ical beliefs.8 Imagining others with shared some form of exclusion? Most importantly, ing others as similar to ourselves? Two ar- beliefs more strongly activated a region of how much control we have over this pro-

Figure 2: Schematic representation of empathy development. Reading the sender’s expressions leads to shared neural activa- tion, automatic mimicry, and emotional contagion resulting in empathy.4

FALL 2019 | Berkeley Scientific Journal 19 Figure 3: An emotion is a combination of its arousal level and valence. The arousal level is predicted by the autonomic mimicry pathway and the valence is predicted by the motor mimicry pathway.

mimicry: a neurocognitive model of in Cognitive Sciences, 7(4): 173-179. “Thinking about similar emotional contagion. Neuroscience https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364- others may in fact be a & Biobehavioral Reviews, 80, 99- 6613(03)00057-3 114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. 11. Armstrong, K. (2017, December 29). different type of neubiorev.2017.05.013 ‘I Feel Your Pain’: The Neuroscience of 5. Beer J. S., John O. P., Scabini D., & Empathy. Retrieved from https://www. self-reflection.” Knight R. T. (2006). Orbitofrontal psychologicalscience.org/observer/i- cortex and social behavior: integrating feel-your-pain-the-neuroscience-of- cess? Regardless of how we answer these self-monitoring and emotion- empathy questions, there is no that we live in cognition interactions. Journal 12. Hatfield, E., Bensman, L., Thornton, a deeply connected world. However, how of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18(6), P. D., & Rapson, R. L. (2014). New that connection is determined may depend 871-879. https://doi.org/10.1162/ perspectives on emotional contagion: on how we choose to draw the lines be- jocn.2006.18.6.871 a review of classic and recent research tween ourselves and others. 6. Han, S., & Northoff, G. (2009). on facial mimicry and contagion. Acknowledgements: I would like to offer Understanding the self: a cultural Interpersona, 8(2), 159-179. https:// my thanks to Dr. David Vogelsang (D’Es- neuroscience approach. doi.org/10.5964/ijpr.v8i2.162 posito Lab, UC Berkeley) for his construc- in Brain Research, 178, 203-12. 13. Leiberg, S., & Anders, S.. (2006). The tive feedback on my work. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079- multiple facets of empathy: a survey of 6123(09)17814-7. theory and evidence. Progress in Brain REFERENCES 7. Xu, X., Zuo, X., Wang, X., & Han, Research, 156, 419-40. https://doi. S. (2009). Do you feel my pain? org/10.1016/S0079-6123(06)56023-6 Racial group membership modulates 1. Ramachandran, V. (2009, empathic neural responses. The November). The neurons that shaped IMAGE REFERENCES Journal of Neuroscience, 29(26), civilization [Video file]. Retrieved 8525-8529. https://doi.org/10.1523/ from https://www.ted.com/talks/ JNEUROSCI.2418-09.2009 1. (n.d.). Retrieved from https:// vs_ramachandran_the_neurons_that_ 8. Mitchell, J. P., & Mahzarin, B. www.chipscholz.com/wp-content/ shaped_civilization R., & Macrae, C. N. (2005). The uploads/2014/03/bigstock-silhouette- 2. Kilner, J.M., & Lemon, R.N. (2013). link between social cognition of-the-head-brain-34413383.jpg What we know currently about and self-referential thought in 2. (n.d.). Retrieved from https:// mirror neurons. Current Biology, the medial prefrontal cortex. carlisletheacarlisletheatre.org/getPage/ 23(23), R1057-R1062. https://doi. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 3. Berkshire Community College org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.10.051 17(8), 1306-1315. https://doi. Bioscience Image Library, & 3. Kilner, J.M., Friston, K.J., & Frith, org/10.1162/0898929055002418 Reynolds, F. A. (2018). Smear: C.D. (2007). Predictive coding: an 9. Serino, A, Giovagnoli, G., & Làdavas, spinal cord magnification: 200x. account of the mirror neuron system. E. (2009). I feel what you feel if you Retrieved from https://www. Cognitive Processing, 8(3), 159-166. are similar to me. PLOS ONE, 4(3), flickr.com/photos/146824358@ https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-007- e4930. https://doi.org/10.1371/ N03/41850850452/ 0170-2 journal.pone.0004930 4. Prochazkova, E., & Kret, M. 4. Prochazkova, E., & Kret, M. 10. Cosmides, L., Tooby, J., & Kurzban, (2017). Retrieved from https://ars. E. (2017). Connecting minds R. (2003). Perceptions of race. Trends els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0- and sharing emotions through S0149763416306704-gr1.jpg

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