Mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that is activated both when performing an action and when observing another individual perform that same action, a process thought to help an individual ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American In the early 1990s, a team of neuroscientists ...

Nat Clin Pract Neurol. 2009;5(1):24-34. Studies in which the properties of single neurons were studied in a naturalistic context have been particularly important for establishing this new view on ...

Have you ever wondered why when we see someone yawn, we yawn almost immediately? Or how newborns imitate facial gestures like sticking out their tongue? And what about how we learn to use scissors or ...

The brain has many regions that perform different functions. Have students use a map of the brain and brain stem to locate these regions: frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, temporal lobe, ...

In a recent study published in the journal Cell, researchers utilized a genetically encoded mirror-TRAP strategy to investigate the functional importance of aggression-mirroring neurons. Social ...

A group of brain cells in mice becomes active both when the animals fight and when they watch other mice fight, a study 1 shows. The work hints that such ‘mirror neurons’, which fire when an animal ...

A study by researchers in Parma and Milan has shown that we interpret facial expressions using both motor and emotional areas of the brain. The finding could solve a 20-year debate between scientists ...