The New Science of How We Connect with Others
Marco Iacoboni
简介
What accounts for the remarkable ability to get inside another person’s head—to know what they’re thinking and feeling? “Mind reading” is the very heart of what it means to be human, creating a bridge between self and others that is fundamental to the development of culture and society. But until recently, scientists didn’t understand what in the brain makes it possible. This has all changed in the last decade. Marco Iacoboni, a leading neuroscientist whose work has been covered in The New York Times , the Los Angeles Times , and The Wall Street Journal , explains the groundbreaking research into mirror neurons, the “smart cells” in our brain that allow us to understand others. From imitation to morality, from learning to addiction, from political affiliations to consumer choices, mirror neurons seem to have properties that are relevant to all these aspects of social cognition. As The New York Times “The discovery is shaking up numerous scientific disciplines, shifting the understanding of culture, empathy, philosophy, language, imitation, autism and psychotherapy.” Mirroring People is the first book for the general reader on this revolutionary new science.
contents
One: Monkey See. Monkey Do
Neuro This! 3
Brain Surprises 8
The Fab Four 12
Mirrors in the Brain' 21
I Know What You Are Doing 27
I Know What You Are Thinking 30
I Can Hear What You Are Doing 34
Mirroring Tool Use 38
I Know That You Are Copying Me 42
Two: Simon Says
Copycat Cells 47
Resonating Bodies 57
Do What I Say, Not What I Do 62
Harry Potter and Professor Snape 70
Getting a Grip on Other Minds 74
Three: Grasping Language
Do You See What I Ani Saying? 79
Hand to Mouth 84
From Brain Mapping to Brain Zapping 89
Body Heat 92
Chat Rooms 95
Mirroring Speech and Other Sounds 101
Four: See Me, Feel Me
Zidane's Head-Butt 106
Humans or Chameleons? 109
Empathic Mirrors 116
I Feel Your Pain 121
Maternal Empathy 126
Five: Facing Yourself
Is It You or Is It Me? 130
The Mirror Recognition Test 135
Another Me 141
Zapping the Self 148
Two Sides of the Same Coin 154
Six: Broken Mirrors
Baby Mirrors 157
The Teen Brain 162
Imitation and Autism 168
The Mirror Neuron Hypothesis of Autism 172
Broken Mirroring 174
Fixing the Broken Mirrors 177
Seven: Super Mirrors and the Wired Brain
Dark Waves in the Brain 184
In the Depth of the Human Brain 192
The Jennifer Aniston Cell 196
In Search of Super Mirror Neurons 200
Eight: The Bad and the Ugly:
Violence and Drug Abuse
The Bad: The Controversy About Media Violence 204
Are We Autonomous Agents?
Mirror Neurons and Free Will 210
The Ugly: Addiction and Its Relapse After Quitting 214
Nine: Mirroring Wanting and Liking
The Neuroscience of Buying 219
The One-Nighter: "Instant Science" and the Super Bowl 228
Mirroring Ads 233
The Effects of Negative Ads 239
Ten: Neuropolltlcs
Theories of Political Attitudes 244
Mirroring and the Political Junkie Brain 248
Brain Politics 254
Eleven: Existential Neuroscience and Society
Mirror Cells Between Us 259
The Problem of Intersubjectivity 262
A New Existentialism 266
Neuroscience and Society 268
Afterword 273
Notes 281
Acknowledgments 301
Index 303