Mirrors in the Brain: How Our Minds Share Actions, Emotions, and Experience (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Corrado Sinigaglia (Author), Frances Anderson (Translator) "Let us start with a practical example..." (more)
Key Phrases: experimenter protrudes, agranular frontal cortex, bimodal neurons, Fix Hold Fix Hold Fix, Acting Brain (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"When a paradigm-shattering discovery is made in science, it goes through three stages before gaining acceptance. First, people don't believe; second, they claim it is of no interest; and third, they say that they have always known it. The discovery of mirror neurons in the early 1990s by Giacomo Rizzolatti, Vittorio Gallese, Marco Iacoboni and others, has been through all three stages. Happily, the idea seems to have emerged unscathed, judging from Mirrors in the Brain... a long-awaited review...[written] in a jargon-free style that should be intelligible to all."--Nature
"...an elegant, easily readable book that is required reading for anybody who is interested in this field."--Metapsychology Online
Reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, May 31, 2008
"When a paradigm-shattering discovery is made in science, it goes through three stages before gaining acceptance. First, people don't believe; second, they claim it is of no interest; and third, they say that they have always known it. The discovery of mirror neurons in the early 1990s by Giacomo Rizzolatti, Vittorio Gallese, Marco Iacoboni and others, has been through all three stages. Happily, the idea seems to have emerged unscathed, judging from Mirrors in the Brain... a long-awaited review...[written] in a jargon-free style that should be intelligible to all."--Nature
"...an elegant, easily readable book that is required reading for anybody who is interested in this field."--Metapsychology Online
"This is an excellent, and one might almost say essential, account...Engaging reading. The tone is authoritative, succinct, and clear."--PsycCRITIQUES
"This is a wonderful new book on the mirror neuron system written by the discoverers themselves. This new model has important explanatory power in cognitive neuroscience and beyond. A must read for anyone wanting to keep up with this revolution."--Doody's

Product Description

Emotions and actions are powerfully contagious; when we see someone laugh, cry, show disgust, or experience pain, in some sense, we share that emotion. When we see someone in distress, we share that distress. When we see a great actor, musician or sportsperson perform at the peak of their abilities, it can feel like we are experiencing just something of what they are experiencing. Yet only recently, with the discover of mirror neurons, has it become clear just how this powerful sharing of experience is realised within the human brain. This book provides, for the first time, a systematic overview of mirror neurons, written by the man who first discovered them.
In the early 1990's Giacomo Rizzolatti and his co-workers at the University of Parma discovered that some neurons had a surprising property. They responded not only when a subject performed a given action, but also when the subject observed someone else performing that same action. These results had a deep impact on cognitive neuroscience, leading the neuroscientist vs Ramachandran to predict that 'mirror neurons would do for psychology what DNA did for biology'. The unexpected properties of these neurons have not only attracted the attention of neuroscientists. Many sociologists, anthropologists, and even artists have been fascinated by mirror neurons. The director and playwright Peter Brook stated that mirror neurons throw new light on the mysterious link that is created each time actors take the stage and face their audience - the sight of a great actor performing activates in the brain of the observer the very same areas that are active in the performer - including both their actions and their emotions.
Written in a highly accessible style, that conveys something of the excitement of this groundbreaking theory, Mirrors in the Brain is the definitive account of one the major scientific discoveries of the past 50 years.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (February 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019921798X
• ISBN-13: 978-0199217984
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #85,315 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "An Interesting, Scholarly Article...", July 4, 2008

By	Russell A. Rohde MD "Owl" (West Covina, California USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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"Mirrors in the Brain: How Our Minds Share Actions and Emotions", Giacomo Rizzolatti & Corrado Sinigaglia, Oxford Univ. Press, Engl. 2008(Ital. 2006). ISBN 978-0-19-921798-4, HC 242/193. Bibliog. 41 pgs., Index 8 pgs., 8 3/4" x 5 3/4".

A scholarly treatise, nimbly paraphrased in places to help increase its understandability and readability to a layperson, the book is an important one in understanding the more recent hypotheses on how the mind works, but it is frightfully far from being "written in a highly accessible style that conveys something of the excitement of this groundbreaking theory," a claim made on the book's cover. In order to do justice for the `general reader', a glossary of terminology plus a few well-labeled maps of the brain would have been helpful in addition to detailing how neuronal firing is mapped.

This English translation is certainly well done, very few grammatical errors are encountered (e.g., minimal for minutest, pg. 139). The author exhorts in 7 chapters the details of neuronal circuitry involved in its motor & sensory systems and explores the body's `acting brain', it's spatial co-ordinates, canonical and mirror neurons, concepts of imitation, language development and emotion sharing. The discussions of the newborn's milieu, its space & visual perceptions, and the discussion on language development are nicely done.

The authors, having introduced the subject matter of this book with "a cup of coffee", led me to expect a few more apropos analogies and, hopefully, some brief discussion of autism; -- but I met an abrupt halt at mention of empathy in subjects NK and B who had anatomical, vascular lesions. The book ended, suddenly, without fanfare or hint of some closure.

So, like many scholarly writings, this important treatise will remain, exactly as it was written, - inadequately read, - until someone is brave enough to distill the contents in style suitable for TCMITS, you know, that common man .... Perhaps we might ask Sharon Begley for a favor.