Author Archives: Alexandra Enion

Mirror Neurons

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I distinctly remember the Steeler’s 2008 Super Bowl victory over the Arizona Cardinals.  After leading most of the game, the Steelers were down with less than three minutes to play.  The Steelers responded with a 78 yard drive down the field that ended with Santonio Holmes’ impressive game-winning catch with only 35 seconds left.  I recall the nervous, sick to my stomach feeling during that entire drive.  You could literally cut the tension in my living room with a knife.  My friends and family’s eyes were all glued to the television filled with anticipation and adrenaline.  The excitement in the room after that long drive was palpable.  We all felt the highs and lows of the game almost like we were on the field in Florida.  But we weren’t in Florida, we were in my living room back in Pittsburgh.  So why then, did we experience the game as if we were players on the field?

The answer is mirror neurons.  Neuroscientists have discovered special neurons in our brains that activate equally when we actually perform an action and when we are just watching someone else perform an action.  Although I just watched the players on television, my mirror neurons activated in the exact same manner as if I was the one actually playing the game myself.  Mirror neurons provide insight into why we feel empathy.  For instance, mirror neurons are at play when I see a football player take an especially hard hit on the field.  I wince as if I felt the force of the impact myself.

Mirror neurons not only explain empathy, but they explain observational learning.  Children are able to learn a great deal through just observing those around them and mimicking what they see.  For example, neuroscientists believe that mirror neurons play a significant role in learning language.  According to Michael Arbib, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California in a 1998 article, a mirror neuron system located in the front of the brain in an overlapping circuitry for sign and spoken language, helps humans learn the intricate lip and hand gestures associated with language.1 Additionally, many neuroscientists believe that mirror neurons may play a role in autism.  According to a study published by U.C.L.A. neuroscientist Mirella Dapretto, those suffering from autism can recognize an emotional expression in others’ faces and in their own faces, but perhaps due to faulty mirror neurons, not know what it means to feel that emotion.1

The implications for future mirror neuron research are enormous.  They clearly play a huge role in how we learn through mimicry and how we empathize.  Future discoveries will probably only identify more aspects of our lives that affected by these impressive neurons.

1http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/science/10mirr.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

My First Memory

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“What is your first memory?” It’s a fairly common question.  One I know that I have been asked many times.  Most people have an already prepared answer.  I know I do; I even wrote an essay on it freshman year of high school for English class.  I remember going to Idlewild when I was four years old.  Honestly, the only vivid memory I have is playing in the ball pit.  Because of my parents, I know I spent the rest of the day on Mister Roger’s Train and in Story Book Forest, but for some reason the only memory that stuck was the ball pit.

In class, we learned that it is impossible to know which memories are real and which are just reconstructions that our brains create.  I like to believe that the ball pit is an actual memory and what I am recalling actually happened, but it is simply impossible to know.  Maybe, I am just creating a picture in my mind of a memory based on what my parents have told me.  My parents on several occasions have told me about my first trip to Idlewild.  Apparently, I loved the Good Ship Lollipop, and they had to literally drag me out of the ball pit.  It is possible that what I am recalling as my first memory is not actually a memory at all.

What seems like a simple question, “What is your first memory?” is actually an impossible one to answer.  The idea that what we remember may not actually be real is an almost creepy concept to consider.

What about memories that we recall often?  In class, we used the example of September 11.  I was fairly young on that day, only in second grade, but I can still remember that day like a short movie clip.  I can remember that it was a Tuesday.  I can almost hear my principal coming on the loud speaker to announce that there had been an attack.  I can remember that by lunch time, parents of some of my classmates started to arrive to take their children home.  I remember returning to my classroom, and my teacher telling us that we could just play games until our parents arrived.  I can still remember when my parents arrived and drove me home.  When we finally got home, I remember watching the news and seeing the plane crashes occurring over and over again.

It feels like a vivid movie reel in my head, but is it even a real memory.  It is a memory I have had to recall so many times that I wonder if I am remembering the actual memory or if my brain is just constructing a memory based on previous recollections and not the actual event.  I will never know.

Memory is difficult to study.  Knowing how easily it can be manipulated and how unreliable it is, is important especially considering how many court cases are decided by eye witness testimony.  With more study, maybe we will unlock more information about how we process, store, and recall memories, but for now, I guess I will just have to keep using the Idlewild story as my first memory.

Superstitions

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In pretty much any culture around the world, you will find superstitions.  They come in all shapes and sizes.  There are those of us who avoid walking under ladders, shriek at the sight of a black cat, look for lucky four leaf clovers, and even perform ridiculous rituals in order to assure that our team wins on game day.  If you’re a Seahawks fan, maybe your technique is working, but seeing as this Superbowl was the first in the franchise’s history, I sincerely doubt it.

I know as a child, I was prone to my own superstitions.  I never walked on the cracks in the sidewalks for fear of breaking my mother’s back and genuinely believed that only good things happened when I wore my favorite purple dress.  I excuse my childhood fancies, but many individuals in the world cling tightly to their superstitions.

In psychology, superstitions are examples of illusory correlations.  As humans, we seem to have this natural tendency to look for relationships even when none exist.  Of course, if you look at enough random data, some of the random outcomes may seem to express order.  So maybe on Sunday you did your special dance and then the Seahawks scored a touchdown, but they scored a lot, it was only a matter of time until your dance seemed to work.

Rationally, we can agree that opening an umbrella indoors will not doom you to life of bad luck.  However, many people still feel the need to close their umbrellas before entering a building or feel uneasy if they leave their umbrellas open when inside.  This makes you consider the origins of superstitions and why in an era filled with technology and science do we still cling to them.

The reason is largely routed in our need to control the universe.  Most of what happens in the world is out of our hands, but superstitions can give us the illusion of having more control of what occurs in our lives.  Don Saucier, associate professor of psychology at Kansas State University, observed that, “Not knowing what will happen to them is discomforting, and performing superstitious behavior can make people feel a little better about the future.”1 Observing superstitions seems to be a coping mechanism people developed to deal with a constantly changing, unpredictable world.  With the accelerating pace of change currently occurring in the world, people may feel the need to cling to their superstitions more than ever.

Just think of that moment of relief you feel after you have unjinxed yourself by knocking on a piece of wood.  I, for one, am going to keep opening my umbrella only once outdoors as well as avoid walking under any ladders.

1 http://www.newswise.com/articles/psychology-professor-says-superstitions-all-about-trying-to-control-fate