http://mindhacks.com/2009/09/16/unweaving-the-tangled-web/ Neuroscience and psychology news and views. Mon, 20 May 2013 15:51:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://mindhacks.com/2009/09/16/unweaving-the-tangled-web/#comment-5341 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:01:42 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/unweaving-the-tangled-web/#comment-5341 Hi Vaughan,
This is indeed an interesting article. I found one paragraph a tad dubious, when the author talked about the spread of ‘happiness’ -
‘the spread of good or bad feelings, they say, might be driven partly by ‚Äúmirror neurons‚Äù in the brain that automatically mimic what we see in the faces of those around us ‚Äî which is why looking at photographs of smiling people can itself often lift your mood.’
What do you say to this? Is there any indication that the brain does this? For one thing, I thought mirror neurons were discovered in macaques, not humans (unless that’s a recent development). It seems like a bit of a jump to me.

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