But, how do we learn to move our bodies in the first place? Humans are innately programmed to move. We have the capacity to breathe, digest foods, sleep, and wiggle around some from the time we’re born, but neurological functioning becomes much, much more refined as children grow to adulthood.
Practice makes perfect, of course, but is something greater affecting our movement patterns? If you’ve ever watched a child walking with his or her mother at the playground or mall and really looked at the two together, you’ll see how similarly they move. We tend to assume movement is genetic, but have you ever watched adopted children with their parents? The same phenomenon occurs. If movement isn’t determined by genes, then we must develop our patterns some other way.
Fifteen years ago in Parma, Italy, scientists connected electrodes to the brain of a monkey. They hooked the electrodes to a computer to record neurological impulses that correlated with the monkey’s physical movement. The researchers were studying which parts of the brain are responsible for what kinds of movement.
Every time the monkey moved, a machine in the room made a whirring sound and busily recorded the pertinent information from the wires implanted in his brain. One day, a researcher walked in holding an ice cream cone. As he stood observing the monkey, he took a bite of ice cream and the machine made its whirring noise. That didn’t make any sense because the monkey hadn’t moved; he’d only watched the researcher through the glass window. Thus began some revolutionary discoveries around what are now called mirror neurons.
Following the ice cream cone event, the researchers began to observe that the movement neurons in the brain seemed to fire when the monkey was eating peanuts, when he saw others eating peanuts, and when he heard the sound of another monkey eating peanuts. Even more astounding, humans have a class of mirror neurons that are far more sophisticated than monkeys’.
“Mirror neurons allow us to grasp the minds of others not through conceptual reasoning but through direct simulation. By feeling, not by thinking,” noted Dr. Giacomo Rizzolatti, a neuroscientist at the University of Parma, Italy. “We are exquisitely social creatures,” Dr. Rizzolatti said. “Our survival depends on understanding the actions, intentions and emotions of others.”
Scientists have discovered, since the publication of Dr. Rizzolatti’s study, that humans have extremely sophisticated and highly refined mirror neurons. Some of these cells are responsible for recognizing shapes and lines, others plan movements, and still others detect frequencies, sounds, and directions of movement. They allow us to fill in the gaps in the world around us, and they help us predict situations. In studies, scientists showed that mirror neurons allowed a person to predict when they saw someone else reach for a cup of tea on a table whether the person was going to drink the tea or clear the cup away.
So, what does this have to do with healing your own body? Dr. Andrew Meltzoff at the University of Washington has published studies showing that, more than other primates, human children are hard wired for imitation. Babies will stick their tongues out at human adults doing the same thing just minutes after birth.
The fact that our mirror neurons fire when we observe an action taking place explains why we resonate so fully with certain sports and dance, and it tells us that watching violence, unhappiness, and destruction on television is highly detrimental to our cortical health. Also, since our thoughts and emotions are so intricately interwoven in our tissue structures, it means that we will tend to have similar movement, thought, and emotional patterns to those around us. The people you spend the most time around will affect your physical and mental well-being.
People who move with pain in their bodies – aching backs, stiff shoulders and necks, arthritic knees, etc. – will activate similar movement patterns in your own body even if you are not suffering from the same pain…yet. Athletes and coaches have benefited from the power of mirror neurons for years. Olympic athletes tout the power of visualization; observing or imagining someone performing an activity directly influences muscle performance.
Scientists say that, while fans of a sport will experience activation of mirror neurons while watching a game or match, someone who has played the sport experiences a firestorm in the brain area where the movement is initiated and will be better able to predict what happens next. Additionally, if you are experiencing anxiety, depression, fatigue, or other emotional disturbances, take a concerted look at the people you spend the most time with. “The ability to share the emotions of others appears to be intimately linked to the functioning of mirror neurons,” said Dr. Christian Keysers, a researcher of the neurology of empathy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. “People who rank high on a scale measuring empathy have particularly active mirror neurons systems,” Dr. Keysers stated.
Holistic Arts Practitioner and Wellness Consultant, Sukie Baxter, helps clients achieve amazing mental, physical, and emotional vitality. To learn how to rejuvenate your body and soul using natural health strategies that get real results, register for her free weekly articles at http://www.SukieBaxter.com.
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