mirror neurons, imitation, empathy, autistic spectrum disorder (ASD)
The most exciting phrase in science is not ‘Eureka’. The phrase that stands out for scientists is ‘That’s odd’. In the 1990s, a group of neurophysiologists in Italy were studying the motor system of the macaque monkey. This is technically challenging work which can tell us how particular brain areas control skilled hand movements and how these might go has a stroke. They were wrong if someone recording from individual motor neurons and would hear a crackling noise from their equipment when the neuron was activated.This crackling is the neuronal firing trace turned into a sound. As expected, they heard a crackle every time the monkey picked up a peanut. But strangely, the equipment (still recording the monkey only) also crackled when the experimenter picked up a peanut. ‘That’s odd’, thought the research team.
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