ABSTRACT
The most influential empirical discovery regarding empathy in the last few decades is undoubtedly the discovery of so-called mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are single-cell neurons that activate during both the execution of certain actions and the observation of those actions. For example, when you simply observe someone grasping a mug of coffee, the neurons (or groups of neurons) stimulated in your brain are the same, or very nearly the same, as the neurons that would be stimulated were it really you grasping a mug of coffee. And, apparently, our brains do this in response to a staggering array of human behavior. In particular, there is evidence suggesting that our brains “mirror” emotions: The neural pathways stimulated by merely seeing someone smiling or frowning or gagging, for example, are the same, or very nearly the same, as the pathways stimulated were we ourselves actually feeling joy or sadness or disgust. In light of these findings, some neuroscientists and philosophers have claimed that mirror neurons explain the human capacity for empathy.
