Mirroring People

Reading the World, Reading Each Other

As you move through life, you “read the world.” More than anything, this means you read the people you encounter. You interpret their faces, gestures and moods based on subtle behavioral cues. You can fathom “the deepest aspects of the minds of others” because of brain cells called mirror neurons, which are “highly and narrowly specialized.”

When mirror neurons discharge, they set off a kind of imitative impulse in your brain that reflects what you perceive others to be doing. This is so finely tuned that the mirror neurons fire differently depending on the intention of an action. For example, if you see someone reach for a cup in the presence of contextual cues indicating that he or she is about to drink from it, your mirror neurons will fire differently from the way they would if the cues indicated that he or she were picking it up to clear the table. Cues may be visual – you might see steam rising from the cup, for example – or auditory – you might hear a dishwasher running in the kitchen.

Mirroring and interpretation are crucial parts of learning. Humans imitate one another almost as soon as they are born: One study ...