Photography, Empathy &

Mirror NeuronsSharon Gershoni

26/5/2010

What makes people soengaged in works of art?

Empathy

“The minds of all men are similar in the feelings and operation. Nor can anyone be actuated by any affection of which all others are not in some degree susceptible”.

David Hume, A Treatise on Human Nature, 1739

”So all the affections readily pass from one person to another and beget correspondent movements in every human creature. No passion of another discovers itself immediately to the mind. We are only sensible to its causes or effects. From these we infer the passion: and consequently these give rise toour sympathy”.

Adam Smith, The theory of moral sentiments, 1759

“The mob, when they are gazing at the dancer on the slack rope, naturally writhe and twist and balance their own bodies, as they see him do, and as they feel that they themselves must do if in his situation”.

Empathy

Lipps, “Einfulhung”, 1903

“When watching an acrobat on a suspended wire, I feel myself inside of him”

Empathy & Einfhulung

Beauty is an Act

Friederich Theodor Vischer, 8 volumes on Aesthetics,1866:

“ In its very first step, aesthetics must destroy the illusion that beauty can exist without the active contribution of the perceiving subject.Beauty is quite simply not an object. Beauty is the contact between an object and an apprehending subject, and since what is truly active in this contact is the subject, it can be termed an act”

Einfhulung with an Object

Friederich Theodor Vischer, The Body in Art,1866:

Einfuhlung-“I transpose myself into the inner being of the object and explore its formal character from within as it were.This kind of transposition can take a motor or sensitive form, even when it is concerned with lifeless and motionless forms”.

Questions:

- How relevant is empathy to esthetic experience?- What are the neural mechanisms involved?

“The most difficult thing for me is a portrait.You have to try and put your camerabetween the skin of a person and his shirt”.

Henry Cartier Bresson, Photography Year 1980, LIFE Library ofPhotography , Page: 27

(TT) Theory Theory

(ST) Simulation Theory

(ES) Embodied Simulation

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•

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VoluntaryCognitive

Introspective

PrimitiveCellular

Involuntary

“Put Yourself in My Shoes” ...How Do We Understand Others?

Mirror NeuronBackground

Mirror Neurons:“Monkey-See-Monkey-Do”

(Premotor Cortex, Area F5)

Rizzolatti & Gallese, 1990s-2004

Areas and Neurons in the Premotor CortexCrucial for Aesthetic Response

F5 Action Classification- Subdivision to Neuron Classes

“grasping” neurons- largest class“holding” neurons“tearing” neurons“manipulating” neurons

F5

Canonical neuronsRespond to the presentation of graspable objects (Rizzolatti et al., 1988)

Mirror neuronsRespond when the monkey sees object-directed actions (Rizzolatti and Luppino, 2001)

Two Classes of Neurons in F5 of PremotorCortex - Crucial for Aesthetic Response

Mirror NeuronsExperimental Evidence For:

The understanding of other peopleThe understanding of images of art

Somatotopy of Action Observation(Buccino et al 2001)

Method: an fMRI Study

Experimental Protocol

Video sequences of actions:

Mouth actions:biting and chewing an apple

Hand actions:grasping a ball or a cup, grasping a hand-break

Foot action:Kicking a ball, pushing a break

Somatotopy of Action ObservationBuccino et al., EJN, 2001

Results

mouth actions:a. chewing (no apple)

b. biting an apple

hand actions:a. mimicking grasping/holding(no cup or ball)

b. grasping/holding cup or ball

foot actions:a. mimicking kicking orpushing (no ball or break)

b. kicking ball or pushingbreak

Actions or Hand-Object Interactions? Frey et al, Neuron 2003

Only Still Images:Imply action (goal),

but do not show action.

Actions or Hand-Object Interactions? Frey et al, Neuron 2003

Results

1. Goal of action is more important than action

2. We encode objects by goals

Even implied action activates the neuron system

When Gaze Turns into GraspUmberto Castiello, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2006

What we already knowThe mirror system system responds to the observation of another person's handactions, or static goal.

New question

Will the mirror system also respond to another person's intentionstoward an object just from their eye gaze?

grasping condition gaze condition control condition

When Gaze Turns into GraspUmberto Castiello, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2006

Findings

Mirror system responds to gaze as well as grasp:to intention of an action

The esthetic experience we have is enabled by theactivation of these brain mechanisms: Representation of body area (mouth) +

Representation of action (singing)

Jan Van Eyck, The Ghent Altarpiece: Singing Angels, 1427-29

Viewing Lip Forms: Cortical DynamicsNishitani, Neuron, 2002

a, i, u (Japanese vowels)

neutral lip form

non-verbal lip forms

still pictures

Tasks:1. Observation2. Imitation3. Execution

Results:In all three tasks,same network system is activated

Edvard Munch, The scream, 1893

“The expression of emotions in men and animals”, Darwin, 1872

“Facial expression are a crucial component of human emotional and social behavior, and are believed to represent innate and automatic behavior patterns.”

Freeing The VoiceMarina Abramovic 1975

Mirror Neurons and Art

A. Surprise

B. Anger

C. Depression

D. Disgust

What is the feeling expressed by this woman?

How do we know that?Same mirror neurons are activated when we aredisgusted, and when we watch a disgusted person

Impaired recognition and experience of disgust following brain injury

Andrew Calder, Nature Neuroscience, 2000TextText

TextText

Injured area marked “I” (Insula)

Can experience anger, surprise, fear, joy....But cannot experience or recognize disgust

Showed Images with/ without sound(laughter, cry, etc.)

Pain and EmpathyKnowing The Pain of

OthersGallase, Nature Neuroscience, 1999

Brain Surgery (Illustration only)

Measured reaction to pain from a single cell:observed pain & experienced pain

Result: The same neuron fires for observed & felt painMirror neuron system represents also sensations

Mirror Neurons Can Represent:

Action

Goals

Intentions

Emotions

Sensations

Mirror Neurons Help Us:

Learn from others

Plan

Understand

Be empathic

Feel and Communicate

Mirror Neurons in Humans

Rizzolatti & Gallese 1999

Cognitive processes:

Imitation

Intention

Empathy

Language

Mirror Neurons Impairments in Autism

Embodied representations Self-other-cross-modalrepresentations

Imitation Imitation

Theory of mind Theory of mind

Empathy Empathy

Language Language

Autism Linked to MirrorNeuron Dysfunction

EEG measuring mu brain-waves

Ramachandran et al. 2000Hypothesis confirmed 2005

In healthy peopleThe mu wave is suppressed in response to their own movement and to observing the movement of othersIn Autistic peopleThe mu wave is suppressed only in response totheir actions

Metaphor

Ramachandran:

The ability to link seemingly unrelated concepts in your mind.

Dictionary:

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable

The Kiki-Buba Effect

The End