First Evidence Found of Mirror Neuron

September 20, 2006

What do we find so gripping about a good book, the kind that makes us stay up later than we should to find out what happens to hero or heroine? A new brain imaging study from UCLA may provide an answer, and further, shed light on the language problems common to autistic children. In a study published in the Sept. 19 issue of Current Biology, UCLA researchers show that specialized brain cells known as mirror neurons activate both when we observe the actions of others and when we simply read sentences describing the same action.