Attempted Robbery and Mirror Neurons

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Here is an interesting video recorded by a Go Pro camera that documents an attempted robbery of a guy riding his bicycle in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Go ahead and watch it if you haven’t.

Chances are your mirror neurons (cells in your brain) will light up as this guy experiences fear and hence so will you! Mirror neurons make us feel what others are feeling when we see them go through an experience. You know when you see a friend cut their finger with a sharp object and you wince?  That’s your mirror neurons!

I find mirror neurons fascinating.

When I teach my class to students, I frequently feel the power of mirror neurons in a really strange way.

I play a lot of emotional videos in my training class and my students mirror neurons work very well. They always mirror the emotions of the victims or suspects in the video beautifully. But I wasn’t prepared for how it would bounce and further affect me.

As the instructor, I have seen these videos hundreds of times so I don’t typically watch them. I am usually not listening to the content of the video or thinking about it either. I am often thinking about other things that I need to do and inevitably, through natural pauses in thinking and looking up at my students, I find my face starting to react to my students’ emotions.

I will start to feel a flush of an emotion overcome me.  It’s surreal because I might be thinking I need to check-in for my flight tomorrow when I start feeling this rush of sadness.  And I will catch the feelings of sadness and be perplexed. Why do I suddenly feel sad?  And then I have to re-orient myself and ask what video are we playing right now?  And 100% of the time the  emotions I am starting to feel correlate to the video playing, but  I am not watching it or listening to it.  But I am glancing at my students and obviously my mirror neurons are firing from seeing them!

It’s the strangest thing.

It’s what I would call a mirror neuron bounce effect. A person in the video feels an emotion. They express it. My students watch it, and they feel what the person in the video feels. Then I see the faces of people watching the video, and I, too, react to them watching the video. It all happens involuntarily, too.

I never expected that mirror neurons would bounce like that, but I have experienced it enough to know they do, and when I see a really intense emotion expressed on a face, I will start to experience the strong flood of emotion myself regardless of the source!

So I wonder, does the movement of the facial muscles activate the mirror neurons?  Or do the mirror neurons activate the facial muscles?

Intense Emotional Displays

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When I watch this video where people are recorded being tased with a stun gun, I get very nauseated. I have a strong reaction every time I see it and I cannot explain it. I suspect it is because the amount of emotional expression in this video is intense. There are many intense reactions and there are many, many powerful and subtle expressions too.

I believe that we all register emotional reactions at different speeds. Some of us will feel an emotion in very subtle forms. Other people require full expressions to register reactions. I think the sooner one registers an emotion the easier time they have at understanding people.

I also found it very interesting how some people were excited by the idea of being tased, and/or had a strong constitution to fight the pain and over-power it mentally. Some seemed to even enjoy the anticipation, and experience (which is hard for me to understand). Do they have a high pain threshold? Are they good at mind over matter? Do they enjoy pain?  I’d love to ask them!

I have no doubt each of us have different pain thresholds so how we react will vary due to that as well.

I have taken some screenshots where I think the emotional expression is very interesting and revealing, and I’ve labeled them with how they come across to me.

What do you see?

Worrisome dread

dread

Positive Anticipation

positive apprehension
Intense Dread — Can you feel his heartbeat?

wincing dread
Positive  emotion  — subtle surprise

positive surprise

Subtle Fear — gritting of the teeth

subtle fear
Subtle Disgust

Disgust

Slight wincing with true positive joy

mental control...anticipatory joy

In control of your emotions? Maybe not…

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When people commit suicide we are often left wondering why. Why were they not able to control their emotions? Did they suffer from mental illness? It seems so “off balance” when someone takes their own life to the average healthy person. It seems like such a dramatic choice because most of the time there seems to be solutions to what appears to be short-term crises.

What if scientists told you that people who commit suicide don’t have the same responses as you or I do? That they have a different chemical makeup? That they can’t control their emotions. Would you believe it?

Would it surprise you?

In fact, that is what scientists are finding. They have identified an altered chemical state in one of the genes of people who have faced suicidal thoughts or actions. And what’s cool about this is one simple blood test in the future may be able to prevent such a horrific outcome by identifying the problem before it becomes a problem.

I am not surprised at all because I believe we are much more chemically and biologically controlled than any of us would believe.

You can read more here!

Do you think you are in control of your body, or do you think your body controls you more than you realize?

I bet you can’t resist the urge…

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I bet you can’t resist the urge…to laugh after watching this!

We are hired wired. When we feel an emotion, we express it.  When we express it, we conversely feel it.

So I can be pretty sure everyone who watches this video will break out laughing or at least have a big smile on their face (if they are truly paying attention). It is highly likely you will feel genuinely happy.

Happy Smiles!

Can you see the dog, Lola, question, “Why are you laughing at me? What did I do?” She seems oblivious her fur is standing up. Too funny!

Fun Study of Emotions

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What emotions do you see?