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Hang on a second wasn’t there a hype on mirror neurons in the noughties?
Yes, there was, but this is more structured research, shows clear prediction abilities, and is a region of the brain not associated with mirror neurons.
Just to be clear what is the difference to mirror neurons?
Mirror neurons were discovered during lab experiments on macaques and these are neurons in the cortex that respond to watching others doing an action rather than doing the action. They mirror others’ actions.
And what are mindreading neurons?
Well, this fascinating piece of research by Grabenhorst et al. of Cambridge University showed something fascinating. They got macaques to do tasks on screen for rewards (a common practice in research) but they also had some observe these macaques making decisions and measured their brain activity while doing this. In the amygdala, an emotional processing centre, they saw patterns that mapped other’s action and predicted their responses before the macaque they were observing had responded (and they themselves weren’t needed to respond).
This shows that their brains were playing out the decision-making task of others in their own brains and predicting the response.
