Wednesday, April 3, 2013

This Is Your Brain on Sports

A great analysis of mirror neurons and action observation. Your doctor better have protocols prepared for you, its only been known for 20 years.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7179471/this-your-brain-sports
The evidence that the spectating brain is also a playing brain has been mounting ever since the early 1990s, when a group of neurophysiologists at the University of Parma, Italy implanted electrodes in the brain of a macaque monkey to find out exactly which neurons fired when the monkey grasped a peanut and brought it to his mouth. The electrodes were placed in the monkey's premotor cortex, the region known to initiate signals that direct muscle movement in both macaques and humans. The researchers hoped that pinpointing the individual motor neurons that fired when the monkey grasped the peanut might lead to therapies that could help brain-damaged humans recover hand function.

More at link.

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