Mirror neurons and emotions - do you "mirror"?

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Buggins
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05 Apr 2013, 6:22 pm

The controversial "broken mirror" hypothesis is brought up every once in a while, so what do you think about it?

Sympathetic/infectious laughter, for instance. How do you feel about the infamous laddergoat-video? (the relevant part starts about 20 into the video).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggB33d0BLcY[/youtube]



InThisTogether
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05 Apr 2013, 6:31 pm

I laughed.

I checked it on both of my kids (ASD and NVLD/ADHD). Neither of them laughed. They do mirror each other laughing, though.

Neither of them yawn when they see someone else yawn, though. Ever.


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Adamantium
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05 Apr 2013, 6:44 pm

I did not laugh because it wasn't funny. Sure it a silly glitch that has the goat do that. But it just wasn't that funny. I think the player was in an altered state of mind or just pretending to honk it was so hysterical.



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05 Apr 2013, 6:53 pm

Adamantium wrote:
I think the player was in an altered state of mind


Well, he calls himself "Dopelives" and keeps laughing for three minutes...make an educated guess :wink:



UDAspie13
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05 Apr 2013, 7:18 pm

I didn't laugh. I mean, really? I might smile because the goat does look a little silly, but it doesn't really warrant laughter like that.



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05 Apr 2013, 7:39 pm

I think the whole point is that I laughed, but not at the goat. I laughed simply because he laughed. I would have laughed if I wouldn't have even been looking at the screen.


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bumble
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05 Apr 2013, 7:41 pm

Laughed....

His laughing was funny lol

He seems to be having what I call a 'titter fit' to the point that it makes the stomach muscles ache. I get those lol

At least he does not snort...!



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05 Apr 2013, 8:05 pm

I smiled a little. I don't know if it was mirror neurons or the absurdity that I just couldn't quite figure out what was so funny. I guess I'm just too used to video games being unrealistic. I'm old school and remember playing DOOM and Quake as a kid

The goat floating up the latter is weird but it would be even funnier to me if someone made a movie with real actors where everyone acts like they're in an old fps game with unrealistic animation. I mean someone goes to drink a glass of water and instead of picking it up and drinking it the glass just disappears and "thirst quenched" flashes on the screen. Or a rocket launcher just suddenly appears in the actors hands when he "switches weapons". Or someone goes into the bathroom stall and a "% complete" status bar pops onto the screen. :lol:



RagingShadow
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05 Apr 2013, 9:17 pm

i was more interested in what video game this was.
so no, i didn't laugh


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eric76
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05 Apr 2013, 10:27 pm

There are many things contributed to mirror neurons that I'm rather dubious of.

As I understand them, mirror neurons are those neurons which fire when one does a task, when one imagines doing the task, and when one sees someone else do the task. For example, if you watch someone chopping wood with an axe, you may have some neurons that fire the same as if you were chopping the wood. But what you don't do is go through the motions of chopping wood. Just because a limited number of neurons may fire does not necessarily translate into action on your part.

So it seems rather excessive to attribute a response like yawning when one sees someone else yawn to mirror neurons. After all, if you see someone swinging an axe to chop wood, you don't go through the motions of swinging an axe which you don't have to chop wood.

Is there any legitimate research at all that shows that things like yawning when seeing others yawn are due to mirror neurons?



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06 Apr 2013, 2:00 am

I didn't laugh.
I do "catch" yawns, though.


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06 Apr 2013, 5:48 am

It wasn't funny and his laughter was really annoying; put on for the camera I'd say. He sounded the type to laugh at just about anything, including someone being horribly murdered right in front of him. Unpleasant person. A 'Beavis & Butthead' type
is how I'd categorise him. I couldn't get far away enough from a person like this.

My mirror neurons are more likely to work if it's a sad situation I'm watching as my humour is far too precise to find a lot of things funny. I don't do the 'laughing just because everyone else is' thing with humour - it has to be funny before I'll laugh. In social situations where you're expected to find something amusing I can fake amusement but not loud laughter.



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06 Apr 2013, 6:56 am

it seems like the question posed in the original post was just a trojan horse to display this insane squawking from a teenager who is able to work himself up into a fit of "laughter" that alternates between real and forced. he seemed to enjoy laughing so much, that when his laughter waned, he faked laughter that then reignited his real laughter that was a self controlled state of mind.

i may have chuckled at the programming anomaly if i was playing the game myself, but i would not have harassed the goat in the first place so i probably would never have encountered the glitch. i am not inculcated into laughter by other people's laughter anyway (unless it has drastic complications for their reputation).
i am not going to discuss the finery's of actual mirror neuron impairment in this thread because this thread is not worthy of hosting such an input from me.

i almost want to post a youtube video here that i have posted before on this site about "inappropriate" laughter (unrelated to this type of laughter) that i do find amusing, but i think i remember another thread about inappropriate laughter and so i will try to find that thread and post it there.

sometimes i think that teenagers who laugh in a way that is self promoted (not suppressed) sounds like geese honking.

i think that the failure to suppress inappropriate laughter can lead to a much more comical explosion of uncontrollable laughter that the person who is laughing knows he is going to regret. this teenager is just promoting himself to laugh and it leaves me expressionless.



Highlander852456
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06 Apr 2013, 7:39 am

I play games and I do not laugh always, but sometimes I laugh at some comical moments inside games. Someone who plays a game for a long time and understands the game has a little different perspective from an outside viewer. I think people who just watch and people who do have different brain parts active. Just putting it out there.

Chess players laugh too when they make a move sometimes. It is called anticipation of....



Buggins
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06 Apr 2013, 10:14 am

I probably should have expected this reaction...people being offended by the fact that their ability to show sympathetic laughter is questioned in such a mundane way, lots of overanalyzing, business as usual :)



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06 Apr 2013, 10:46 am

Buggins wrote:
I probably should have expected this reaction...people being offended by the fact that their ability to show sympathetic laughter is questioned in such a mundane way, lots of overanalyzing, business as usual :)


How could you possibly show 'sympathetic laughter' to that brainless idiot in the video?!

I'm highly relieved at not to be able to laugh along with that type of person

I do sympathise with him for being an idiot though :)

Also, how is it over-analysing? Surely we were being asked for our opinion?

Don't tell me, is he your friend?