Joachim Bauer - a famous German microbiologist, neurobiologist, psychotherapist, doctor, wrote a huge scientific work on the topic of communication between people. Based on it, the book "Why I Feel, Feel Like You. Intuitive Communication and the Secret of Mirror Neurons" was released. It explains in a simple accessible language why partners feel each other.
Why do people feel each other. Opinion of Joachim Bauer
Why does a smile in response to a smile arise itself, involuntarily, before you have time to think about it? Why, by feeding from a baby’s spoon, do mothers open their mouths themselves? Why does a person involuntarily take the pose of the interlocutor? All these questions were asked by the microbiologist Joachim Bauer before starting his scientific work. In it, he tried to describe the so-called phenomena of "resonance", which are provoked by mirror cells, which, in his opinion, form the basis of human emotional intelligence. It is they who predict the further actions of the interlocutor, prompting them to copy them.
Mirror nerve neurons are located in a special area of the cerebral cortex, very close to the nerve cells that control muscle movements.
What are mirror cells
The discovery of mirror neurons made a real revolution not only in psychotherapy, but also in conventional medicine. The phenomenon of "resonance" helps doctors make the correct diagnosis, and psychologists more accurately understand the emotional problems of the interlocutor. And these cells were discovered after one tricky experiment. During it, a person was shown photographs of faces - smiling, crying, laughing, neutral, asking them to keep their expression unchanged. For the reliability of the results, electrodes were attached to the subject’s head. The whole process was filmed. After the video storyboard appeared, the doctors realized that a person, trying to consciously maintain a constant facial expression, unconsciously responded to photos anyway. His eyes changed, the corners of his lips rose slightly or fell. This gave scientists food for thought. They conducted additional research, which allowed them to establish the existence of mirror neurons, which help one person to feel the other.
According to scientists, fear, stress and tension significantly reduce the number of signals of mirror neurons. It is quite difficult for a person in an extreme situation to predict what will happen next.