The Significance of Mirror Neurons: More With Dr. Mihretu Guta
On this episode, host Dr. Robert J. Marks continues his chat with Dr. Mihretu Guta about exploring the philosophical challenges surrounding the neuroscientific research on mirror neurons. What the heck is a mirror neuron you ask? As described in Part 1, it’s a type of brain cell that fires when a person observes an action being performed, as well as when the person performs the same action themselves. They’re helping scientists understand the nature of human empathy. In the second half of the discussion, Dr. Guta explores the philosophical challenges surrounding the neuroscientific research on mirror neurons. First, they discuss the “easy problem” of correlating neural activity with cognitive functions, and the difficulties of ensuring the research is not “under-determined” by ignoring background neural activity. Then they broach the “hard problem” of inferring causation from mere correlation, and the philosophical arguments against directly equating neural activity with mental properties. And how does all this relate to consciousness and the mind/brain debate? Tune in to find out!
