Joachim Bauer is a famous German microbiologist, neurobiologist, psychotherapist, doctor, wrote a huge scientific work on the topic of communication between people. On its basis, the book “Why I Feel, What You Feel. Intuitive Communication and the Secret of Mirror Neurons”. It explains in simple accessible language why partners feel each other.
Why do people feel each other. Joachim Bauer's opinion
Why does a smile appear in response to a smile on its own, involuntarily, before you have time to think about it? Why do mothers open their mouths when feeding a baby from a spoon? Why does a person involuntarily take the pose of the interlocutor? All these questions were asked by the doctor-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, constitute the basis of human emotional intelligence. They are the ones who predict the next 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 has revolutionized not only psychotherapy, but also conventional medicine. The phenomenon of "resonance" helps doctors to make the correct diagnosis, and psychologists - to more accurately understand the emotional problems of the interlocutor. And these cells were discovered after one cunning experiment. During it, a person was shown photographs of faces - smiling, crying, laughing, neutral, and asked to keep the facial expression unchanged. For the reliability of the results, electrodes were attached to the subject's head. The whole process was filmed. After the storyboard of the video appeared, the doctors realized that the person, trying to consciously maintain a constant facial expression, subconsciously still respond to the photograph. His gaze changed, the corners of his lips slightly raised or lowered. This gave scientists food for thought. They conducted additional research that allowed them to establish the existence of mirror neurons that help one person feel another.
According to research scientists, fear, stress and tension significantly reduce the number of signals from mirror neurons. It is quite difficult for a person in an extreme situation to predict what will happen next.
What is intuition, why do we sometimes guess what will happen next
Mirror neurons don't just pick up changes in facial expressions. They record the movements of the interlocutor's body, views, emotional mood. And they give an inner awareness of what will happen next. Without this intuitive knowledge, the coexistence of people would be difficult enough. An intuitive sense of the expected development of events is very important, first of all, when it comes to the possibility of a hazard. Mirror neurons are practically the “eyes” of a person's emotional intelligence. Without them, interpersonal communication would be stingy and incomplete.
