Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Mirror Neurons And Encultured Babies
A little piece in LiveScience about the recent work of Victoria Southgate, at Birkbeck College, London. Using EEG she has documented the employment of mirror neurons in babies 9 months old that fire when babies both watch people reaching for objects or perform the same motor task for themselves. Interestingly, this mirror neuron behaviour proved to be predictive in that it was amenable to training. Once the baby had seen a hand appear from behind a curtain to grab something, it would fire just before the hand grabbed on future trials. Livescience report Southgate making the point that this could lead to accurate responses to others' actions, including interception and underpin the first steps babies make into the social world because it allows them to take part in collaborative activities.
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