Mirror Neurons
Headmaster’s Routh Assembly Address
Monday 2nd September 2019
Reading
The American writer Edgar Allen Poe is generally regarded as the inventor of detective fiction. Well before the stories of Sherlock Holmes were published, Poe was writing about a super sleuth who solved crimes by outwitting his opponents using the power of his intelligence. In one story, “The Tale of the Purloined Letter”, Poe’s genius detective explains to a friend one of the ways he learned how to understand the criminal mind.
He tells of a schoolboy who became a master at a game he played with his peers. His friends would hold an unknown number of marbles in a closed fist, and the boy had to guess whether there was an odd or even number of them. He guessed correctly every time and, when the detective asked him how he did so, the schoolboy simply replied:
“When I wish to find out how wise, or how stupid, or how good, or how wicked any one is, or what his thoughts are at the moment, I fashion the expression of my face, as accurately as possible, in accordance with the expression of his, and then wait to see what thoughts or sentiments arise in my mind or heart, as if to match or correspond with the expression.”
Edgar Allen Poe wrote the story just referred to in 1844. That tale and, indeed, the whole literary genre of detective fiction that it started, which continues today, was based upon our obsession with what might happen if we could get inside another person’s head. If we could read their mind, know what they were thinking. In the case of detective stories, the purpose was to solve crimes. A brilliant sleuth works out “whodunnit” by first understanding why they “dunnit.”
However, there are many other moments in life when it would be equally advantageous to know precisely what another person thought or felt. Going for a job and wondering what the interviewer is looking for. Meeting someone you fancy and trying to guess what might attract them. Knowing the best thing to say to someone who is grieving or in pain. Even winning a game. Think of poker players, trying to fathom what the other players around the table will do next. Looking into their eyes, trying to read their faces. Effectively, that is what the schoolboy in Poe’s story was doing. Trying work out what was happening in the brain of his opponent.
As it happens, 175 years after that story was written, science discovered that Poe’s fictional schoolboy was actually onto something. We still don’t fully understand how the brain works, far from it. However, now that neuroscientists can scan our brain activity in real time, seeing which areas light up when we think about different things, they are learning a lot more.
We have always known that our emotions tend to be reflected on our face. Feel sad, you frown. Feel happy, you smile. It is automatic and quite hard to override. What brain scanners now show us is that it works the other way too. Put a smile on your face, even if you aren’t feeling happy, and it will tend to lift your mood. Hence, the schoolboy was on the right track. When he wanted to know his opponent’s disposition, he tried to mirror his face in order to feel his thoughts.
An even more profound discovery about our abilities to mirror the thoughts of other people though, came more recently and quite by accident. A few years ago, a group of neuroscientists in Italy were trying to study which parts of the brain were involved in a single hand movement. They deliberately picked a simple action, one that we do thousands of times a day, grasping. Picking up a cup of coffee or a pen perhaps.
To study this, they put scanners on the brains of monkeys. They chose Rhesus monkeys because their brains are the closest to our own human ones. Once the scanners were wired, they waited until the monkeys grasped something, then observed which brain regions lit up. One day though, during his lunch break, a lab technician heard the scanner go off when the experiment wasn’t running. He looked up, only to see the monkey sitting perfectly still, just watching him. The scientist thought this odd, but as he returned to his lunch and picked up his sandwich again, the scanner buzzed once more. At which moment, he realised that the area of the monkey’s brain it used when it grasped something, also activated exactly the same way when it saw someone else grasp something.
Which may not sound all that amazing to you, but it was a significant scientific breakthrough. Inadvertently, the technician had just discovered the existence of a special form of braincells that were to become known as mirror neurons. That is, neurons which allow us to imagine what another person may be experiencing, their thoughts, feelings or condition, without actually experiencing it ourselves. More importantly, mirror neurons seem only to exist in primates.
You may think that your dog or your cat understands you, knows what you are doing, but it has only learned fixed responses to certain actions. Only primates, and most particularly, humans, have a brain which allows them to watch another person and understand how they feel. Or may have felt. Or will feel.
That is the unique human trait of empathy, the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, to place oneself in another's position, and it is wired into your brain in mirror neurons. You have a superpower – the ability to read minds.
Mirror neurons are the reason why you cry at sad movies, even though you are watching actors you don’t know, pretending to be people who aren’t real. They are also the reason those actors can be so convincing; the tool they use to portray emotions they aren’t actually feeling.
They are the reason for your involuntary flinch when you watch a sportsperson get smashed in a tackle. Why you screw your face up, as if in pain yourself, when you see someone collide. You know how it feels. Even if you haven’t experienced what you are seeing personally, your highly evolved human brain allows you to imagine it with great realism and accuracy.
And they are the reason that we form close friendships and relationships with people who “get us.” Because they actually do. Friends and lovers, in their words and deeds, show that they know exactly how we feel.
The question then, is what will you do with this remarkable ability to read other people’s minds? It’s like any superpower I suppose; you can use it for good or evil. Knowing how it feels to suffer might make you better at hurting others. Equally, knowing what suffering is like may make you very effective at easing it for others.
You could use it to win. The captain of a sports team, rather than thinking “what should I do next?” might do better to think “what would I do next if I was the opposition captain?” and act accordingly. Reading a game well is about reading minds.
You could use it to create change. Those wishing to sway the opinions of others; politicians, lawyers, debating teams, might use their mirror neurons to put themselves in the heads of the people they wish to influence, rather than simply saying the things they would want to hear.
Empathetic mirror neurons lie behinds the obligations that I spoke about in Chapel on Friday. Your responsibility to be kind and tolerant to one another in this place. If you treat someone badly, you simply cannot claim “I didn’t know my actions would upset them.” The existence of your mirror neurons say otherwise.
Your brain is an extraordinary thing and here, in this place, our job is to help you use it to its full potential. That includes mastering the superpower of being able to read the minds of others and the moral responsibility to do good with that knowledge. In short, to teach you to be empathetic.
Presentations
Cricket
We start with superb news on the sporting front. Following on from the national titles claimed by our Netballers and Rugby 7’s team earlier this year, I am now proud to announce that our Cricket XI have also become champions of the national competition involving 90 other schools.
Having beaten Stamford in the semi-finals, Bromsgrove faced up to St Bede’s at Loughborough University last Wednesday, in an exciting and at times nail-biting final. There were many fine individual performances, the standout of which was an outstanding, match-winning innings of 78 not out from Awais Mohammed, for which he was named Man of the Match. He was well-supported at the crease by Mo Talukder.
Meanwhile, very good bowling from Jasper Davidson, Freddie Fallows and Dan Meredith stemmed the flow of runs from St Bede’s and Tom Cosh took three stumpings and two fantastic run outs under pressure.
Joe Miszkowski also deserves special mention, as he stepped up to bowl three fantastic overs under huge pressure, taking 2 wickets for 18 runs from his 3 overs, including the pressured last over. With two stumpings and a run out in the final over, Bromsgrove became National Champions by 5 runs in an incredibly close final.
An outstanding start to the year’s sporting achievements and I now invite the team on stage to receive their trophies and our congratulations.
Golf - It has been a good summer for Lili-Rose Hunt, not only winning the School championship but also the girls’ county championship and qualifying for the European junior competition in Spain. I invite Lili-Rose to receive the School Championship trophy.
Music - Thirteen Senior School pupils took graded music exams last term, seven of whom achieved grade 5 and above. I invite the following to receive their certificates:
Jemima Vaughan-Hawkins, Jazz Alto Sax Grade 5
Gabriel Brown, Violin, Grade 6
Jiewen Shen, Singing Grade 6
Henry Scott, Cornet Grade 6
Kelly Lin, Cello Grade 7
Sophia Meadows, Trumpet Grade 7
Jenna Kam, Singing Grade 8
Jenna also receives the Bernard Hall-Mancey Cup for Most Improved Musician, from the end of last term.
Review
Music
Staying with Music, we congratulate Josh Osborn-Patel, who took part with the National Youth Orchestra over the summer, with concerts in Berlin and the famous BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Also to Vincent Lee, who has achieved a Distinction in his LTCL Diploma for Piano, a certification equivalent to degree level performance.
Sport
Saturday saw the start of all Michaelmas term sport. Our hockey teams played a block fixture against Stamford School, with the U14A and U15A teams drawing and good wins for the U16A and 1st XI.
In Rugby, the U14A, U15A, U16A and 2nd XVs all played in a quadrangular festival against Warwick, Sedbergh and Whitgift and there were some promising performances from all. The rest of our teams played against Warwick School, with good wins for the U14C, U15B, 3rd XV and the 1st XV, who had a comprehensive 27 – 12 win away at our traditional rivals.
Preview
All music clubs - orchestras, bands, choirs and activities begin today. Details in your Houses and Routh Hall reception. Newcomers are welcome to join.
House photographs today for Elmshurst, Mary Windsor, Oakley, Lyttelton, Housman Hall and Walters.
Best of luck to the U15 cricket team who play Malvern in the County Final tomorrow.
There are places remaining on the Physics department’s visit to Geneva in February. The trip will involve visiting CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research and the Large Hadron Collider. Any Sixth Formers interested in going on the trip should see Mr Summerfield as soon as possible for more details.
The deadline for contributions to the next issue of the School Magazine, Two Zero One, has been pushed out until Friday 28 September, so that any new writers and artists can have a chance to feature. The theme for the upcoming issue is “Deal with it”.
Contributions, related or unrelated to the theme, or responding to the prompt "Responsibility: For the many or the few?" are due to Vivianne before the deadline. Email any questions or join the meetings on Wednesday lunchtimes in the library.
The Editors also advise that if you are interested in digital art, consider entering their competition, where the winning entry will be used for the front cover of the next issue, and the winner offered to continue designing covers for Two Zero One. See the ad in the magazine, or email Will or Vivianne for more information.
Many thanks to members of the Lower Sixth who have already responded to Dr Ruben’s email concerning this year’s Marmite Seminars. All academically able and intellectually curious Lower Sixth are welcome to attend. The seminars will now begin on Monday September 16th. Continue to check emails, posters and announcements. Other year groups will receive notification of arrangements soon.
Finally, our Friday lunchtime debates recommence this week, with the motion “This House believes that the UN should run the Amazon rainforest, not Brazil”. The debate will start at 1.30pm in H20. All students are very welcome to attend.
Please now stand as we say the Grace together.