pretty good handle on how they're feeling.While this process,known to most of us as empathy,has been around as long as humans have,researchers now believe they can trace it to specific brain matter:mirror neurons.
Researchers first stumbled onto the existence of min-or neurons
by accident.In the mid-1990s,Italian neuroscientists Giacomo Rizzolatti and Vittorio Ga11ese of the University of Parma were studying neurons,a kind of nerve ce11.As part of their work,they were looking into which neurons fired when monkeys grabbed pieces of food.During a break,one of the scientists,feeling hungry,reached out for some fruit himself.0ne of the monkeys was still being monitored,and when it saw the scientist pick up the snack,its brain fired the same neurons as when it had actually picked up the fruit itself.These
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