mirror neurons

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

neurons that fire both when an individual performs an action and when they observe the same action performed by another individual; first discovered in the premotor cortex of macaque monkeys by Giacomo Rizzolatti's team in the 1990s and subsequently identified in humans using neuroimaging; proposed to underlie imitation, empathy, and social cognition, though their precise role in human behaviour remains debated; some researchers have controversially linked mirror neuron dysfunction to the social deficits observed in autism spectrum disorder