//A Linear Research Map starting with...

VS Ramachandran: The neurons that shaped civilization
[source, http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/vs_ramachandran_the_neurons_that_shaped_civilization.html]


1_ "... they are empathic simulators... without a feedback signal [from your own skin, e.g. when watching someone else get pinched], it vetoes the signal of the mirror neuron, jamming the personal sensation of getting pinched... all's that seperating you from another person is your skin."

//is the empathic sensation of getting pinched vs the feedback from the nervous system of getting pinched different? (the test and the question, then, is: one is a virtual simulation, the other an analogue simulation, but both are real. could this erodes the illusion of the "physically" real?)

Neonatal (newborn) macaque imitating facial expressions

2_A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another. Thus, the neuron "mirrors" the behavior of the other, as though the observer were itself acting. Such neurons have been directly observed in primates, humans and other species including birds. 

Some scientists consider mirror neurons one of the most important recent discoveries in neuroscience. Among them is V.S. Ramachandran, who believes they might be very important in imitation and language acquisition.

The function of the mirror system is a subject of much speculation. Many researchers in cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology consider that this system provides the physiological mechanism for the perception action coupling (see the common coding theory). 

These mirror neurons may be important for understanding the actions of other people, and for learning new skills by imitation. Some researchers also speculate that mirror systems may simulate observed actions, and thus contribute to theory of mind skills, while others relate mirror neurons to language abilities. It has also been proposed that problems with the mirror system may underlie cognitive disorders. 

//the mirror neuron also implies the role of memory: to create an empathic sensation, one has to have a memory of it to draw upon. does this memory have to be experienced, or can it be articifially constructed just  before hand, i.e. the memory and the mirror are a 2-step package that is quickly delivered? or, can a simulated experience be constructed from a series of relations from real experiences?)



3_Common coding theory is a cognitive psychology theory describing how perceptual representations (e.g. of things we can see and hear) and motor representations (e.g. of hand actions) are linked. The theory claims that there is a shared representation (a common code) for both perception and action. More important, seeing an event activates the action associated with that event, and performing an action activates the associated perceptual event.

//is this the same as instinctive reactions, and how can this link be severed

The idea of direct perception - actions links originates in the work of the American psychologist William James and more recently, American neurophysiologist and Nobel prize winner Roger Sperry. Sperry argued that the perception–action cycle is the fundamental logic of the nervous system[2] Perception and action processes are functionally intertwined: perception is a means to action and action is a means to perception. Indeed, the vertebrate brain has evolved for governing motor activity with the basic function to transform sensory patterns into patterns of motor coordination.




extra excerpts from random sites: 
"Supernumerary phantom limb refers to a condition where the affected individual believes and receives sensory information from limbs of the body that do not actually exist, and never have existed, on the contrary to phantom limbs, which appear after an individual has had a limb removed from the body and still receives input from it."


Question: can you simulate a consciousness of a limb that never existed? (a form of hypnosis), can you extend empathic functions to alternative bio/non-bio forms. 

random thoughts/questions:
_what if you smell coffee while drinking tea? (or any other thing.)
_matter matters: that which is subject to the laws of physics