Charles Caleb Colton wrote that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Little did Mr. Colton know, when he articulated these famous words, that imitation is a fundamental aspect of your neurology. Italian neuroscientists discovered this phenomenon as recently as the 1980s. Here is the scientific explanation of what are called mirror neurons. It is a bit technical but important to understand:
“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 primate species.”
