Mirror Neurons: Link Between Experience, Language and Understanding?

[Eudaimonic]

"Mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that respond equally when we perform an action and when we witness someone else perform the same action."

An idea popped into my head around mirror neurons and our understanding of the words and concepts that people communicate to us.

To understand a word, we'd have to have experienced it first (or the aspects of it given an imaginary concept.) If I say to you the word "gurodupedarang" you can't understand what I'm talking about unless I connect it to something that actually exists in the real world that you have experienced. Even abstract concepts such as "A is A" is related to something that you experience in the real world (one given thing is never another given thing.)

If I say the word "potato" you automatically understand the concept I'm communicating to you. You "understand" it because you can connect the word to some experience (or all the experiences) of actual potatoes.

Could it be that the link between me saying "potato" and you understanding it is the act of mirror neurons being "triggered" so to speak, giving you a "mild" experience of a potato based on the experiences you had of them in the past?

It would seem to me, if it is true, that mirror neurons are the physical link between experience, language and understanding. As in, I experience, I tie the experience to a audio-visual cue, I communicate audio-visual cue to you, mirror neurons fire, you understand meaning of audio-visual cue.

Perhaps this is something's that's already been explored or I'm totally missing something or perhaps there are different parts of the brain involved, just and interesting thought I had.

Let me know what you think!

[RichardY]

8 hours ago, Eudaimonic said:

"Mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that respond equally when we perform an action and when we witness someone else perform the same action."

An idea popped into my head around mirror neurons and our understanding of the words and concepts that people communicate to us.

To understand a word, we'd have to have experienced it first (or the aspects of it given an imaginary concept.) If I say to you the word "gurodupedarang" you can't understand what I'm talking about unless I connect it to something that actually exists in the real world that you have experienced. Even abstract concepts such as "A is A" is related to something that you experience in the real world (one given thing is never another given thing.)

"gurodupedarang". Stretch of the imagination...., but could your made up word, be inspired by, Doppelganger - dupedarang(Double Person) and Guru ("Grave",Weighty,Teacher), unconsciously. Both words would tie into the topic, besides often pleope cna unredsantd waht yuo aer syiang eevn if teh odrer is srecwed up. Another example might be a person who has speech dyslexia, where an older sibling is able to understand them, even if they can't pronounce certain sounds well, at all, in order or spelt correctly.

Even if the two were not inspired unconsciously (could there be any other way, bash the keyboard I guess). A few points come to mind, a persons conception of death, maybe through the guidance of a guru, "haha you can't kill a Hindu, Oh help me Jesus" - Simpsons. Interestingly the Sanskrit Guru is related to Indo-European language. Doppelganger, so the identification of another as in someways parts of the self. Isn't this topic basically related to consciousness and therefore borderline mysticism.

 

8 hours ago, Eudaimonic said:

If I say the word "potato" you automatically understand the concept I'm communicating to you. You "understand" it because you can connect the word to some experience (or all the experiences) of actual potatoes.

Could it be that the link between me saying "potato" and you understanding it is the act of mirror neurons being "triggered" so to speak, giving you a "mild" experience of a potato based on the experiences you had of them in the past?

It would seem to me, if it is true, that mirror neurons are the physical link between experience, language and understanding. As in, I experience, I tie the experience to a audio-visual cue, I communicate audio-visual cue to you, mirror neurons fire, you understand meaning of audio-visual cue.

Perhaps this is something's that's already been explored or I'm totally missing something or perhaps there are different parts of the brain involved, just and interesting thought I had.

Let me know what you think!

I would say that a psychopath for instance, from what I have heard and seen, lack mirror neurons and empathy respectively. They are still able to deal with abstract concepts, but lack the visual spatial and awareness skills. Despite this they maybe intelligent in someways and probably are often politicians. A sociopath has more mirror neurons, and are able to use them to predict and manipulate the behaviour of others to varying degrees, without scruples. Sociopaths being your Cult leaders or Gurus possibly.

A few ideas anyway, though I wonder how some practical benefits, potentially could be attained.  

 

[Eudaimonic]

18 hours ago, RichardY said:

Even if the two were not inspired unconsciously (could there be any other way, bash the keyboard I guess). A few points come to mind, a persons conception of death, maybe through the guidance of a guru, "haha you can't kill a Hindu, Oh help me Jesus" - Simpsons. Interestingly the Sanskrit Guru is related to Indo-European language. Doppelganger, so the identification of another as in someways parts of the self. Isn't this topic basically related to consciousness and therefore borderline mysticism.

That's a wild connection you made with it possibly being unconscious I have no idea wether or not it was and no way of figuring that out that I know of, my experience was just typing some random keys.

For death, I think that we probably understand it through a combination of seeing others die and our own experiences with being unconscious (or reflecting on unconscious states.)

Doppleganger seems like you just experience aspects of yourself and then experience a similar number of aspects in another person, like seeing in a mirror?

I couldn't imagine someone understanding something the aspects of which had never been experienced by anyone.

18 hours ago, RichardY said:

I would say that a psychopath for instance, from what I have heard and seen, lack mirror neurons and empathy respectively. They are still able to deal with abstract concepts, but lack the visual spatial and awareness skills. Despite this they maybe intelligent in someways and probably are often politicians. A sociopath has more mirror neurons, and are able to use them to predict and manipulate the behaviour of others to varying degrees, without scruples. Sociopaths being your Cult leaders or Gurus possibly.

A few ideas anyway, though I wonder how some practical benefits, potentially could be attained.  

Perhaps it's not mirror neurons themselves per say, but something that acts similarly such that certain sounds (which you've learned; which bring up how we learn to connect experiences with audio-visual cues) create mild experiences of whatever concept is being conveyed, thus allowing you to 'understand' the concept being talked about.

I was thinking about it as a connection from the physical to the abstract, if it could be proven. I've heard postmodern complaints about how language and concepts aren't related to reality; they're just arbitrary things we make up and just another fog to deceive ourselves of knowing the truth. This would provide a connection from objective reality to concepts, making such concepts at least potentially accurate. Mostly it was just an interesting thought I had.