Mirror Neurons

Mirror neurons were discovered in 1992 by Giacomo Rizzolatti, who set to study the brain functions of monkeyshttps://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2016/mirror-neurons-quarter-century-new-light-new-cracks/. What Rizzolatti expected to find was brain activity causing firing in neurons when monkeys did something, whether that be grabbing an object, interacting with another monkey, or eating. What was found was that not only did these neurons fire when the monkey completed an action, but also when the monkey observed another living organism completing an action. The action in question was eating - the monkey's neurons fired when the monkey brought food to its own mouth and when watching a human (researcher in this case) bring food to his own mouth. This is why the neurons were called mirror neurons, as the brain was mirroring firing when watching another being act out a similar task to one that we ourselves are capable of.
Some reviewers find mirror neurons to be "the most hyped" finding in psychology, with no specific preference whether that is truly for worse of for betterhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3898692/. What is found to be beneficial of this study is that it connects the behaviors of others to that of our own - which must give some considerations to behaviors such as modeling. What is the difference between a neuron they'd discovered already as opposed to a mirror neuron? Well, some neurons fire only when completing an action, others fire only when observing an action of another organism. A mirror neuron fires for both; the same neuron will fire in a monkey's head when they grab a banana and the same neuron will fire again when they watch another monkey counterpart do the same. Mirror neurons have been found throughout different areas of our brain, most recently being found in the part of the brain that controls motor functioning. 
What has the discovery of mirror neurons done for future research? One study found that the earliest recorded development of a mirror neuron in a human was around a year old, leading to implications surrounding an human's development to begin mirroring behavior at a young agehttps://www.news-medical.net/health/What-are-Mirror-Neurons.aspx. The mirror neurons help humans process what is happening and then begin to ask why it is happening, as we learn to assimilate those actions into our lives.
Further reading
Mirror Neurons: How We Reflect on Behavior
The Role of the Human Mirror Neuron System in Supporting Communication in a Digital World
The mind's mirror
Category:Neuroscience
Category:1990s
Category:Social Learning Theory