Helping Understand Empathy - Imitation

• The mirror neuron system provides a biological explanation of social cognition by explaining how one individual could imitate the behaviour of another.
• Mirror neurons encode activity of the other person, which helps us to act the same way.
• When we see someone produce a facial expression, the mirror neurons that are responsible for producing the same facial expression activate as well.
• This then activates feelings associated with that facial expression, which helps us feel the same emotion we observe others going through.
• This allows us to understand the emotional cognitions behind the other person's expressions, as a result we show empathy towards them.