While watching a sporting event, mirror neurons instigate a response because our brain tells us it is as if we are the ones doing the action, scientists say. (David Stobbe/Reuters)Only a select few elite athletes may be competing in this month's Winter Games, but scientists say that thanks to a set of brain cells known as mirror neurons, millions of other people throughout the world will be able to experience the thrill of Olympic competition just by seeing others put their body put to the limits.

Understanding human experience has puzzled neuroscientists for years, but recent research has uncovered specific brain cells that activate both when we take action and when we simply perceive it, exposing the social nature of the brain.

"When you see an action being done, your brain computes the intention of your action and understands that from your own perspective of doing the act," says David Shore, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience behaviour at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.

"When you catch a ball, you get a rush of adrenaline. When you see an expert athlete also catch the ball, the mirror-neurons system proffers up this representation of catching the ball, and if you have some emotional attachment to that action, you will get an emotional response."

'The reason we watch sport is because we're watching people do things that we couldn't do, but we get a sense of the brain providing you with a sense that you're doing the action.'—David Shore, McMaster University

In other words, if you're a soccer fan watching a game, your body may go through the motions of kicking the ball even though you're not playing.

Mirror neurons were first discovered by three Italian researchers, Iaccomo Rizzolati, Leonardo Fogassi and Vittorio Gallese, when they tested individual neurons in macaque monkeys by putting an electric probe into the promoter cortex. They found the monkeys had the same response when they were watching someone do something as when they were doing it themselves in front of a mirror.

Dr. Marco Iacoboni, professor at the department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at UCLA, says the mirror-neuron system is a series of networks of neurons that respond equally well when you do an action as when you see that action being done.

Mirrored in sport

"The reason we watch sport is because we're watching people do things that we couldn't do, but we get a sense of the brain providing you with a sense that you're doing the action," says Shore.

Iacoboni echoes this idea that while watching a sporting event, mirror neurons instigate a response because our brain tells us it is as if we are the ones doing the action.

Not everyone experiences the same level of response. Iacoboni explains that as a tennis player, when watching a match, he sees the game differently and has different reactions than someone who has never played the game before.

"If you look at how a sports fan watches a game, they often imitate what the athlete is doing," he says.

The initial action from someone watching a sport is a motor response, in which there is a level of mirroring actions. Iacoboni says the most prevalent form of mirror-neuron response would be actions associated with feelings and emotions.

"We are all suckers for sports events, even people who are not really active, because there is a kind of vicarious experience," he said. "It is almost as if we are playing the game ourselves with these cells. That's why we have these strong emotions when you watch the game."

This idea can be also tied with fans' preference for a favourite team or athlete, which could have something to do with the overwhelming mirror-neuron responses to a team's or athlete's action.

By letting spectators mirror the motions of victory, these neurons let viewers share in the feelings, because in reality, only a small few will ever break a world record or win a gold medal.

Holes in the theory

Dr. Alison Gopnik, a psychology professor at University of California Berkeley, believes mirror neurons exist, though she says there is no scientific evidence that they are responsible for the empathy, altruism and other emotions and reactions that humans experience upon seeing other people in certain situations.

"The myth is the idea that somehow, the fact that we have these mirror neurons is the reason why we are specially connected to other human beings in a particularly colourful way," she said.

Gopnik identifies four problems with the mirror neuron explanation of human reactions:

1. There is much better evidence of mirror neurons in macaque monkeys, which don't have the same capacity as human beings, than in humans.
2. Everything in the human brain — not just mirror neurons — is shaped by experience.
3. The majority of evidence about mirror neurons in humans we have comes from brain imaging studies, and when you do an imaging study, you are looking at collections of hundreds of thousands of neurons and not the electrical activity of individual neurons like in the electrode studies done on monkeys.
4. The mirror neuron theory holds that a single type of cell can be responsible for a single type of experience, but experiences and behaviours are never going to be the result of just one kind of cell, or even several kinds.

Whatever the scientific debate, one thing is sure: the world will be watching the Winter Olympics, and there will be physical and emotional responses to the individual sports events happening all over the globe.

Some observers will have even more lasting reactions and be motivated to participate in sport with the goal of winning their own Olympic medal some day.