Bobo Doll Experiment (Intro to Psych)
The brain is a complex muscle that is able to perform many functions at once. These functions not only help us maintain life by keeping us breathing, our muscles moving, and allowing us the ability to know pain, hunger, movement, etc., but it also allows us to know such emotions as enjoyment, fear, happiness, etc. This is done through a special electrical system wired into our brains during development and run by neurotransmitters. The neurotransmitters are a series of neurons that react to the environment by sending out a chemically induced message down through its axon, shooting it through the synaptic clef to be received by receptors called the dendrites. These chemicals cause us to react or act a certain way. For example: when we feel fear it is because our neurotransmitters have sent the chemicals adrenaline, and glucose to one another. These chemicals help us to be ready to protect ourselves. They cause our heart rate to speed up, our blood pressure to rise, pupils to dilate, lungs to take in more oxygen and goose bumps to appear (3). These chemicals make it so we are ready to fight or run depending on the situation.
One amazing neuron that only is known to humans, birds and humans at this time are mirror neurons. These neurons allow us the ability to mirror or mimic someone or something else’s action and continue working even when we are doing the action ourselves. These little neurons allow us to know someone’s wishes, goals and/or intentions by an action they do. For example if someone picks up the car keys it allows us to think that may be the persons intentions are to go somewhere in the car. This type of thought is important during social interaction. It means we are able to consider others thoughts and continued actions. (1)
I believe that these mirror neurons are an important key to our survival. Observation is a key way of learning, although seemingly, we have a few different ways of learning. I learned just by watching people