Mirror Memories

I found this good letter-to-the-editor in response to an article by Steven Pinker in the NY Times Mag. I'll need to look more into it.

Recent findings using fMRI in human subjects, reported by Keysers and Wicker in Neuron, 2003, and by Iacoboni in PLoS Biology, 2005, implicate mirror neurons in sympathetic reactions of disgust and interpretations of intentionality. It is thought that these mirroring patterns of neural activity form the basis of empathy and social bonding. The ability to feel, know and imagine the experiences of another would seem to underlie a universal sense of morality more than any rational cost-benefit analysis.