The Handbook of Knowledge-Based Coaching: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

THE SOCIAL BRAIN: LESLIE BROTHERS

Neuroscientist Leslie Brothers (2001, 1997) has marshaled considerable evidence showing that our brains are fundamentally designed to participate in social life. In the early 1990s, a group of neuroscientists at the University of Parma in Italy discovered what they called “mirror neurons” in the brains of primates (Rizzolatti & Sinigaglia, 2008). Brain cells in a monkey’s motor cortex respond to movements of others just as they do to similar movements of the monkey itself. The existence of mirror neurons in the brains of humans is a controversial topic, but may help explain the capacity of people to feel what others feel, to imitate their behavior, and to experience some part of what they experience. When you ...