How Role Models Change Our Lives | Fiona Murden | Modern Wisdom Podcast 223

This is another thing. It's, it's this ethical thing again, isn't it? We can't take kids away from their parents. But there's an example I love. I don't, I don't know if you've heard it, but there's a girl called Oksana Malaya who was born in the Ukraine in a really run-down village, and her parents were alcoholics. And one night, they left her out in the cold. They just left her outside. And looking for warmth, she curled up with feral dogs. She was three years old at this time, and she lived with the dogs for the next five years until someone reported it to the authorities. But she couldn't talk. She walked on all fours. She drank like a dog. She barked. And I mean, she's one example. And you know, with science, you'll say you need thousands of examples to be able to say, "This is actually what's happening." But to me, it's such a clear example of (laughs) what happens if you don't have people around you. You don't know how to talk because no one's talking to you. You don't know how to drink or eat or walk.

(wind blowing) I'm joined by Fiona Murden. Fiona, welcome to the show.

Hi. Thanks. Great to be here. (laughs)

Pleasure to have you on. What is the mirror system?

The mirror system is a collection of neurons in the brain which enable us to observe what other people are doing without actually carrying out that action ourselves. And how that functions is to enable us to learn, basically, because for thousands and thousands of years, before we had the written word, the only way we could learn was through observing, and actually through storytelling as well, which interestingly is also dependent in part on the neuro- the mirror neuron.

That's interesting. So how does it work? How do I... I watch you doing a thing. You're whittling a stick, or I don't know what our, our ancestors would be doing, hunting a deer. How does it work?

So I... It's, it's easiest to go back to where, how it was discovered 'cause it was discovered in Parma by, um, uh, some Italian psychophysiologists or... I've got the name wrong there. But they were basic f... They were looking at how monkeys grasp, and they had electrodes in... This is a bit mean, (laughs) into the brains of the monkeys. And one day, they were eating their lunch, and they noticed that the monkeys were doing the grasping, um, in terms of what electrical output was coming off, but they weren't actually moving. And so they realized that the same part of the brain was functioning when the monkeys were watching as when the monkeys were actually doing it themselves. And so if you think about it, if you think about a baby, for example, watching a mother or a f- a, a mom or dad eating, they're, they might be watching them when they're not eating themselves, but each time they're watching, they're rehearsing it through in their brain, which helps to build up that capability of how to actually do that ourselves.