Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Un Kannil Neer Vazhindhal, En Nenjil Udhiram Kottudhadi

Barathiyar's. My all time favourite Kavidhai - "Chinnanchiru Kiliye". There was a debate, if it was about Kannamma as his daughter (Imagining Lord Krishna to be his daughter) or Kannamma as his wife. But beyond that, the intimacy towards the other person is best described by this poem.

Someone would say "I cannot describe in words, the feelings I have for you !!" . Barathiyar expressed such feelings on words..."Mechchi Unai Oorar Pughazhndhaal Meni Silirkkudhadi"... amazing feelings.

Why this, all of a sudden ? Alright, read the first line again. Welcome back.

I read this article on BoingBoing, and followed the link (because it had a Tamil name). It was about Mirror Neurons. Mirror Neurons are Neurons (Nerve cells) that get fired, when you perform an action, or when you see someone else perform the action.

Confusing, eh !! Thats exactly the reason I quit biology at school.

Read on, its simple now. The interesting fact released by Mr. Ramachandran is this. When cells in the human anterior cingulate, which normally fire when you poke the patient with a needle ("pain neurons"), will also fire when the patient watches another patient being poked.

He also says, "that the emergence of a sophisticated mirror neuron system set the stage for the emergence, in early hominids, of a number of uniquely human abilities such as proto-language (facilitated by mapping phonemes on to lip and tongue movements), empathy, 'theory of other minds', and the ability to 'adopt another's point of view".

Hmm. Are we that good ?

Read complete article here
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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

good one Keerthi.
just last semester i wrote a research paper for one of my courses on the link between mirror neurons and evolution of language in humans. neuroscience is a pretty cool subject.
and Dr Ramachandran is one of the greatest scientists ever. did you know that he is a thamizhar, and MBBS from Stanley?

Anonymous said...

Stopping here for the very first time and I am pleased to see Mirror Neurons in the post.

Well you can see Ramachandran's article on Dangerous Idea at Edge.

http://www.edge.org/q2006/q06_print.html#ramachandran

Anonymous said...

tch tch. rombo pesariye pa:)
>>confusing

idhukku daan i quit studying long back :D

Anonymous said...

Interesting...So is this related to 'GooseBumps'..as in Mei silirppu.!!

Anonymous said...

http://entamilnadu.blogspot.com