I’ve been talking about Mirror Neurons.

We’ve known since Condon and Sanders* that as mothers speak to their two-day old infant, the child moves in precise synchrony with the mother’s voice,and the mother dances along – they move together. Mirror neurons.

So picture a guy grocery shopping at the same time I was today. He’s carrying his infant as he shops, which seems like some good dad-kid time. The dad is talking animatedly. But not to the child. He’s on his cell phone.

Now, we’re all used to being around other people who are talking to someone else nearby. But I had to wonder: Here’s this little person, on his dad’s chest, hearing his dad’s voice and feeling the vibrations of the voice, and probably dancing along in perfect synchrony. But he’s dancing without a partner. There’s a person right there, but he isn’t talking to the kid, he’s just talking into the air. And his movements are wrong, they aren’t synchronized. Will the kid keep dancing?

He looked like a caring dad, and I bet the kid gets some good face time with him. But the old curmudgeon in me felt like I was looking at boot camp for a faceless society.

Discuss Mirror Neurons in the Coffee Shop

*Condon and Sanders showed that from the first days of life infants and their mothers “dance” together – the movements of mother and infant are intricately synchronized. Here’s a sample of their micro-analysis:

For example, as the adult emits the KK of “come,” which lasts for 0.07 second, the infant’s head moves right very slightly (Rvs), the left elbow extends slightly (Es), the right shoulder rotates outward slightly (ROs) the right hip rotates outward fast (ROf), the left hip extends slightly (Es), and the big toe of the left foot abducts (AD). These body parts sustain these directions and speeds of movement together for this 0.07-second interval. This forms a “unit” composed of the sustained relation of these movements of the body. … This 2-day-old infant displayed segments of movement synchronous with the adult’s speech during the entire 89-word sequence.

I first saw the article in Child Development

Condon, W. S. and Sander, L. W. (1974). Neonate movement is synchronized with adult speech. Integrated participation and language acquisition. Science 183:99

Condon describes some of his work, and the inferences he makes from it.

The quotation above is from what I take to be a privately sponsored website, which is the only online source I can find that quotes any of the original.

This topic continues at Mirror Neurons – 3.