The Amazing Power of Observation By David R. Hamilton PhD.

[Manuel Tavares]

The Amazing Power of Observation
By David R. Hamilton PhD.
https://rayviolet.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-amazing-power-of-observation.html

Scientists at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia once asked a bunch of volunteers to stretch an elastic band between two fingers.

They were to do 25 ‘reps’ every other day for a couple of weeks. Of course, as a consequence of these finger workouts, at the end of the two weeks the volunteers’ fingers had got stronger, and by about 50%.

While each person did their reps, however, someone else was instructed to sit opposite them and intently watch the person’s fingers as they did the reps.

Amazing, after the two weeks, the observers’ fingers had also grown stronger – and by 32%!

They hadn’t moved their fingers, nor even imagined moving them. They had simply observed the repetitive action.

The technique is known as ‘action observation’ and has helped stroke patients recover movement and even people improve at sports.

It works via the Mirror Neuron System (MNS) in the brain, which activates when we pay attention to someone’s facial or bodily movements. The MNS is responsible for the phenomenon of emotional contagion, which I wrote about in an earlier blog (How to deflect negative emotion).

Here, the MNS mirrors facial expressions and stimulates the brain to prompt the emotions that accompany those facial expressions. Thus, spending time with happy people is likely to make you smile more and feel happier, and hanging out with stressed people is likely to make you frown more and feel stressed, which is indeed what research shows.+++
https://rayviolet.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-amazing-power-of-observation.html