Kinesthetic Empathy and Understanding Movement

While the perception of the movement of other human beings is primarily a visual experience, it can be heightened by kinesthetic empathy.  Kinesthetic empathy involves physical identification with the movements one observes being executed.

It has long been known that we identify with the movements we see others doing — tensing during a critical moment in a sports event, exuberantly relaxing when the player scores.

The discovery of mirror neurons, however, has clarified the neural mechanisms that facilitate kinesthetic empathy.  These motor nerves simulate observed actions without producing movement.  Rather they become active as if we were executing the same action we are observing.

Mirror neurons are believed to provide a basic mechanism for imitation and motor learning.  More broadly, they are believed to provide the neurological basis for empathy, which is the capacity to feel the same emotions that others feel.   Thus the mirror neuron system makes it possible for us to grasp the meanings inherent in the actions of other people.