What do mirror neurons do? How were they discovered?

What do mirror neurons do? How were they discovered?

Mirror neurons responds to both carrying out an action, aswell as observing someone else do the same action. They were discovered when experimenter observed monkeys and how their neurons in the premotor cortex fired when the animals themselves did a simple task, aswell as when the experimenter preformed the exact same action.

Mirror neuron exist in both - monkey and human brain. The neuron fire to action that a person is supposed to do. The mirror neuron fires as well when the person is watching someone doing this task. For example: Monkeys were supposed to pick a piece of food. The neuron fired not only when monkey picked up a piece of food, but also when the monkey observed the experimenter picking up the piece of food.