Emotions in Action

Humans seem to have a strong tendency to imitate during social interactions. Although not action themselves emotions influence imitative behaviours and typically emerge in circumstances where social coordination is required. Emotions, therefore, are held to be functional products of Darwinian evolution, developed from primitive interactions that facilitated communication of distress, mutual help and collaboration. However, we still do not know why, when and how emotions can lead to facilitated imitation. Along this book I report several proves of the influence of emotions on imitative behaviours in normal and abnormal populations. By means of a combination of behavioural, physiological and artificial neural network experiments, I was able to show the existence of an empathic resonance mechanism that speeds up imitative behaviours in emotional contexts and explore its neural substrates. ¿This book provides a further step toward the understanding of the fascinating mechanisms of empathy and mutual influence¿. Giuseppe Fin, Journalist of L¿Adige