私醫聯招 英文歷屆試題｜第 679 題

Did you ever have that sensation where you’re watching someone do something — serve a tennis ball, say — or get pricked by a needle, and you can just feel exactly what they must be feeling, as if you were in their shoes? Scientists have long wondered why we get that feeling, and more than two decades ago, a team of Italian researchers thought they had  (26)  an answer. While observing monkeys’ brains, they noticed that certain cells activated both when a monkey performed an action and when it watched another monkey perform the same action. These so-called “mirror neurons” were discovered. Since then, mirror neurons have been hailed as a key to empathy, language, and even the  (27)  of cultural knowledge. Yet not all scientists agree on their importance. Some have accused researchers of making unfounded claims about what mirror neurons can do, calling the enthusiasm surrounding them a scientific  (28) . V.S. Ramachandran, a prominent neuroscientist, remains optimistic. He argues that mirror neurons allow people to put themselves in another’s place — an ability essential to empathy and social learning. He also suggests that  (29)  these neurons are just the substrate, not the sole cause, of culture and learning, they still represent a  (30)  step in understanding human interaction.