Empathy. Specifically, *Somatic Empathy*:
>>Somatic empathy is a physical reaction, probably based on mirror neuron responses, in the somatic nervous system.
A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another. Thus, the neuron “mirrors” the behavior of the other, as though the observer were itself acting. Such neurons have been directly observed in human and primate species, and birds.
There is a lot of psychological interest and hypothesis about why we’ve evolved mirror neurons. Explanations range from social bonding to learning new skills by imitation, and may have played a role in the development of our cognitive, and emotional empathy too.
It’s neurological, and completely normal behavior, but we don’t actually know exactly why our neurons obtained this behavior.
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