Empathy Center?

Neuroscientists have recently discovered an unusual set of neurons in primate brains and mostly likely in the human primate. Called mirror neurons (see Wikipedia for detailed description), these cells respond to an observed behavior in other primates. They create in the observer the sensation that they too are performing the same behavior, thus they mirror the observed behavior. I personally experience this daily and I suspect most of us do. If I see someone fall, for example, I instantly experience a similar sensation as if I had also fallen. Something like a sympathy pain. After hearing of this phenomenon and recognizing it in myself, I began to wonder if this part of the brain was what might be called the empathy center. I figured that if a person can feel what another person is experiencing, a sense of empathy will arise in the observer. And I'm guessing this feeling is due to those mirror neurons.

And this brings to mind another thought and a question: What if the reason some people have no empathy for those less fortunate than they is that they have a mirror neuron deficit?

Makes you wonder -- do conservatives have a mirror neuron deficit?

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
John Kenneth Galbraith