We learn from others by observing their actions and the resulting outcomes. That way we’re able to use the experience of others to guide us in areas where we may not have personal experience. Research described in a paper titled “Fictive Reward Signals in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex” (published May 15, 2009 in Science) shows that some brain cells (neurons) in the anterior cingulate cortex carry information about both the potential reward of a particular act and the experienced outcome.