The mirror neuron system Flashcards
(12 cards)
What is the mirror neuron system?
- Consists of mirror neurons, distributed in several areas of the brain
- Mirror neurons= neurons that mirror motor activity in others
What did Rizzolati et al do and find?
- Studied electrical activity in a monkey’s cortex
- Researcher reached for his lunch in front of monkey
- Found monkey’s motor cortex became activated in the same way it did when the animal reached for food itself
- Investigation revealed= same brain cells (mirror neurons) fired when the monkey reached for food, and when it watched someone else do this
What did Gallese and Goldman suggest?
- Mirror neurons respond to observed actions, and to intentions behind the behaviours
- This suggests we stimulate others’ actions in our motor system, and experience their intentions using our mirror neurons
What does understanding mirror neurons do?
- Allows us to understand each others’ intentions= this is central to social cognition
How are mirror neurons and perspective-taking associated?
- If mirror neurons fire in response to others’ actions/intentions, this may give us a neural mechanism for experiencing/understanding others’ perspectives and emotional states
- Just as we stimulate intention by making judgements based on our own relfected motor responses, this same info may allows us to interpret what others are thinking/ feeling
How are mirror neurons and human evolution associated?
- Ramachandran suggests mirror neurons are so important that they shape human evolution
- Uniquely complex social interactions require a brain system, that facilitates an understanding of intention, emotion, perspective
- Without these cognitive abilities, we could not live in large groups with complex social roles/rules
- Suggests mirror neurons are key to understanding how humans have developed
How are mirror neurons and autism associated?
- Some features of autism are associated with social-cognitive abilities, linked to mirror neurons
- If autistic kids can be shown to have a dysfunctional mirror neuron system= may explain autism
- Ramachandran and Oberman= ‘broken mirror’ theory= neurological deficits (include dysfunction in mirror neuron system) prevent kids from imitating/understanding social behaviour of others
- Manifests in infancy= autistic kids mirror adult behaviour less
- Problems in mirror neuron system may lead to challenges in social communication (ability to read emotion/intention)
Strength-
I- Research support
D- Haker et al scanned brains as people watched film about yawning. Level of activity in Brodmann’s area 9 (rich in MN) increased when pps yawn in response. Contagious yawning= result of empathy. Iacoboni et al showed that activity in inferior frontal gyrus (rich in MN) increased significantly when pps tried to understand intention behind hand-grasping gesture (pick up cup)= mirror neurons encoded why object was grasped
E- Means mirror neurons play a role in important aspects of social cognition, i.e. empathy, understanding intention
Limitation-
I- Hard to research
D- Animal studies of mirror neurons= plant electrodes in brain to study electrical activity in individual neurons. Ethically impossible to do so in humans. Animal studies tell us little about human cognition. Alternative= use scanning techniques, but only measure activity in brain areas not individual cells
E- There is no ‘gold standard’ for measuring mirror neuron activity in humans, and no direct evidence
Strength-
I- Explaining autism
D- HAdjikhani provides evidence supporting link between autism and dysfunction in mirror neuron system, e.g: brain scans show smaller average thickness of pars opercularis in autistic people vs neurotypical. Area= rich in MN, involved in perspective-taking. Nishitani’s study uses scanning methods, which show activity not just structure, found lower activity levels in regions of brain, believed to be associated with high concentration of mirror neurons
E- Suggests cause of autism is related to mirror neuron system
Limitation-
I- Counter-evidence for autism explanation
D- Hamilton reviewed 25 studies, concluding evidence was highly inconsistent and results were hard to interpret
E- Means there may not be a link between autism and mirror neuron activity
Evaluation extra-
I- Mirror neurons and perspective-taking
D- Mirror neurons are involved in physical-perspective taking. Maranesi et al= specific neurons in monkeys’ motor cortex fired according to the position and angle from which the experimenter gestured. Shows that physical perspective-taking is encoded by mirror neurons. However, Bekkali et al’s review concluded that there is only weak evidence linking mirror neurons to social cognition in humans. If physical and social perspective-taking were closely linked, we would expect more consistent evidence, e.g: showing abnormal structure/function in mirror neuron-rich brain regions with deficits in perspective-taking
E- Means there is no convincing evidence for the idea that mirror neurons underlie human perspective-taking in social situations
