The Mirror Neuron System Evaluation

Question 1

Support

Answer 1

• research support from the role of mirror neurons
• Haker demonstrated via FMRI scans that Brodmans area (part of the brain) in involved in contageous yawning
• Mouras found when men watched heterosexual pornography, activity in the pars opercularis was seen immediately before sexual arousal - suggests that mirror neurons produced perspective taking, making pornography more arousing
• both studies support the importance or mirror neurons showing that regions of the brain believed to be rich in mirror neurons activate when empathy or perspective taking takes place
• also support from Rizzolatti study

Question 2

Contradiction

Answer 2

• an issue of extrapolation in much of the research on mirror neurons
• for example, rizzolatti used monkeys which limits how far this research can be applied as humans are much more developed than animals and may have numerous functions to help understand intentions

Question 3

Practical Application

Answer 3

• MN abnormalities can help explain why people with autism often have difficulty copying actions
• Dapretto used brain scanning techniques to observe which parts of the brain were used by non-autistic people and autistic people as they watched faces showing anger, fear happiness, sadness or no emotion - the only difference was that the ppts with autism showed reduced activity in a part of the inferior frontal gyrus
• Slack suggests that it might be possible to help autistic people by strengthening their MN’s through activities that require the imitations of others

Question 4

Issues and Debates

Answer 4

• Research generally shows that females have greater social sensitivity than males - better at understanding feelings than men
• Cheung has conducted a number of studies using different psychological measures to assess MN activity - recorded EEG activity while men and women watched either a moving dot or hand actions
• only hand actions should arouse the MN’s
• male and female performance was the same for the moving dot but females showed a significantly stronger response than males to the hand action