Cognition And Development: Mirror Neurons

Question 1

What Is Mirror Neurons?

Answer 1

• Neurons that fire both in response to personal action and in response to action on the part of others.

Question 2

The Discovery Of Mirror Neurons.

Answer 2

• Rizzolatti et al were studying electrical activity in a monkey’s motor cortex (responsible for movement), when one of the researchers reached for their lunch in view of the monkey.
• The monkey’s motor cortex became activated in exactly the same way as it did when the animal itself reached for food; the same brain cells fired when the monkey reached itself or watched someone else reach.
• These were called mirror neurons because they mirror motor activity in another individual.

Question 3

Mirror Neurons And Intention.

Answer 3

• Gallese and Goldman (1998) suggested that mirror neurons respond not just to observed actions but to intentions behind behaviour.
• They believed that we do not just interpret people’s actions with reference to our memory but that we simulate other’s actions in our motor system and experience their intentions using our mirror neurons.
• For example, different brain areas associated with mirror neurons fire off when observing an individual pick up a cup from a table to drink from it than when they pick it up to clear it away.

Question 4

Iacaboni et al. (2004): Mirror Neurons & Intention

Answer 4

• Procedure: 23 right handed subjects watched three film clips of visual stimuli. 1) Context only: scenes containing objects. 2) Action only: grasping hand actions without a context. 3)Intention: context with an action which was either drinking or cleaning up. The researchers investigated whether the observation of the same grasping action elicited the same or different activity in mirror neuron areas for grasping in the human brain. fMRI scanning was used to measure brain activity.
• Findings: Observing grasping actions embedded in contexts (the intention clips) yielded greater activity in mirror neuron areas in the inferior frontal cortex, associated with grasping, than observing actions without contexts or while observing contexts only.
• Conclusions: Premotor mirror neuron areas (areas active during the execution and the observation of an action) previously thought to be involved only in action recognition are also involved in understanding the intentions of others, which is the basis of empathy.

Question 5

Importance Of Mirror Neurons.

Answer 5

• Stuss reported that individuals with damage to their frontal lobes (where the motor cortex is located) were often unable to empathise with and read other people’s intentions and were easy to deceive.
• This suggests damage to the mirror neuron system and emphasises its important in typical human social cognition.

Question 6

Mirror Neurons And Perspective Taking.

Answer 6

• It has been suggested that mirror neurons are important in theory of mind and the ability to take others’ perspectives.
• If mirror neurons fire in response to others’ actions and intentions, this might give us a neural mechanism for experiencing and understanding other people’s perspectives and emotional states.
  -It may allow us to interpret what others are thinking and feeling.

Question 7

Mirror Neurons And Human Evolution.

Answer 7

• Ramachandran (2011) suggested that mirror neurons are so important that they have shaped human evolution.
• The uniquely complex social interactions we have as humans require a brain system that facilitates an understanding of intention, emotion and perspective.
• W/O these cognitive abilities we would not be able to live in the large groups with the complex social roles and rules that characterise human culture.
• Ramachandran suggests that mirror neurons are absolutely key to understanding the way humans have developed as a social species.

Question 8

Mirror Neurons And ASD.

Answer 8

• ASD is associated with problems with social-cognitive abilities such as perspective-taking.
• If children with ASD can be shown to have a poor mirror neuron system then this may go a long way to explaining ASD.
• Ramachandran and Oberman (2006) have proposed the “broken mirror” theory of ASD.
• This is the idea that neurological deficits including dysfunction in the mirror neuron system prevent a developing child imitating and understanding social behaviour in others.
• This manifests itself in infancy when children later diagnosed with ASD typically mimic adult behaviour less than others.
• Later, problems with the mirror neuron system lead to difficulties in social communication as children to not develop the usual abilities to read intentions and emotion in others.

Question 9

Evaluation: Strength - Yawning.

Answer 9

• There is evidence to support an important role for mirror neurons in human social cognition.
• Haker et al (2012) demonstrated that Brodmann’s area 9 in the right frontal lobe, an area of the brain believed to be rich in mirror neurons, is involved in contagious yawning.
• This is widely seen as an example of human empathy and thus the ability to perceive mental states in others showing that mirror neurons play a role in empathy.

Question 10

Evaluation: Strength - Fishing Documentary/Mr Bean Or…

Answer 10

• There is evidence to support an important role for mirror neurons in human social cognition.
• Mouras et al (2008) asked male participants to watch either a fishing documentary, Mr Bean or heterosexual pornography.
• Brain activity was measured using an fMRI and arousal by a pressure sensitive penis ring.
• Pars opercularis activity was seen immediately before sexual arousal.
• Pars opercularis is a region of the brain believed to be rich in mirror neurons so the findings are consistent with the idea that mirror neurons play a role in perspective taking.

Question 11

Evaluation: Strength - Brain Scan.

Answer 11

• Evidence for mirror neuron activity comes from brain scanning.
• Brain scans such as fMRI’s identify activity levels in regions of the brain but do not allow us to measure activity in individual brain cells.
• Researchers are therefore inferring that activity in parts of the brain means activity in mirror neurons.
• Therefore, there is a lack of direct evidence for mirror neuron activity in humans.

Question 12

Evaluation: Strength - Evidence For Atypical Mirror Neuron Function In ASD.

Answer 12

• There is evidence for atypical mirror neuron function in ASD.
• Hadjikhani (2007) reviewed evidence for the link between ASD and a deficit in mirror neuron function and found some support.
• Structural brain scans have shown a smaller average thickness for the pars opercularis (an area believed to be rich in mirror neurons) in participants with ASD.
• Studies using functional scans have shown lower activity in brain areas associated with mirror neurons in participants with ASD.
• However, not all findings have been replicated consistently so the evidence linking ASD to mirror neurons is mixed.
• This is a problem for the broken mirror theory of ASD as there is a lack of reliable direct evidence to support the theory.

Question 13

Evaluation: Weakness - Questions Over Mirror Neurons.

Answer 13

• There are questions over the precise role or mirror neurons.
• Hickok suggests mirror neuron activity may have more to do with using others’ behaviour to plan our own, rather than understanding the cognition behind.
• Researchers should provide better evidence to support their claims of the role of mirror neurons in social cognition.