the mirror neuron system

Question 1

What is the mirror neuron system?

Answer 1

• consists of special brain cells called mirror neurons distributed in several areas of the brain
• mirror neurons are unique because they fire both in response to personal action and in response to action on the part of others
• these special neurons may be involved in social cognition allowing us to interrupt intention and emotion in others

Question 2

What is he discovery of mirror neurons?

Answer 2

• researchers came across mirror neurons quite by accident
• Rizzolatti et al were studying electrical activity in a monkeys motor cortex when one of the researchers reached for his lunch in view of the monkey
• this monkeys motor cortex became activated in exactly the same way as it did when the animal itself reached for food
• further investigation revealed that it was in fact the same brain cells that fired when the monkey reached itself or watched some else reach
• the researchers called these cells mirror neurons because they mirror motor activity in another individual

Question 3

What are mirror neurons and intention?

Answer 3

• understanding mirror neurons has given us a whole new way of thinking about the way we understand each other’s intentions- this is central to social cognition
• Galleys and Goldman suggested that mirror neurons respond not just to observed actions but to intentions behind behaviour
• rather than the common-sense view that we interpret people’s actions with reference to our memory, Galleys and Goldman suggested that we simulate other’s actions in our motor system and experience their intentions using our mirror neurons

Question 4

What are mirror neurons and perspective-taking?

Answer 4

• it has also been suggested that mirror neurons are important in other social-cognitive functions e.g. theory of mind and the ability to take others’ perspectives
• if mirror neurons fire in response to others’ actions and intentions this may give us a neural mechanism for experiencing and hence understanding, other people’s perspectives and emotional states
• just as we can simulate intention by making judgements based on our own reflected motor responses, this same information may allow us to interpret what others are thinking and feeling

Question 5

What are mirror neurons and human evolution?

Answer 5

• Some psychologists suggest mirror neurons ffectively shaped human evolution
• MNS allows us to understand percepion, emotion and intention which allows us to live in large groups wih complex social roles that characterise human culure
• MNS allows us to understand how humans became a social spcies

Question 6

What are mirror neurons and autism?

Answer 6

• if children on the autistic spectrum can be shown to have a poor mirror neuron system than this may go a long way to explaining autism as it is associated with social cognitive abilities
• the broken mirror theory of autism is the idea that neurological deficits including dysfunction in the mirror neuron system prevent a developing child imitating and understanding social behaviour in others
• as children with autism typically have difficulties with social communication

Question 7

How does evidence for the role of mirror neurons support the mirror neuron system?

Answer 7

• Haker et al demonstrated that an area of the brain believed to be rich in mirror neurons is involved in contagious yawning, which is widely seen as a simple example if human empathy, the ability to perceive mental states in others
• an fMRI was used to assess brain activity in participants while they were stimulated to yawn by showing them film of others yawning
• when they yawned in response, participants showed considerable activity in Brodmann’s area, an area in the right frontal lobe believed to be rich in mirror neurons

Question 8

How is difficulty studying mirror neuron activity in humans a weakness of the mirror neuron system?

Answer 8

• brain scans do not allow us to measure activity in individual brain cells
• for ethical reasons it is not possible to insert electrodes into the human brain to measure activity on a cellular level
• this is a weakness of mirror neuron research because researchers are generally measuring activity in apart of the brain and interfering hat this means activity in mirror neurons
• there is a lack of direct evidence for mirror neuron activity from studies like this

Question 9

How is mixed evidence for abnormal mirror neuron function in ASD a weakness of the mirror neuron system?

Answer 9

• structural brain scans have shown lower activity in brain areas associated with mirror neurons in participants with autism yet not all such findings have been replicated consistently and evidence linking autism to mirror neurons is mixed
• which means there is a lack of reliable evidence to support this theory

Question 10

What are the evaluation points of the mirror neuron system?

Answer 10

+area of the brain that is involved with empathy was scanned with a fMRI which found that brain activity increased when they witnessed someone yawning

• difficulty studying mirror neuron activity in humans as it is impossible to insert electrodes into brains means there’s no direct evidence of mirror neurones
• mixed evidence for abnormal mirror neuron function in ASD
• questions over the existence of mirror neurones as we cannot be sure they are separate to normal neurones

Question 11

how are questions over the existence of mirror neurones a weakness?

Answer 11

• Hickok has questioned the most basic assumption in mirror neuron research that mirror neurons exist at all
• Hickok proposed hat we only know mirror neurones by what they do and that we cannot actually identify individual cells and point to their differences from other neurons
• this is controversial as other researchers do believe there are isolated mirror neurons