Week 9 Lecture 9 - mirror neurons Flashcards
What is intersubjectivity?
- Imitation, empathy, intention (mind-reading)
- Allows us to predict the behaviours of others
- Based on process of crossmodal transfer and the ‘mirror matching system’
What is empathy?
Relates not only to how you are
feeling ‘emotionally’ but also how you
are feeling ‘sensorily’
Is there an overlap for seen and felt pain?
(Morrison et al., 2004)
Direct mapping of viewing pain in others and feeling pain yourself in anterior cingulate cortex (BA24b)
Is there evidence for motor empathy?
Morrison et al. (2006)
Faster press responses than release responses except when people viewed the needle touching the hand
Are brain areas activated when observing and imitating emotional expressions?
Yes
Which brains areas are involved in
observing/imitating emotional facial
expressions?
- BA44 (Broca’s area)
- insula (involved in gustatory disgust)
- amygdala (negative affect)
What is the Chameleon effect?
- Empathic individuals often exhibit non-conscious mimicry of postures,
mannerisms and facial expressions of
others - If you score high on empathy
measures, you’re more likely to show
an increased Chameleon Effect and
have more social interactions
What are the major theories of autism?
- Theory of Mind deficit - mentalizing
- Weak central coherence – focus on detail
at expense of bigger picture - Broken mirror theory
What is broken mirror theory?
Problem with MNs could explain:
* Problems with imitation
* Difficulties with empathy/social cognition
* Difficulties with metaphor and indirect
meaning
A study investigated action observation in Autism
What was examined and compared?
- Examined similarities between observing and executing actions
- Compared similar action for eating and placing
- Compared controls and children with autism
A study investigated action observation in Autism
What was found?
- Increased activity for eating versus placing for both execution and observation
- Increased activity only for execution
in autistic group
What are the limitations in primate data for mirror neurons?
- Small number of examples
- Often qualitative rather than quantitative
- Need more studies to ask how well cells
can distinguish pairs of movements (e.g.
Keysers et al., 2003) - Need evidence of MNs firing in
spontaneous social interaction
What are the limitations with human data for mirror neurons?
- Many areas outside of ‘MN’ areas are activated during action observation
- Are the same neurones firing?
Adaptation protocols - TMS effects could be produced by areas outside of MN
What are adaption tasks?
Adaptation can be used to explore whether the same area is involved in different tasks
Dinstein et al. (2007) used adaptation tasks to investigate whether there were overlapping brain functions.
What was found?
Overlapping areas showed adaptation for observed and executed - anterior inferior frontal sulcus, ventral premotor, anterior IP, superior IP and posterior IP
No evidence for adaptation across modalities
Strongest evidence lacking
There are many limitations of mirror neurons.
One is that there is no evidence in monkeys that MNs support action understanding
Expand on this point
- Inactivation of F5 disrupted grasping but
not perception of actions - Kohler et al. (2002) – sound of action
evidence
But – this could just be an association - Umilta et al. (2001) – hidden actions
But – this could be working memory - No measurement of understanding
There are many limitations of mirror neurons.
One is that action understanding can be
achieved without MNs
Expand on this point
- F5 also responds to objects, but it is not
argued to underpin understanding of
objects - Another region, such as Superior
Temporal Sulcus (STS) may be more
critical for action understanding
There are many limitations of mirror neurons.
One is human-monkey differences
Expand on this point
- Higher cognitive functions attributed to
MNs are not seen in monkeys - Assumed that MN in humans has
developed to include both action
understanding and imitation - Cannot assume that conclusions from
monkey MNs apply in humans e.g. few
human imaging studies examine overlap
between observation and own action
There are many limitations of mirror neurons.
One is human action understanding
dissociates from MN areas
Expand on this point
- Dog barking did not activate MN system in humans
- But surely they understood the action?
- What about understanding expert
action? (e.g. non-musicians
Which study shows that you can understand without action simulation?
Heider-Simmel (1940) –> triangle animation
Is motor cognition the same as social cognition?
Jacob and Jeannerod (2005) -
Motor intention is not the same
as social intention
actions have different meanings depending on context e.g., taking someones blood
What are some problems with the broken mirror theory of autism?
- Effects may be due to activity outside of
MN areas - MN problems cannot explain preference
for local detail and sensory problems
People with ASC can:
- Recognise and predict actions
- Imitate under some conditions
If the MN system is broken – why can
people with ASC recognise actions?
Dual-route model
- Semantic route–meaningful actions
- Visuomotor route –meaningless actions
Autistic children can perform goal-directed
imitation
- Is the direct route affected (mimicry)?
