Week 9 Lecture 9 - mirror neurons

Question 1

What is intersubjectivity?

Answer 1

• Imitation, empathy, intention (mind-reading)
• Allows us to predict the behaviours of others
• Based on process of crossmodal transfer and the ‘mirror matching system’

Question 2

What is empathy?

Answer 2

Relates not only to how you are
feeling ‘emotionally’ but also how you
are feeling ‘sensorily’

Question 3

Is there an overlap for seen and felt pain?

Answer 3

(Morrison et al., 2004)
Direct mapping of viewing pain in others and feeling pain yourself in anterior cingulate cortex (BA24b)

Question 4

Is there evidence for motor empathy?

Answer 4

Morrison et al. (2006)
Faster press responses than release responses except when people viewed the needle touching the hand

Question 5

Are brain areas activated when observing and imitating emotional expressions?

Answer 5

Yes

Question 6

Which brains areas are involved in
observing/imitating emotional facial
expressions?

Answer 6

• BA44 (Broca’s area)
• insula (involved in gustatory disgust)
• amygdala (negative affect)

Question 7

What is the Chameleon effect?

Answer 7

• 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

Question 8

What are the major theories of autism?

Answer 8

• Theory of Mind deficit - mentalizing
• Weak central coherence – focus on detail
  at expense of bigger picture
• Broken mirror theory

Question 9

What is broken mirror theory?

Answer 9

Problem with MNs could explain:
* Problems with imitation
* Difficulties with empathy/social cognition
* Difficulties with metaphor and indirect
meaning

Question 10

A study investigated action observation in Autism

What was examined and compared?

Answer 10

• Examined similarities between observing and executing actions
• Compared similar action for eating and placing
• Compared controls and children with autism

Question 11

A study investigated action observation in Autism

What was found?

Answer 11

• Increased activity for eating versus placing for both execution and observation
• Increased activity only for execution
  in autistic group

Question 12

What are the limitations in primate data for mirror neurons?

Answer 12

• 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

Question 13

What are the limitations with human data for mirror neurons?

Answer 13

• 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

Question 14

What are adaption tasks?

Answer 14

Adaptation can be used to explore whether the same area is involved in different tasks

Question 15

Dinstein et al. (2007) used adaptation tasks to investigate whether there were overlapping brain functions.

What was found?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

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

Answer 16

• 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

Question 17

There are many limitations of mirror neurons.

One is that action understanding can be
achieved without MNs

Expand on this point

Answer 17

• 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

Question 18

There are many limitations of mirror neurons.

One is human-monkey differences

Expand on this point

Answer 18

• 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

Question 19

There are many limitations of mirror neurons.

One is human action understanding
dissociates from MN areas

Expand on this point

Answer 19

• Dog barking did not activate MN system in humans
• But surely they understood the action?
• What about understanding expert
  action? (e.g. non-musicians

Question 20

Which study shows that you can understand without action simulation?

Answer 20

Heider-Simmel (1940) –> triangle animation

Question 21

Is motor cognition the same as social cognition?

Answer 21

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

Question 22

What are some problems with the broken mirror theory of autism?

Answer 22

• 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

Question 23

If the MN system is broken – why can
people with ASC recognise actions?

Answer 23

Dual-route model
- Semantic route–meaningful actions
- Visuomotor route –meaningless actions

Autistic children can perform goal-directed
imitation
- Is the direct route affected (mimicry)?