Mirror Neurons: Relation to Autism

In March of 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced emerging statistics regarding the occurrence of autism in the United States.  A surveillance study showed that 1 in 68 children have autism. This is 1 in 189 girls and 1 in 42 boys (Autism speaks, 2015). For years my cousin has invited a close friend to attend family related events at her home. These include birthday parties and holiday gatherings. Her friend has always brought along her young son. I remember the first time I met him in 2010. He was only 3 years old. At age 3 a child should be beginning to pronounce some words whether it be “I want”, “No”, “Mommy”, “Daddy”, etc. However this child had no sense of structure with his words. He also would throw extreme tantrums quite often. A short time after this, his parents were presented with the unfortunate diagnosis of autism in their son. They asked the doctor, what is autism? Why is he acting like this? Recently there have been more methodical answers available to these questions. Autism is essentially explained by two neuropsychiatric abnormalities. There is dysfunction in the sensorimotor and social-cognitive domains of the brain. It has been verified by neuroscientists that the inability of autistic children to interact with life situations and people in a conventional manner depends on the deficiency of a normally functioning mirror neuron system (Acharya & Shukla, 2012).

Mirror neurons were discovered through a number of experiments, using monkeys, initially conducted by Giacomo Rizzolatti in the early 1990s.  These neurons in the brain responded when a monkey would observe someone else (typically the experimenter) clutching an object, such as food on a plate, as well as when the monkey itself clutched the food with its hand (Rizzolatti et al. as cited in Goldstein, 2011, p. 75). The title “mirror neurons” exemplifies that the neuron’s response to watching the object being grabbed is analogous to the response that occurs when the subject is actually performing the action. Much research has confirmed the existence of mirror neurons in humans as well. When these neurons fire in response to seeing someone else perform an action, the function results in helping to comprehend that person’s actions and to respond properly to them. Neurons in the premotor cortex have also been discovered that react to sounds that are correlated with actions. These are called audiovisual mirror neurons. For example in a case where a monkey will respond to the sight and sound of a peanut being broken, its neurons will also fire when the monkey solely observes the peanut being broken and when only the sound is presented (Goldstein, 2011).

Ever since the discovery of mirror neurons, there has been much speculation and great interest about their proposed role in social cognition (Kilner, 2013). The defect of these neurons associated with the social cognition domain presents a lack of contact with the external world (or mental aloneness), and the absence of empathy. The sensorimotor defects produce forms of repetitive rituals, temper tantrums, and head banging. There is also an occurrence in autism of the inability to comprehend metaphors and abstract reasoning.  Mirror neuron abnormalities have attributed to a variety of other autistic related physiognomies including disrupted intention understanding, lack of imitation, language difficulties, and self-identification. The basic discrepancy in autistic children resides in the incapability to organize their individually intended motor behavior (Acharya & Shukla, 2012).

Whilst not every researcher agrees with all functions that have been credited to mirror neurons, there is no doubt that mirror neurons present an extraordinary example of the association between perception and action (Goldstein, 2011). Cognitive neuroscientists have certainly unraveled a wide array of metaphysical mysteries in the mirror neuron segmental brain that has influenced our culture (Acharya & Shukla, 2012). Experimental Psychologist Cecilia Heyes states “[mirror neurons] intrigue both specialists and non-specialists, celebrated as a ‘revolution’ in understanding social behavior … and ‘the driving force’ behind ‘the great leap forward’ in human evolution…” (Heyes, 2010). I hope that knowledge gained from the ongoing research of mirror neurons could provide insight for prevention and treatment of neurological disorders like autism in the future.

mirror-neurons-autism-3monkey-mirror-neuronsmirror neurons and autism

 

 

References

Acharya, S., & Shukla, S. (2012, Jul-Dec). Mirror neurons: egnigma of the metaphysical modular brain. Journal of natural science, biology, and medicine, 3(2), 118-124.

Autism speaks. (2015). Autism prevalance. Retrieved from Autism speaks: www.autismspeaks.org

Goldstein, B. E. (2011). Cognitive psychology: connecting mind, research, and everyday experience (third ed.). belmont, ca: Schreiber-Ganster, Linda.

Heyes, C. (2010, June). Mesmerising mirror neurons. neuroimage, 51(2), 789-791.

Kilner, J. (2013, Dec 2). What we currently know about mirror neurons. Current biology, 23(23), 1057-1062.

 

One thought on “Mirror Neurons: Relation to Autism

  1. Daniel Keene Trembley

    Wow! This is a very interesting as I have read chapter three, and at the end of the chapter where mirror neurons are discussed, autism is not mentioned. I see the bridge between one and the other however. I shall remember this.

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