Mirror Neuron Dr' Raya Ariel

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Mirror NeuronDr. Raya Ariel

• The Department of Child and
  Adolescent Psychiatry
• Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel

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Definition

• Mirror neurons are a class of neurons in the
  parietal lobe.
• Discovered monkeys in 1992 and studied ever since
  then.
• They discharge both when the animal performs an
  action (grasps an object) and sees another
  individual make a similar action (monkey or
  human).

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Research Paradigm

• Microscopic electrodes inserted into single
  neurons.
• Animal hooked to machine which records its
  firing.
• Discovery of the function of these neuron
  happened by accidental (the raisin).

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Mirror Neuron facts

• For these neurons to fire the monkey has to see
  an object-directed action (object alone or hand
  movement alone is not enough).
• The mere observation of an object not acted upon
  does not evoke a response either.
• Reward not relevant to firing.
• Mirror neurons can be driven not only by action
  execution and observation, but also by the sound
  produced by the same action

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Mirror neurons related to mouth action

• More recently studied
• Located in a different area
• 1 class ingestive functions (grasping food with
  mouth, sucking etc.)
• 2 class communication gestures
• 1 2 related.
• Evolution in monkeys origin of communication
  movement in ingestive movements of mouth

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Mechanism of action understanding

• Each time monkey sees action by another
  individual, neurons that are activated when the
  same action is executed by himself are firing.
• Thus the monkey has knowledge of the others
  action from his own activity.

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Human Mirror Neurons

• The mirror neuron system for actions in humans
  cannot be directly studied.
• fMRI paradigms
• Rizzolatti (in 2005) found that when people
  listened to sentences describing actions, the
  same mirror neurons fired as would have fired had
  they performed the actions or witnessed them
  being performed.

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fMRI findings

• Experiencing disgust and witnessing the same
  emotion expressed by someone else activate the
  same neural structure.
• The areas that responded to observation of mouth
  actions also responded to reading sentences about
  mouth actions
• Thus that in addition to execution, action
  observation, and the sounds of actions, these
  neurons may also be activated by abstract
  representations of actions, namely language."

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Empaty - emotions

• Mirror neuron network in man involves and
  activates Amygdala (emotions)
• We do not accomplish understanding of others
  feelings by analogy or thinking processes.
• Rather, the others emotion is experienced by
  ourselves and therefore directly understood. It
  is a shared body state.

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lets be in touch

• The experience of being touched activates the
  same neural networks as observing someone else
  being touched

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Language

• Language theory hold that actions have a syntax
  similar to that of spoken or signed language.
  Its Hand grasps ball
• Language rises from the same syntactic
  understanding that our mirror neurons generate.

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Evolution of language

• Once you have two abilities in place
• the ability to read someone's intentions (through
  your own)
• the ability to mime their vocalizations then you
  have set in motion the evolution of language. You
  need no longer speak of a unique language organ
  and the evolution of language doesn't seem quite
  so mysterious any more.

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Social Skills

• Anytime you watch someone else doing something
  (or even starting to do something), the
  corresponding mirror neuron fires in your brain,
  thereby allowing you to "read" and understand
  another's intentions, and thus to develop a
  sophisticated "theory of other minds."

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Mirror neuron in Autism

• Mirror neurons that fired in nonautistic people
  watching someone else make meaningless finger
  movements didnt fire in autistic children.
• Both autistic and nonautistic adolescents watched
  pictures of people with distinctive facial
  expressions. Both subjects could imitate the
  expressions and say what emotions they expressed.
  But while the nonautistic teens showed robust
  activity in mirror neurons corresponding to the
  emotions expressed, the autistic teens showed no
  such activity.
• They understood the expressions cognitively but
  felt no empathy.

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• a decade of research has shown that people with
  autism tend to have difficulty imitating others,
  especially when those movements are complex
• There is a controversial claim that the
  repetitious behaviors characteristic of autism
  may arise from an unregulated mirror system.

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Mirror neuron - Violence

• Mirror neurons may reveal a new perspective on
  the dynamics of violent video games.
• Studies suggest that such games reinforce, at a
  basic neuronal level, an association of pleasure
  and accomplishment with inflicting harm.
• The power of mirror neurons systems suggests that
  imitative violence may not always be a
  consciously mediated process. Namely, less
  subject to control than we would like.

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Ramachandran

• "I predict that mirror neurons will do for
  psychology what DNA did for biology,"
• "They will provide a unifying framework and help
  explain a host of mental abilities that have
  hitherto remained mysterious and inaccessible."
• Mirror neurons primed the human brain for the
  great cultural leap forward.
• Once we had the ability to imitate, and learn
  through imitation, transmission of culture could
  continue by leaps and bounds.