Image by Leigh Wells in New York Times article.
In 2010, Perkins et al. published a review article reflecting the recent discoveries suggesting the relationship between autism and mirror neurons (MN)—neurons that reacts to other individuals’ activities. Perkins’ and his peers’ optimistic insight on finding the clue for autism in mirror neurons seem to represent new era of studying human behaviours beyond the scope of merely describing the behaviours of an individual with psychological disorders.
What are mirror neurons (MN)? Essentially, they are neurons which can directly imitate one’s brain activities when he/she sees an object or an action, located in parietofrontal lobe of the brain. They are neurons associated with vision and motion. MNs are activated upon observing a certain object or goal-directed actions. When you watch a tennis player whipping his racket, for example, your MNs will ‘mirror’ the activity of that tennis player by activating the same parts of the brain.
For more brain activities that could be associated with MN, check out this slideshow by New York Times!
Because of its nature of perceiving and imitating others’ action, MNs are believed to be associated with feeling empathy, learning language, and gaining fundamental social skills—which are noticeably lacking in individuals with autism. Thus studying MNs, so do many scientists hope, may be a key to unravel the missing link between neuroscience and human behaviours (and perhaps genetics). Diagnoses of autism and many other psychological theories have been rather relying on behavioural descriptions so far. MNs may not only explain why a person with autism may have difficulty in gaining social skills, but furthermore explain how we perceive each other and essentially, how we’ve come to be social animals at the first place.
The scientists’ excitement is not surprising if we even look at some of the sketchy descriptions of autism available to public readers. Take a look at a description of autism on PubMed Health, for example. PubMed is one of the renowned publishers of biomedical articles which students who have studied college-level biology would easily recognize. Despite being one of the most renowned publishers in the industry, however, the causes and signs of autism described in their website for public readers are still rather vague; the article, for example, state that autism may be hereditary, given a twin who has a sibling with autism usually have higher chance of having the same disorder. How so? When mirror neurons are ever going to play a role, genes associated with MNs may be the neurological landmark to indicate the disorder at early childhood or even before birth. That would just be one of many ways to apply our knowledge on these amazing neurons.
However, merely an association between the two factors won’t do any justice; scientists have yet to find a confirmatory linkage between MNs and autism from further primary experiment isolating specific genes or brain regions.
For further discussion on mirror neurons and discussion regarding his thoughts on our behaviours and society, hear this speech by Jeremy Rifkin on YouTube!
Resources:
- New York Times coverage on mirror neurons in 2006 (also the resource of the image on top of this post): http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/science/10mirr.html?pagewanted=all
- PubMed Health article on autism: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002494/
- YouTube Video: RSA Animate – The Empathic Civilisation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g
- The original review article on autism and mirror neurons (MN): Perkins, T., Stokes, M., McGillivray, J., Bittar, R. Mirror neuron dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience 17 (2010) 1239–1243
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