The mirror neurone system

• Pizzolatti noted that the same neurons in a a monkey's motor cortex became activated when:

  • Monkeys observed a researcher reaching for his lunch

  • The monkey itself reached for food.
• Gallese and Goldman suggested that mirror neurons respond not just to observed actions but to intentions behind behaviour. We need to understand the intentions of others in order to interact socially: Research on mirror neurons suggests we actually simulate the action of others in our own brains and thus experience their intentions through our mirror neurons.
• Mirror neurons give us a neural mechanism for experiencing, and hence understanding other people's perspectives and emotional states. This underlies perspective-taking and ToM.
• Ramachandran suggested that mirror neurons have shaped human evolution, in particular how we have evolved as a social species. Mirror neurons enable us to understand intention, emotion and perspective. These are fundamental requirements for living in large groups with the complex social roles and rules, both of which characterise human culture.
• ASD is associated with problems related to social-cognitive abilities, such as difficulty with perspective-taking, understanding intention, emotion and ToM. It follows that people with ASD might have a poor mirror neuron system.
• Ramachandran and Oberman have proposed the 'broken mirror' theory of ASD. According to this theory ASD develops due to neurological deficits, including dysfunction in the mirror neuron system. Such dysfunction prevents a child imitating and understanding social behaviour in others. Researchers have observed that, in infancy, children who are later diagnosed with ASD typically mimic adult behaviour less than children with no diagnosis. This may demonstrate innate problems with the mirror neuron system.