Mirror Neurons

Mirror neurons system are neurons distributed in many areas of the brain . They uniquely fire in response to a personal action and also through watching the actions of others. This helps us to be able to understand he thoughts and emotions of others.

Gallese and Goldman suggested that mirror neurons respond not to just observed actions but also the intention behind behaviour, and that we stimulate others actions in our motor system and experience their intentions using our own mirror neurons.

This idea was originally studied in monkeys where their mirror neurons reacted the same to doing an action and watching another do the same action.

If mirror neurons fire in response to others actions ans intentions then thi gives us a neural mechanism, for experiencing and understanding others views and emotional states.

Ramachandran proposed that less mirror neurons firing linked to ASD. This is the broken mirror theory, the idea that a neurological defecit prevents a child from experiencing and understanding others emotions. This is show when children with ASD typically mimick others less, suggesting less mirror neuron activity. Later this can lad to problems in social development as thy cant understand others internal feelings and thoughts.

Mirror neurons are involved in contagious yawning since when someone yaw as out of boredom or fatigue, someone watching mirror neurons will activate meaning they stimulate the feeling r boredom or tiredness themselves.

Evaluation

Research support= our a set al found when asking ppts to watch porn they found sexual arousal coincided with mirror neurons respond activity( through Fmri scans) This suggests mirror neuron activity allowed ppts to view the actors perspective and feelings in the pornography. Supports the theory that mirror neurons aid social cognition.

It is difficult to study brain activity precisely since brain scans identify regions i the brain but not individual cells due to low spatial resolution. Therefore there is a lack of direct evidence for mirror neuron captivity since they see activity in a certain area and links this to mirror neurons instead of seeing this directly.

Lack of empirical evidence that they actually exist. We onyx know them by what they do not by actually pinpointing the specific neurons firing so we cant point a difference from other neurons. This is a challenge for iron neuron research.

there is a lack of reliable evidence to show link between mirror neurons and ASD. Studies have shown that over activity in brain areas that mirror neurons are present has linked to ASD but these findings haven’t been repeated to che fr consistency. Gives theory less scientific credibility.