Autism and Mirror Neurons
Studies done in the past twenty years have indicated that Autism and mirror neurons are intrinsically linked beyond any surface level correlations. Mirror neurons were only recently discovered as of 1992 during a study on macaque monkeys. The researchers took this discovery further and performed studies on humans which have revealed mirror neurons in the premotor cortex, the supplementary motor area, the primary somatosensory cortex, and the inferior parietal cortex. A mirror neuron is a neuron that activates while watching other people perform an action and while executing the same action. Autism spectrum disorder is neuro-divergence that results in abnormal social behaviors as well as unique sensory experiences. Autism is a spectrum and as such autistic people display their symptoms in a wide and varied manner. A commonality throughout studies is that all autistic people have abnormal firing of their mirror neurons. The mirror neuron deficit and suppression found in autistic people poses a possible explanation for insufficient social awareness, language shortcomings, and difficulty recognizing other people’s emotions nonverbally.
The main symptom associated with autism is the person’s lack of understanding how to respond to social cues. This can be tied to mirror neurons by observing the connected variables, “[The results] suggested that a dysfunctional development of the mirror neuron system, possibly as a result of a combination of genetic and environmental factors, could lead to impaired self-other representations and imitation.” (Pineda, 2005). This means that autistic individuals possess faulty mirror neurons. Within the context that the mirror neurons are responsible for recognizing and mimicking actions it can be inferred that the dysfunctional mirror neurons could be the cause for difficulty in social interactions. Following that, during a study of imitation neurons and autism, the group with autism showed correlated brain activity in the Braca’s region and pre-assessed social deficits (William, 2008). The significance of this is that not only does this theory accurately demonstrate the areas where autistic people struggle, but it also takes into account that autism is a spectrum. The difference in autistic people’s brains directly relates to their outward presentation of varying skills. “It has been postulated and proved by neuroscientists that the inability of autistic children to relate to people and life situations in the ordinary way depends on a lack of a normally functioning mirror neuron system” (Acharya & Shukla, 2012). Without the mirror neurons to recognize and formulate proper responses to social expectations, autistic people will appear abnormal and unnatural to neurotypical persons. Hence, there is a connection between an autistic person's ability to socialize and the presence of mirror neurons working efficiently.
There is a rather precarious manifestation of autism that impacts the person's ability to communicate. It shows in different ways described as hyper verbal, verbal, semi-nonverbal, and nonverbal. The theory of mirror neurons leading to the development of human language could coincide with the communication abnormalities in autism. To further this, “It has been theorized that the observation/execution system that mirror neurons provide is an ideal candidate for the evolution of language from an earlier gestural communication system” (Pineda, 2005). The mirror neuron theory of language origins creates a solid basis for the reason behind autistic language and communication. The previous data showed that there is a suppression of mirror neurons specifically in the Braca’s region which is responsible for forming language. This then brings the idea to surface of the possibility that communication that is abnormal to neurotypicals is not simply different in presentation but in the core fundamentals of how they learn language. An initial sign that a child is autistic is that they do not respond to their name when they are younger. This could be due to the lack of mirror neurons signaling the brain to associate an outside sound with their sense of self. Additionally, “Although both groups performed the tasks equally well, children with autism showed no mirror neuron activity in the inferior frontal gyrus” (Dappretto et al., 2005). This is important because the study shows how autistic people compensate for their differences in ways that can make other people not realize that they are autistic. Their brains operate on a completely different level that makes certain tasks easier in comparison to those who are not autistic and other tasks extremely difficult. On a more focal topic, the inferior frontal gyrus contain the part of the brain that is in control of producing language. As such, the malaise of the mirror neurons may contribute to the existence of speech discrepancies within autistic people.
In philosophy there is a term for the thought experiment of putting oneself in another’s shoes. This term is called the theory of mind and examines a person’s capability to have genuine empathy. To continue this, “Once another individual's actions are represented and understood in terms of one's own actions, it is possible to predict the mental state of the observed individual, leading to theory of mind abilities” (Pineda 2005). Essentially, the capacity to see someone’s emotions, recognize what they are, and acknowledge to themselves how the observer would feel if they were the one being watched. This connects to mirror neurons in the way that they function by observing an action, recognizing the action, and then signals to the consciousness of how to imitate the action and as such an idea of how it would feel to do the action. A diagnostic criteria for autism is seemingly lack of empathy. A crucial element of this is that there is only a suppression of mirror neurons in the Broca’s region and not the Wernicke’s area. Due to this observation it's possible that autistic people do not in truth lack empathy but instead lack the means to express their empathy. Further, “Empathy cannot be separated from the action-based systems that serve the experience and expression of emotion” (William, 2008). Mirror neurons are based on actions which in an emotional context could refer to crying, body language, and posture. As such the absence of mirror neurons within the autistic brain impacts their core way of knowing how to express empathy in a way that atypical people would understand and appreciate.
All things considered, there is an unmistakable link between autistic behavior and mirror neurons. In the simple workings of mirror neurons it is quite remarkable in how it can be attributed to a myriad of varying qualities. There is a distinct social performance that autistic people lack the natural finesse of due to mirror neurons not recognizing micro-cues within interactions. A probable cause for lack of verbal communication in autistic people relating to how they learn language and alternatively hyper verbal. As well as perceived lack of empathy in autistic people relating to theory of mind and mirror neurons. As provided, autistic people’s tendencies of social confusion, varying language types, and appliance of theory of mind all relate back to mirror neurons.
References
Acharya, S., & Shukla, S. (n.d.). Mirror neurons: Enigma of the metaphysical modular brain. NCBI. Retrieved September 7, 2024, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3510904/
Dappretto, M., Davies, M. S., Pfeifer, J. H., Scott, A. A., Sigman, M., Bookheimer, S. Y., & Lacoboni, M. (2005, December 4). Understanding emotions in others: mirror neuron dysfunction in children with autism spectrum disorders. NCBI. Retrieved September 7, 2024, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3713227/
Pineda, J. A. (n.d.). EEG evidence for mirror neuron dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders. PubMed. Retrieved September 7, 2024, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15993757/
William, J. H. (2008, May 27). Self-other relations in social development and autism: multiple roles for mirror neurons and other brain bases. Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research. Retrieved September 7, 2024, from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aur.15
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