1. Mirror Neurons Irene Losa Aguado Elena Domingo Calvete Kaitlyn McNabb
Maddison Norton
Emily Stevens

2. Discovery of Mirror Neurons
Discovered in the 1980s and 1990s
Discovered by Giuseppe Di Pellegrino, Luciano Fadiga, Leonardo Fogassi, and Vittorio Gallese who worked at the University of Parma in Italy.

3. What is a Mirror Neuron? A neuron that fires when
An animal performs an action
The animal observes the same action performed by another
Thus, the neuron “mirrors” the behavior of the other, as though the observer were performing the task.
Directly observed in primate species
Birds
Imitative resonance behaviors
Form of mirroring system

4. Development
Human infant data using eye-tracking measures suggest that the mirror neuron system develops before 12 months of age.
This system may help human infants understand other people's actions.
A critical question concerns how mirror neurons acquire mirror properties.

5. Development
It’s unclear how newborn babies are able to mimic the facial gestures of another person.
One possibility is that the sight of tongue protrusion recruits an innate releasing mechanism in neonates.

6. Brain Areas Composed of Mirror Neurons
Premotor Cortex
Location:
Frontal Lobe
Supplementary Motor Cortex
Active immediately before movement
Receives information about the target to which the body is directing its movement and information about the body’s current position and posture (Kalat, 2013).
The premotor cortex, the supplementary motor cortex, primary somatosensory cortex, and the inferior partial lobe are brain areas composed of mirror neurons. The premotor cortex is located in the frontal lobe in the supplementary motor cortex. It is most active immediately before the movement. It receives information about the target to which the body is directing its movement, as well as information about the body’s current position and posture. These are both necessary to direct a movement towards a target.

7. Brain Areas Composed of Mirror Neurons
Supplementary Motor Cortex
Location:
Frontal Lobe
Active during preparation of a rapid sequence of movements
Inferior Parietal Lobe
Lower part of Postcentral Gyrus
Perception of emotions in facial stimuli
Interpretation of sensory information
The supplementary motor cortex is important for planning and organizing a rapid sequence of movements. If you have a habitual action, such as turning left when you get to a certain corner, this supplementary cortex is essential for inhibiting that habit when you need to do something else.
The inferior parietal lobe is located on the lower part of the postcentral gyrus. It is involved in the perception of emotions and interpretation of sensory information.

8. Brain Areas Composed of Mirror Neurons
Primary Somatosensory Cortex
Location:
Parietal Lobe
Postcentral Gyrus
Receives sensations from:
Touch receptors
Muscle-stretch receptors
Joint receptors
The primary somatosensory cortex is located in the parietal lobe and is located on the postcentral gryus. This area receives sensations form touch receptors, muscle-stretch receptors, and joint receptors. When this area is stimulated, people report tingling sensations on the opposite side of their body.

9. Gender Differences Yawei Cheng Neurophysiological measures: MEG
Spinal Reflex Excitability
Electroencephalography
Presence of gender differences:
Female participants exhibit stronger motor resonance than men participants

10. Gender Differences Emotional social interactions:
Better empathetic ability in females compared to males
Females have greater ability in emotional perspective taking than do males in face-to-face interactions.
Recognizing emotions
Male and female ability is similar

11. Mirror Neurons in Monkeys
Macaque monkey
Mirror neurons are found in the inferior frontal gyrus and the inferior parietal lobe.
They found that some of the neurons they recorded from would respond when the monkey saw a person pick up a piece of food as well as when the monkey picked up the food.
*Infants can imitate a human’s face movements*

12. Article from New York Times
Other animals:
Monkeys, apes, elephants, dolphins, and dogs.
Rudimentary mirror neurons
Humans, with their huge working memory, carry out far more sophisticated imitations.
Social emotions
Guilt, shame, pride, embarrassment, disgust, and lust.
Based on a uniquely human mirror neuron system found in a part of the brain called the insula.
The grad student came in with an ice cream cone, and the monkey stared/observed. When the grad student raised the cone to his lips, the monitor sounded; even though the monkey had not moved but had simply observed the student grasping the cone and moving it to his mouth.
In a study not yet published, he found that when people watched a hand go forward to caress someone and then saw another hand push it away rudely, the insula registered the social pain of rejection. Humiliation appears to be mapped in the brain by the same mechanisms that encode real physical pain, he said.

13. Comparison Between Human and Monkey Mirror Neurons
Both the human and monkey mirror neuron system mediates the same function of understanding actions completed by others and the intentions behind them.
Infant monkeys and humans can imitate facial gestures of other’s.
Evidence that mirror neurons develop at an early stage in both monkeys and humans
Location of the mirror neurons within the brains of monkeys and humans is slightly different.
Both the human and monkey mirror neuron system mediates the same function of understanding actions completed by others and the intentions behind them.
Infant monkeys and humans can imitate facial gestures of other’s. Evidence that mirror neurons develop at an early stage in both monkeys and humans.
On the other hand, the location of the mirror neurons within the brains of monkeys and humans is slightly different.

14. Evolution Premotor Neurons Types types of training: Hebbian Learning
Presynaptic cells are constantly activating postsynaptic cells
Associative Learning
Association between two stimuli of a behavior and a stimuli

15. Evolution
Premotor neurons need to be trained in order to acquire mirror properties.
However, it is unclear how babies are able to mimic the facial gestures of another person.
The sight of tongue protrusion recruits an innate releasing mechanism in neonates.

16. Empathy
Research on mirror neurons and “phantom limbs” suggests an extraordinary human capacity for empathy.
Example: (Marsh, 2012)
Insular Cortex: Experience a painful sensation
Anterior Cingulate: Cells respond to pain (agony)
Fire when observing someone else being poked by a needle
Mirror neurons are most likely involved in empathy for pain
V.S. Ramachandran is a neuroscientist and a psychology professor at the University of San Diego. He theorized that there was a link between the phenomenon of phantom limbs and neural plasticity. Simarily to what we have talked about in class, phantom limb patients experienced pain and sensations on their amputated arms, legs, and so forth. Ramachandran created the mirror box and used this to treat phantom limb pain. After this invention, he began research on mirror neurons and phantom limbs and found that there was a strong correlation with human empathy. He found that when someone was poked by a needle on their thumb they would experience pain and agony. The insular cortex would fire cells and create a painful sensation while the anterior cingulate contained cells that responded to pain. Neurons in this area will also fire when watching someone else being poked by a needle. There are non-mirror pain neurons and mirror neuron pain neurons within the brain. Therefore, these mirror neurons are most likely involved in empathy for pain because they allow one to emphasize with another’s pain. That person is experiencing the same agony and excruciating pain as you would if somebody poked you with a needle.

17. Empathy Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl8Tc3qNhCc
Start at 1:40 stop at 2:33
End at
Start: 4:08

18. Language
fMRI studies found areas homologous to the monkey mirror neuron system in the inferior frontal cortex, proximal to Broca’s Area.
Broca’s Area: Region of the brain associated with language.
Suggestion that human language evolved from a gesture performance/understanding system implemented in mirror neurons.

19. Language Mirror neurons have the potential to provide a mechanism for:
Action-understanding
Imitation-learning
Simulation of other people’s behavior
New word pronunciation in children is linked to mirror neurons
Speech repetition occurs automatically, fast, and separately in the brain to speech perception.

20. Language
Brain activity of two participants was measured using fMRI while they were gesturing words to each other.
Analysis of data using the Granger Causality
Supported the idea that the motor concept associated with words is transmitted from one brain to another using the mirror neuron system.
Another study….

21. Motor Mimicry Video

22. Imitation Two kinds of imitation: Automatic Imitation
Mirror neuron system contributes to cognitive functioning.
Motor mimicry promotes prosocial attitudes and behavior.
Motor Mimicry
Both depend on the same psychological and neural processes.
Both affected and controlled by the mirror neurons.

23. Theory of Mind
"Theory of mind" refers to our ability to infer another person's mental state (i.e., beliefs and desires) from experiences or their behavior.
For example, if you see a girl reaching into a jar labeled "cookies", you might assume that she wants a cookie and believes that there are cookies in the jar (even if you know the jar is empty)

24. Theory of Mind
According to simulation theory, theory of mind is available because we subconsciously empathize with the person we’re observing and, accounting for relevant differences, imagine what we would desire and believe in that scenario.
Mirror neurons have been interpreted as the mechanism by which we simulate others in order to better understand them, and therefore their discovery has been taken by some as a validation of simulation theory (which appeared a decade before the discovery of mirror neurons).

25. Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder in which personal, social, and occupational functioning deteriorate as a result of strange perceptions, unusual emotions, and motor abnormalities (Comer, 2014).
The discovery of “mirror neurons” provided an understanding of social cognition at a cellular level (Burns, 2006).
The biological explanation of these abnormalities may be explained by an abnormal functioning of the mirror system (Burns, 2006).

26. Schizophrenia
The imitation and observation of others’ actions is an important component of social cognition, which is altered in schizophrenia (McCormick, 2012).
Processing of social and emotional information has been shown to be disturbed in patients with schizophrenia (McCormick, 2012).
Mirror neuron system forms the basis for the interpersonal experience and provides a basis for human empathy (McCormick, 2012).

27. Schizophrenia
One of the main barriers to recovery for many people with schizophrenia are their profound and enduring difficulties with social interactions.
Experience great difficulty forming relationships and maintaining employment
Social impairments manifest in several different ways, ranging from paranoia of people intending to hurt them to withdrawing completely from social interactions.

28. Mirror Neurons Linked to Schizophrenia
Neuroscientists at Vanderbilt University
Supported theory that an impaired ability to imitate may underline the profound difficulty with social interactions that characterize schizophrenia.
American Journal of Psychiatry
Researchers reported that people who were asked to imitate simple hand movements exhibited abnormal brain activity in areas associated with the ability to imitate (Salisbury).
In the paper published online on March 14 by the American Journal of Psychiatry, researchers reported that people who were asked to imitate simple hand movements exhibited abnormal brain activity in areas associated with the ability to imitate (Salisbury).

29. Study
“The fact that patients with schizophrenia show abnormal brain activity when they imitate simple hand gestures is significant because action imitation is a primary building block of social abilities”.
Katherine Thakkar
The ability to imitate is present early in life and is crucial for learning how to navigate within the social world.
Katherine Thakkar conducted most of the research while completing her doctoral program at Vanderbilt.

30. Study
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imagining (fMRI): Maps levels of brain activity by measuring associated changes in the blood flow.
The study uses fMRI to examine the brain activity of schizophrenic patients while they perform basic imitation tasks.
Performed on sixteen medicated schizophrenic patients and sixteen healthy participants
Confirmed that patients with schizophrenia have an impaired ability to imitate.

31. Autism
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by extreme unresponsiveness to people, severe communication deficits, and rigid and repetitive behaviors, interests, and activities (Comer, 2014).
Symptoms:
Lack of social skills
Absence of empathy
Language deficits
Poor imitation
Dysfunction of mirror neuron system in individuals diagnosed with autism.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by extreme unresponsiveness to people, severe communication deficits, and rigid and repetitive behaviors, interests, and activities. Children with autism have great difficulty displaying closeness and empathy as well as show a lack of responsiveness and social reciprocity. During infancy they do not usually reach for their parents and they display poor eye contact. It has been proposed that dysfunction of the mirror neuron system early in development could give rise to the cascade of impairments including deficits in social communication, imitation, and theory of mind.

32. The Mirror Neuron Revolution: Explaining What Makes Humans Social
Marco Iacoboni (Lehrer, 2008).
Mirror neuron dysfunction has been associated with:
Social Deficits
Difficult time understanding mental states of others
Motor Deficits
Language Deficits
Marco Iacoboni is a neuroscientist at the University of California and has shown in recent years that mirror neurons are an important element of social cognition and that deficits in the mirror neuron system may underlie a variety of mental disorders such as autism. Patients with autism have a hard time understanding the mental states of other people; this is why social interactions are not easy for these patients. Reduced mirror neuron activity weakens the ability of these patients to experience immediately and effortlessly what other people are experiencing, thus making social interactions difficult for them. Also, patients with autism often have motor problems and language problems. The motor deficits in autism can be easily explained because mirror neurons are just special types of premotor neurons, brain cells essential for planning and selecting actions. It has been also hypothesized that mirror neurons may be important in language evolution and language acquisition. Broca’s Area is a major language area in the brain that contains mirror neurons. Therefore, a deficit in mirror neurons can account for three major symptoms of autism, the social, motor and language problems.

33. The Anatomy of Autism Inferior Frontal Gyrus
Reduced mirror neuron activity
Inability to assess intensions of others
Insula & Anterior Cingulate
Dysfunction of mirror neurons
Cause related symptoms (absence of empathy)
Angular Gyrus
Deficits that result in language difficulties
Structural changes in brain stem and cerebellum
People with autism show reduced mirror neuron activity in the inferior frontal gryus, a part of the premotor cortex, that perhaps explains their inability to assess intensions of others. Dysfunctions of mirror neurons in the insula and anterior cingulate cortex may be cause related symptoms such as absence of empathy. Also, deficits in the angular gyrus may result in language and communication difficulties. People with Autism show structural changes in the brain stem and cerebellum.

34. The Anatomy of Autism

35. Mirror Neuron Dysfunction in Children with Autism
Electroencephalogram (EEG): Measure brain waves
Mu wave: Blocked when a person watches someone else perform the same action
Study: (Ramachandran & Oberman, 2006)
High-functioning children with autism
Monitored mu waves as they made voluntary muscle movements and then watched the same actions on video.
To demonstrate mirror neuron dysfunction in children with autism they used an EEG to measure the children’s brain waves. Researchers relied on the observation that firing of neurons in the premotor cortex suppresses the mu wave, a component of the EEG measurement of brain activity. They monitored the mu waves of high-functioning autistic children and control subjects as they made voluntary muscle movements and watched the same actions on video.

36. Mirror Neuron Dysfunction in Children with Autism
Results:
Mu wave suppressed when completing a voluntary muscle movement
Mu wave showed no suppression when watching someone else perform the action.
The EEG showed that the child had an observable mu wave that was suppressed when he made a simple, voluntary movement. However, when the child watched someone else perform the action, the suppression did not occur. This provides evidence that the child’s motor command system was intact but that his mirror neuron system was deficient. Based on these results, some researchers claim that autism is caused by impairments in the neuron mirror system, which leads to disabilities in social skills, imitation, empathy, and theory of mind in people diagnosed with autism.

37. Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8WV1zAh9zU
Start at 1:58 Stop at 3:05
Gabe is a child with autism, specifically, Asperger's disorder. This video allows us to see the study completed on children with autism. Autistic children have great difficulty imitating others because they have trouble putting themselves in other people’s shoes; therefore, they have a major deficit in their mirror neuron system.

38. References
Blakeslee, Sandra. “Cells that Read Minds.” The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 10 Jan Web. 19 April 2015, Burns, J. (2006). The social brain hypothesis of schizophrenia. World Psychiatry. Comer, R. (2014). Abnormal Psychology. (8th ed.) New York, NY: Worth Publishers. Kalat, J. (2013). Biological Psychology. (11th ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Lehrer, J. “The Mirror Neuron Revolution: Explaining What Makes Humans Social.” Scientific American. 1 July Web. 19 April 2015, Marsh, J. (2012). “Do Mirror Neurons Give Us Empathy”. Greater Good Science Center. Web. 11. Apr. 2015,

39. References
McCormick, LM.. (2012). Mirror neuron function, psychosis, and empathy in schizophrenia. NCBI Web:
Meltzoff, A.N. (2005). Imitation and other minds: The “Like Me” Hypothesis. In S. Hurley and N. Chater (Eds.), Perspectives on Imitation: From Neuroscience to Social Science. (Vol. 2), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
“Mirror Neurons.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Jan Web. 11. Apr ,
Ramachandran, V.S. & Oberman, L.M. (2006). “Broken Mirrors”. Scientific American Inc. Web Retrieved from:
Salisbury, David. “Brain Mapping Confirms Patients with Schizophrenia Have Impaired Ability to Imitate.”Vanderbilt Research. Vanderbilt University, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015,