11.4.3 Mirror Neurons

• Mirror neurons are brain cells which imitate i.e. ‘mirror’ the actions of other people e.g. As Stanley observes Hilda reach for an Eccles cake the neurons in his motor cortex that are used when he reaches for a cake also fire i.e. they are activated
• Mirror neurons were the outcome of a serendipitous discovery by Rizzolati et al. (2002) via the study of macaque monkeys’ brain activity but its application has been widened to include humans
• The mirror neuron system has been localised to the inferior frontal gyrus of the brain Kilner et al. (2009)
• It is thought that mirror neurons have enabled human beings to form social networks and to bond with each other - both essential tools for survival as they build up alliances and safeguard the individual from threat by hostile groups i.e. 'Don’t attack him, he’s one of us!'
• Mirror neurons may signal another persons’ intention as well as reflecting their actual, observed behaviour e.g. 'It’s almost the end of the lesson so I expect Miss Trunchbull to clap her hands five times to get us to be quiet (hence the neurons in the ‘clap hands’ region of my motor cortex are being activated at the mere thought of this)'
• Mirror neurons are also implicated in empathy: fMRI research showed that participants’ anterior cingulate cortex and inferior frontal gyrus were activated when observing emotions in other people (Gallese, 2001)

Mirror neurons fire when an action is carried out or when the same action is observed.

• Mirror neurons may be an important part of a child’s understanding of other people i.e. their social cognition 
• As outlined in the above section, mirror neurons have been linked to emotional observation and enactment, which could act as a neurological basis for theory of mind i.e. they enable the child to understand that other people may feel differently to how they themselves feel
• Mirror neurons may contribute to the child’s growing awareness of what it means to be part of a group or community: how to navigate social interactions; how to understand social hierarchies and group systems
• Mirror neurons may be necessary for normal development of recognition, imitation, theory of mind, empathy, and language (Oberman & Ramachandran, 2007)
• Dysfunction within the mirror neuron system may contribute significantly to the triad of impairments experienced by people with ASD (Oberman & Ramachandran, 2007)
• The ‘broken mirror theory’ of ASD claims that the frontal and parietal lobes are abnormally activated in children with ASD i.e. children with autism showed no mirror neuron activity in the inferior frontal gyrus while they were observing and imitating facial expressions (Dapretto et al. 2006)

Research which investigates mirror neurons

• Rizzolati & Fabbri-Destro (2008) - A review article of mirror neuron experiments using humans and monkeys has shown that mirror neurons enable the observer to understand the intention behind an observed act, in addition to the goal of that action: evidence increasingly shows that a deficit in the mirror mechanism underlies some aspects of ASD
• Sadeghi et al. (2022) - Dynamic causal modelling using fMRI with 67 participants performing social cognition tasks found that the superior temporal sulcus receives sensory information which is then sent to the inferior parietal lobe which translates the information into imitation

Evaluation of mirror neurons

Strengths 

• The role of mirror neurons in the development of social cognition has been demonstrated robustly using a range of well-controlled experiments e.g. Struss et al. (2001) found that people with damage to their frontal lobes were unable to understand other people’s emotions or to  interpret their intentions
• Understanding the role of mirror neurons in ASD could help to form therapeutic interventions and/or strategies to enable people on the autistic spectrum to deal with the triad of impairments

Weaknesses

• Not all researchers agree as to the precise location, function or even the existence of mirror neurons (Hicock, 2009)
• There is no scientific way (yet) to isolate which specific neurons are mirror neurons: fMRI scans can only show the activity of oxygenated blood in the brain - what is causing that activity has not been conclusively proved

Link to Issues & Debates:

The mirror neuron theory is an example of biological reductionism as it attempts to explain complex human behaviour such as empathy, understanding of intention and theory of mind in an overly simplified way i.e. as the activity of some brain cells. This side of the debate does not consider the role of environmental factors e.g. upbringing, peers, neighbourhood, culture, education as also being key to the development of social cognition.