1. Cognitive explanation for social phenomena
Mirror Neurons
Cognitive explanation for social phenomena

2. Outline Veronica Hool Social Implications
David Piccinati Anatomy/Physiology
Sara Robinson Autism
Steve Shaw Current/Future Research

4. Important Questions
Why is it that we get so deeply involved in such things as sports, videogames, movies, dances?
Why is it that we have such strong emotional responses?
How is it that we can read other people's body language and faces so well?
What is it that allows us to connect so deeply when we watch other humans?

5. The answer?...Mirror Neurons!
a special circuitry found on both sides of the brain that helps us whenever we look at each other
give us the ability to connect with one another
the brain's way of translating what we see so we can relate to the world and understand it

7. Discovery of Mirror Neurons
Giacomo Rizzolatti
Placed electrodes in the premotor cortex
Wanted to study neurons specialized for the control of hand actions
Picking things up, grasping, etc.
Mirror neurons actually found by chance
Wrote about their discovery in 1992

8. Monkey Evidence In monkeys Originally found in premotor cortex
Same neurons fire when
1. When monkey performs a goal-directed action
2. When monkey observes a similar action

9. Monkey Evidence (cont.)
Same activity seen when
Monkey saw entire action
Monkey could not see completion of action
These studies suggest that the activity of mirror neurons correlates with action understanding.

10. Not just a monkey thing... it is a people thing too!
Growing up as children, first you see, then you do
through this process we develop a rich basis of knowledge that we can use to apply to how we see other people
when we see  we experience

12. Simulation
such strong responses, because if you know the feeling... then your mirror neurons fire as if you were experiencing the action yourself
examples: carrying a stack of packages, watching sports

13. Human Evidence Mu rhythm
Suppressed when the brain is engaged in doing, seeing or imagining action
Seems to correlate to mirror neuron activity
In most people, the mu wave is suppressed both in response to their own movement and to observing the movement of others.

14. Human Evidence (cont.)
fMRI shows regions activated when performing an action and witnessing an action.
-Red = experiencing disgust
-Yellow = witnessing disgust
Left insula

15. Not just actions… but FEELINGS too!
Marco Iacoboni of UCLA did fMRI studies of emotional faces
Results: the same neurons fired when you imitated a face seen on a picture (actually moving the facial muscles), as well as when you just looked at the picture
suggests that mirror neurons send signals to the limbic and emotional systems in the brain
this in turn allows us to empathize!

16. Think about actors experts of the mirror neuron system
humans instinctively respond to emotion seen in other's faces and bodies

17. What does all this mean?
Deep in our architecture and biological makeup, we are meant to be together, and socially interact.

18. Mirror Neuron Dysfunction
Many researchers have concluded that Autism is the result of Mirror Neuron Dysfunction

19. Characteristics of Autism
Infants:
Avoid contact & fail to anticipate being picked up
First Few Years of Development:
Might develop some skills such was walking or talking quicker than normal but other developments are considerably delayed

20. Characteristics of Autism (cont’d.)
Toddlers:
Abnormal behaviors
Start to see social dysfunctions
“Insistence of sameness”
Lack of imaginary play
Avoidance of eye contact

21. Theory of Mind” and Autistic Individuals
the cognitive capacity to attribute independent mental states to self and others in means to predict and explain behavior, beliefs, intentions and actions.
Autistic Individuals are lacking the ability to attribute mental states or understand that another individual has a different perspective

22. Cognition in Autistic Individuals
Common tests of Cognition:
False-belief tasks
Instruct Autistic child to show a photograph to another child
Recording of brain activity when performing a task and then watching same task being performed by another individual

23. Cognition in Autistic Individuals (cont’d)
Savant Skills: 10% of autistic kids seem to have a certain remarkable talent
Ultimately, it has been concluded that individuals with autism are lacking mirror neurons that would normally allow them to have an understanding of the thoughts, feelings, actions and emotions of others.
Savant Musician Ellen

24. Recent Mirror Neuron Research

25. Neurocomputing and Robotics
Anthropomorphic “humanoid” robots that socially interact with humans.
Discovery of the mirror neuron system allows for finer tuning of social interactions between robots and humans
Oberman, McCleery, Ramachandran, and Pineda prove that mirror neurons aren’t specifically for biological interaction

26. Stroke Studies and Emotion
Emotion- “the experience and expression of feeling states” –Cummings and Bogousslavsky
Instrumental function deficits would produce impairment of emotional comprehension (both verbal and non verbal)
Lesions impairing fundamental functions would produce disorders of emotional experience
Lesions impairing executive/integrative function would produce impairment of emotional control and expression

27. Stroke Studies and Emotion (cont’d)
Stroke should then produce neurological state that depends on the damaged structure/function
Damage to:
Instrumental FunctionAnosognosia
Fundamental FunctionsDeficit/Productive Syndromes (ie mania, depression, psychosis)
Executive/integrative functionsDisroders of empathy

28. More Studies
Congenital phantom limb cases and developmental theory for the basis of body image
Execution/Observation Studies
Mirror Neurons and therapeutic hypnosis
Mirror neurons and neurorehabilitation
Mu rhythms and neurocomputing

29. References http://www.autism.org/overview.html
Bodini B., Iacoboni M., Lenzi G.L. Acute stroke effects on emotions: an interpretation through the mirror system. Curr Opin Neurol Feb;17(1):55-60.
Price E.H. A critical review of congenital phantom limb cases and a developmental theory for the basis of body image. Conscious Cogn Jun;15(2):
Oberman L.M., McCleery J.P., Ramachandran V.S., Pineda J.A. EEG evidence for mirror neuron activity during the observation of human and robot actions:  Toward an analysis of the human qualities of interactive robots. Neural Computing, 2006

30. References (cont.)
Gallese V., Keysers C., Rizzolatti G. A unifying view of the basis of social cognition. TRENDS in Cog Sci Sep; 8(9):
Giacomo Rizzolatti1 and Laila Craighero2
Rizzolatti G., Craighero L. The Mirror Neuron System. Annu. Rev. Neurosci :169–92