Mirror Neurons (AQA A Level Psychology): Revision Note

What are mirror neurons?

• Rizzolatti et al. (2002) were studying electrical activity in a macaque monkey's motor cortex when the monkey's motor cortex activated as it watched a researcher reach for his lunch — the same brain cells fired when the monkey reached for food itself as when it watched someone else do so

  • The researchers called these cells mirror neurons because they mirror motor activity in another individual; their application has since been widened to humans

• The mirror neuron system has been localised to the inferior frontal gyrus of the brain Kilner et al., 2009)

• Ramachandran (2011) suggested that mirror neurons have shaped human evolution

  • Uniquely complex human social interactions require a brain system that facilitates understanding of intention, emotion and perspective, and without it humans could not live in large groups with complex social roles and rules

• Mirror neurons may signal another person's intention as well as reflect their actual, observed behaviour (Gallese & Goldman, 1998)

  • 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)

The role of mirror neurons in cognitive development

• Mirror neurons may be an important part of a child’s understanding of other people, i.e., their social cognition 

• As outlined above, mirror neurons have been linked to emotional observation and enactment, which could act as a neurological basis for theory of mind

  • Mirror neurons enable the child to understand that other people may feel differently from how they 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 and how to understand social hierarchies and group systems

• Mirror neurons may be necessary for the normal development of recognition, imitation, theory of mind, empathy, and language (Oberman & Ramachandran, 2007)

• Ramachandran & Oberman (2006) proposed the 'broken mirror' theory of ASD: neurological deficits, including dysfunction in the mirror neuron system, prevent a developing child from imitating and understanding social behaviour in others

  • This manifests in infancy (children later diagnosed with ASD typically mimic adult behaviour less) and later as difficulties in reading social roles, intentions and emotions

• Dapretto et al. (2006} found children with autism showed no mirror neuron activity in the inferior frontal gyrus while they were observing and imitating facial expressions

Research which investigates mirror neurons

• Rizzolatti & 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

• Haker et al. (2012) used fMRI to study contagious yawning (widely seen as a simple example of human empathy)

  • Participants shown films of people yawning displayed considerable activity in Brodmann's area 9 in the right frontal lobe, an area believed to be rich in mirror neurons

• Mouras et al. (2008) found that activity in the pars opercularis (a region of the inferior frontal gyrus believed to be rich in mirror neurons) occurred before sexual arousal when male participants watched pornography, consistent with mirror neurons producing the perspective-taking that made the material arousing

Evaluation of mirror neurons

Strengths 

• There is supporting evidence for the role of frontal brain regions in social cognition, e.g., Stuss et al. (2001) found that people with frontal lobe damage struggled to understand other people's emotions and intentions

  • This is consistent with mirror neuron theory, although it demonstrates the importance of the region rather than of mirror neurons specifically

• If mirror neuron dysfunction contributes to the social-cognitive differences seen in ASD, this understanding could inform therapeutic strategies and support for autistic people

  • However, given the mixed evidence (Hadjikhani, 2007), such applications remain speculative

Limitations

• Hickok (2009) questioned whether mirror neurons exist at all in humans: we only know what mirror neurons should do in theory, and we cannot identify individual cells or distinguish them from other neurons, although some single-cell recordings during surgery (Mukamel et al., 2010) do suggest isolated mirror neurons exist

  • Hickok also argues that even if they exist, their role may be overstated: mirror neuron activity may reflect using others' behaviour to plan our own actions, rather than understanding the cognitions behind theirs

• Evidence for human mirror neurons comes from brain scanning, which identifies activity in regions of the brain, not individual cells; for ethical reasons, electrodes cannot be inserted into the human brain to measure activity at a cellular level

  • Researchers are therefore inferring mirror neuron activity from regional activation, meaning there is a lack of direct evidence for mirror neurons in humans

Issues & Debates

• Mirror neuron theory can be seen as biologically deterministic because it implies that behaviours such as empathy, imitation, and understanding intentions are pre-programmed if mirror neurons are functioning normally

  • This perspective suggests we have little conscious control over these social behaviours, as they are driven by automatic neural processes

  • This challenges the idea of free will in human interaction and moral decision-making

• Mirror neuron theory leans heavily on the nature side of the nature vs nurture debate, proposing that social understanding is innate and present from birth

  • However, critics argue that nurture—especially early social experiences—plays a crucial role in developing theory of mind and empathy, indicating a more interactionist perspective is needed