Aspies For Freedom

Rain Man's Brain Explained  

Autistic children can mimic faces, but they can't read expressions.

By Lauren Gravitz

DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 05 | May 2006 | Biology & Medicine

Photo courtesy Mirella Dapretto



Mirella Dapretto, a neuroscientist at the University of California at Los Angeles, may have nailed down the source of some of autism's key symptoms, the social and emotional deficits that make it so difficult for autistic people to interact with others.

Dapretto and her colleagues showed autistic children pictures of human faces, each photo conveying an emotion like happiness or fear, and asked them to imitate what they saw. The researchers scanned the children's brains as they performed the task and compared the results with those of children who were developing normally.

The children in the normal-development group displayed heightened activity in a number of brain regions, but two spots were of particular interest: the movement center (associated with changing facial expressions) and an area near the front of the brain that includes the mirror-neuron system. Mirror neurons are brain cells that fire both when we perform an action and when we watch someone else do it. "They're connected to emotion centers in the brain and are what allows us to empathize with other people," Dapretto says.

Autistic children exhibited similar activity in their brains' movement centers, but function in the mirror-neuron centers was conspicuously low. And the more severe a child's social impairment was, the weaker the activity in the brain's mirror region. "The kids were doing the task, but they weren't doing it in a way that allowed them to feel what the other person felt," says Dapretto. She hopes this finding will inspire new therapies for autistic children: "If you have an intervention that jumpstarts this system—if you can get a child to think, 'Hey, that's the face I feel when I'm angry'—in the long run you should see improvement."

I guess the people at JRC are trying to get the kids there to think "oh that is the face I make when I feel pain."

Could this "mirroring" be the reason that children are made to play "follow the leader" in kindergarten.  I used to have alot of trouble doing follow the teacher's action because I just did not get left and right.  Even now when I am doing an exercise video I have trouble doing the actions without seeing myself in a mirror.  All the good ballet studios have mirrors on the walls.  

I can't help thinking that all the old methods of teaching children:  apprenticeship, homeschooling, actual caretaking by parents were actually more effective that the monkey business that is happening today:  group daycare.   They worked for thousands of years.  It's like they are being rediscovered today.  Hopefully educators and scientists will realize that diversity is a good thing and not just everyone can fit into the classroom mode of learning.  - hopefully before all the autistic people are eliminated.

Quote from article

And all this time I've been thinking that it's maturity, moral integrity, life experience, knowledge and goodwill that enable people to empathise with other people. Silly me.  :roll:

So I guess it must follow that NT children, who presumably have normal mirror neurons, are full of empathy? That's odd, I remember being bullied by lots of NT kids and adults who obviously weren't using their awesome powers of empathy at the time. I think that could be a problem for this scientific theory.

hmm...so it's better to act and imiate to be in social interaction than bring your own indivual parts to the table.  i find that when you have unique ideas, social interaction is enhanced and everyone benifits instead of just being the same thing.

and nt's being emathepic?  hmm, probaly only to themseleves or people they like, if you don't fit their certian mold, you get none of their empathy.  it's the pack mentaily, if you're in it, you get the whole thing, if not, they don't really care.

and about making spefic expressions when you're feeling a certian way, i feel there isn't a rock solid face to each emotion, it's just more nt judging and conformity.  it also says you can only feel one emotion at one time, but i feel that expression of emotions can be translated in many ways, but the faces can give a clue in the ballpark, like smiling will probaly indicate that something is well.  and don't nt's mask these emotions anyway, especally when they bully?  so that's useless.

and why should you feel what the other person is feeling during an activity anyway?  i think the philospy here is whack, and i don't see nt bullies do that when they toture us.  they only think about themselves.  i on the other hand, think in terms of logic, and see why you should do something (like waitng in line, they have been wating longer than you).  i also belive emotions can and will lie many times, and not an accurate view of getting through life.

and alot of times, unless i've known someone personally, i usually think about my own emotions.  this isnt bad, as i feel emotions lie, especally in nt's.  this post seems a bit jumbled even to me, if someone can translate it, thank you.

so, mirror neurons, overrated.

You're right; there isn't. However, they are always similar. A previous article in this magazine showed that isolated peoples in remote areas interpret faces the same way as people from Europe and America. They are built-in to humans.

Previously in this magazine was an article about a study that showed that when someone slams their foot in a door, the average NT feels a little of the pain. I think that's what they're talking about.

???

That has nothing to do with the article.

No problem; see bolded.