Aspies For Freedom

Autism's Fogged-up Mirror

People with autism experience less activity in the brain neurons that specifically trigger human empathy, according to a new study by University of Montreal researcher Hugo Théoret. The professor in the Department of Psychology is trying to understand the link between ‘mirror neurons’ and autism.

Mirror neurons, a theory developed in the ‘90s, are at the basis of all imitative learning such as language acquisition. So, a person who watches another performing a certain activity actually experiences the same activity in their brain circuitry. The theory also explains why laughing can become so contagious.

Théoret says since mirror neurons trigger human empathy and one of autism’s main characteristic’s is not being able to put oneself in another person’s shoes, the researcher decided to apply the mirror neuron theory to autism.

He had two groups stay still and observe a video recording of a hand with one finger moving. He then had both repeat the gesture. He also took a reading of the brain activity in their brain cortex. Among the autistic subjects, mirror neurons showed weaker activity and showed for the first time no difference in neuron activity in both movement and observation of the autistic.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...181405.htm

Well, I don't know how much it applies to Aspergers, or me at least.  I'm pretty good at experiencing what someone else is feeling, and I catch contagious laughter more than anyone I've ever met.

Personally I'm not good at telling what someone else is feeling, and I dont have much empathy.

Have you ever tried the EQ test, its a basic quiz to measure empathy.

I did an EQ test on guardian.co.uk, and got a score of 19 - below average empathy.  Oh well.  I still get infected with laughter easily!

I think I got 11 on mine.

That sounds strangely familiar :roll:   I always have good and polite intentions (except for people who deliberately upset me) but my words (and emoticons) aren't usually as good as my intentions. :?

A member on spectrumhaven posted about doing that with different characters, its not something that I do personally, I avoid people in general.

Yes, I do that all the time, I have to.  I mainly do it to try and seem as polite and nice as possible, so maybe I can get less people hating me and more people being neutral towards, or even liking me (wow, that's getting ambitious!).  I basically become a different person for different people, depending on how I judge they'll react to me.  Years of experience have shown me that being myself to everyone just doesn't work, at all.

Didn't this come up on WP? I seem to remember that my first impression then, as now, is how inappropriate it is to call them "mirror" neurons (wouldn't "clone" or "copy" neurons be most appropriate?).

If these researchers either don't know how mirrors work, or are too hung up on catchy jargon (not unusual in this field is it? Think "mindblindness") to care, can they really be trusted to consider alternatives, like the possibility that these neurons also need childhood training (as do most things) and that it may be the lack of empathy that leads to their poor activation, and not vice-versa?

It always disquiets me when I see such frequent evidence of ineptitude in these fields, not least because those of us who are far better qualified to pose these questions, never get considered for these (or in my case, any other) jobs!

But is the image reversed?

LOL, that's my whole point; why term them "mirror" anything, if they don't produce a mirror image???

Sure it's "just a term", but why use a term which suggests something which isn't applicable, when there are so many more apt terms available!

'clone' would be pretty inapropriate.  Nobody even uses the word in the correct context in reference to genetics.  Why not just call them empathy neurons, or emulatory neurons or something...

The usual PC shimy?

the term Mirror Neurons possibly comes from the strange function of neural networks that happens when one neural network "teaches" another: they begin to mirror each other. This has only been observed on a small scale but most likely applys to the human brain as well as simulations.

That would  help to explain a lot of group behaviour