Mirror Neurons (AQA A Level Psychology): Revision Note

What are 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 person's intention as well as reflect 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)

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 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 and 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 in A Level psychology

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

Limitations

• 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

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