The Monkey Mirror

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Povinelli believes that rhesus monkeys, in contrast, are simply engaging in normal behaviors like grooming and attempting to socialize with the mirror monkeys. He also maintains that the monkeys have not passed the mark test because they still have not recognized a traditional mark of dye or a sticker. Monkeys find the implants to be more interesting than traditional marks, he believes.

Populin hopes to conduct further studies with the rhesus monkeys, using them to examine human conditions like gaze aversion, in which one person avoids eye contact with another, even during a conversation. The argument over whether monkeys really recognize their mirror images is not just a narrow debate among primatologists.

It also has broad implications for evolutionary theory. The clash is over how self-awareness evolved: The ability of monkeys to recognize themselves in a mirror might indicate a level of self-awareness that supports the idea of a gradual development of that ability along the evolutionary tree. As a direct result of her undergraduate majors, she has an unhealthy interest in old rocks and natural hazards.

She has a blog on those subjects at www. Your email address will not be published. What do the animals at the Bronx zoo do in the winter? Filed To biology chimps Curious George intelligence mark test mirror test monkeys primates rhesus self-awareness. Share Facebook Twitter Email. The proponents of mirror neuron theory of action understanding postulate that the mirror neurons code the goals of others actions because they are activated if the observed action is goal-directed.

However, the mirror neurons are activated only when the observed action is goal-directed object-directed action or a communicative gesture, which certainly has a goal too. How do they "know" that the definite action is goal-directed? At what stage of their activation do they detect a goal of the movement or its absence?

In his opinion, the mirror neuron system can be activated only after the goal of the observed action is attributed by some other brain structures. Neurophilosophers such as Patricia Churchland have expressed both scientific and philosophical objections to the theory that mirror neurons are responsible for understanding the intentions of others.

In chapter 5 of her book, Braintrust, Churchland points out that the claim that mirror neurons are involved in understanding intentions through simulating observed actions is based on assumptions that are clouded by unresolved philosophical issues. She makes the argument that intentions are understood coded at a more complex level of neural activity than that of individual neurons.

Churchland states that "A neuron, though computationally complex, is just a neuron. It is not an intelligent homunculus. If a neural network represents something complex, such as an intention [to insult], it must have the right input and be in the right place in the neural circuitry to do that".

Recently, Cecilia Heyes Professor of Experimental Psychology, Oxford has advanced the theory that mirror neurons are the byproduct of associative learning as opposed to evolutionary adaptation. She argues that mirror neurons in humans are the product of social interaction and not an evolutionary adaptation for action-understanding.

In particular, Heyes rejects the theory advanced by V. Ramachandran that mirror neurons have been "the driving force behind the great leap forward in human evolution. Two closely related models postulate that mirror neurons are trained through Hebbian [47] or Associative learning [48] [49] [50] see Associative Sequence Learning. However, if premotor neurons need to be trained by action in order to acquire mirror properties, it is unclear how newborn babies are able to mimic the facial gestures of another person imitation of unseen actions , as suggested by the work of Meltzoff and Moore.

One possibility is that the sight of tongue protrusion recruits an innate releasing mechanism in neonates. Careful analysis suggests that 'imitation' of this single gesture may account for almost all reports of facial mimicry by new-born infants. Many studies link mirror neurons to understanding goals and intentions.

The IPL has long been recognized as an association cortex that integrates sensory information. The monkeys watched an experimenter either grasp an apple and bring it to his mouth or grasp an object and place it in a cup. Only the type of action, and not the kinematic force with which models manipulated objects, determined neuron activity. It was also significant that neurons fired before the monkey observed the human model starting the second motor act bringing the object to the mouth or placing it in a cup.

Therefore, IPL neurons "code the same act grasping in a different way according to the final goal of the action in which the act is embedded". Another possible function of mirror neurons would be facilitation of learning. The mirror neurons code the concrete representation of the action, i. This would allow us to simulate to repeat internally the observed action implicitly in the brain to collect our own motor programs of observed actions and to get ready to reproduce the actions later.

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It is implicit training. This happens due to associative learning processes.

The more frequently a synaptic connection is activated, the stronger it becomes. Stephanie Preston and Frans de Waal , [53] Jean Decety , [54] [55] and Vittorio Gallese [56] [57] and Christian Keysers [3] have independently argued that the mirror neuron system is involved in empathy. A large number of experiments using fMRI, electroencephalography EEG and magnetoencephalography MEG have shown that certain brain regions in particular the anterior insula , anterior cingulate cortex , and inferior frontal cortex are active when people experience an emotion disgust, happiness, pain, etc.

More recently, Christian Keysers at the Social Brain Lab and colleagues have shown that people who are more empathic according to self-report questionnaires have stronger activations both in the mirror system for hand actions [66] and the mirror system for emotions, [63] providing more direct support for the idea that the mirror system is linked to empathy.

Some researchers observed that the human mirror system does not passively respond to the observation of actions but is influenced by the mindset of the observer. Ramachandran has speculated that mirror neurons may provide the neurological basis of human self-awareness. I also speculated that these neurons can not only help simulate other people's behavior but can be turned 'inward'—as it were—to create second-order representations or meta-representations of your own earlier brain processes.

This could be the neural basis of introspection, and of the reciprocity of self awareness and other awareness. There is obviously a chicken-or-egg question here as to which evolved first, but The main point is that the two co-evolved, mutually enriching each other to create the mature representation of self that characterizes modern humans". In humans, functional MRI studies have reported finding areas homologous to the monkey mirror neuron system in the inferior frontal cortex, close to Broca's area, one of the hypothesized language regions of the brain.

Mirror neurons have been said to have the potential to provide a mechanism for action-understanding, imitation-learning, and the simulation of other people's behaviour. Such speech repetition occurs automatically, fast [73] and separately in the brain to speech perception. Further evidence for this link comes from a recent study in which the brain activity of two participants was measured using fMRI while they were gesturing words to each other using hand gestures with a game of charades — a modality that some have suggested might represent the evolutionary precursor of human language.

Analysis of the data using Granger Causality revealed that the mirror-neuron system of the observer indeed reflects the pattern of activity in the motor system of the sender, supporting the idea that the motor concept associated with the words is indeed transmitted from one brain to another using the mirror system [78].

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The mirror neuron system seems to be inherently inadequate to play any role in syntax , given that this definitory property of human languages which is implemented in hierarchical recursive structure is flattened into linear sequences of phonemes making the recursive structure not accessible to sensory detection [79].

The term is commonly used to refer to cases in which an individual, having observed a body movement, unintentionally performs a similar body movement or alters the way that a body movement is performed. Automatic imitation rarely involves overt execution of matching responses. Instead the effects typically consist of reaction time, rather than accuracy, differences between compatible and incompatible trials.

Research reveals that the existence of automatic imitation, which is a covert form of imitation, is distinct from spatial compatibility. It also indicates that, although automatic imitation is subject to input modulation by attentional processes, and output modulation by inhibitory processes, it is mediated by learned, long-term sensorimotor associations that cannot be altered directly by intentional processes.

Many researchers believe that automatic imitation is mediated by the mirror neuron system. For example, if the task is to maintain posture, people do it worse when they listen to sentences like this: This phenomenon may be due to the fact that during action perception there is similar motor cortex activation as if a human being performed the same action mirror neurons system.

Mirror neuron

The integration of research on motor mimicry and automatic imitation could reveal plausible indications that these phenomena depend on the same psychological and neural processes. Preliminary evidence however comes from studies showing that social priming has similar effects on motor mimicry. Nevertheless, the similarities between automatic imitation, mirror effects, and motor mimicry have led some researchers to propose that automatic imitation is mediated by the mirror neuron system and that it is a tightly controlled laboratory equivalent of the motor mimicry observed in naturalistic social contexts.

If true, then automatic imitation can be used as a tool to investigate how the mirror neuron system contributes to cognitive functioning and how motor mimicry promotes prosocial attitudes and behavior. Meta-analysis of imitation studies in humans suggest that there is enough evidence of mirror system activation during imitation that mirror neuron involvement is likely, even though no published studies have recorded the activities of singular neurons.

However, it is likely insufficient for motor imitation. Studies show that regions of the frontal and parietal lobes that extend beyond the classical mirror system are equally activated during imitation. This suggests that other areas, along with the mirror system are crucial to imitation behaviors.

It has also been proposed that problems with the mirror neuron system may underlie cognitive disorders, particularly autism. Some researchers claim there is a link between mirror neuron deficiency and autism. EEG recordings from motor areas are suppressed when someone watches another person move, a signal that may relate to mirror neuron system. This suppression was less in children with autism.

Oberman and Ramachandran found typical mu-suppression for familiar stimuli, but not for unfamiliar stimuli, leading them to conclude that the mirror neuron system of children with ASD Autism Spectrum Disorder was functional, but less sensitive than that of typical children.

Behavioural studies have shown that people with autism have a good understanding of action goals. Furthermore, two independent neuroimaging studies have reported that the parietal component of the mirror system is functioning typically in individuals with autism. Some anatomical differences have been found in the mirror neuron related brain areas in adults with autism spectrum disorders, compared to non-autistic adults. All these cortical areas were thinner and the degree of thinning was correlated with autism symptom severity, a correlation nearly restricted to these brain regions.

Many researchers have pointed out that the "broken mirrors" theory of autism is overly simplistic, and mirror neurons alone cannot explain the differences found in individuals with autism. First of all, as noted above, none of these studies were direct measures of mirror neuron activity - in other words fMRI activity or EEG rhythm suppression do not unequivocally index mirror neurons. Dinstein and colleagues found normal mirror neuron activity in people with autism using fMRI. Instead, "additional research needs to be done, and more caution should be used when reaching out to the media".

Research from [] concluded that autistic individuals do not exhibit mirror neuron dysfunction, although the small sample size limits the extent to which these results can be generalized. In Philosophy of mind , mirror neurons have become the primary rallying call of simulation theorists concerning our " theory of mind ". There are several competing models which attempt to account for our theory of mind; the most notable in relation to mirror neurons is simulation theory.

According to simulation theory, theory of mind is available because we subconsciously empathize with the person we're observing and, accounting for relevant differences, imagine what we would desire and believe in that scenario. At the neuronal-level, in a study by Keren Haroush and Ziv Williams using jointly interacting primates performing an iterated prisoner's dilemma game, the authors identified neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex that selectively predicted an opponent's yet unknown decisions or covert state of mind. These "other-predictive neurons" differentiated between self and other decisions and were uniquely sensitive to social context, but they did not encode the opponent's observed actions or receipt of reward.

These cingulate cells may therefore importantly complement the function of mirror neurons by providing additional information about other social agents that is not immediately observable or known. A series of recent studies conducted by Yawei Cheng, using a variety of neurophysiological measures, including MEG , [] spinal reflex excitability, [] electroencephalography, [] [] have documented the presence of a gender difference in the human mirror neuron system, with female participants exhibiting stronger motor resonance than male participants.

In another study, gender differences among mirror neuron mechanisms was reinforced in that the data showed enhanced empathetic ability in female identified or female raised individuals when compared to male equivalents. During an emotional social interaction, the female identified or raised individuals show a greater ability in emotional perspective taking than do male identified or raised individuals when interacting with another person face-to-face.

This ability may be due to the fact that male socialization in most cultures requires that men limit emotional expression. However, in the study, data showed that when it came to recognizing the emotions of others, all participants' abilities were very similar and there was no key difference along a gender binary. Baland Jalal and V.

Ramachandran have hypothesized that the mirror neuron system is important in giving rise to the intruder hallucination and out-of-body experiences during sleep paralysis. The deafferentation of sensory information during sleep paralysis is proposed as the mechanism for such mirror neuron disinhibition. Recent research, which measured mu-wave suppression, suggests that mirror neuron activity is positively correlated with psychotic symptoms i.

Researchers concluded that "higher mirror neuron activity may be the underpinning of schizophrenia sensory gating deficits and may contribute to sensory misattributions particularly in response to socially relevant stimuli, and be a putative mechanism for delusions and hallucinations. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Mirror system disambiguation. Associative sequence learning Common coding theory Emotional contagion Empathy Mirror-touch synesthesia Mirroring psychology Motor cognition Motor theory of speech perception On Intelligence Positron emission tomography Simulation theory of empathy Speech repetition Spindle neuron.

Annual Review of Neuroscience. Archived from the original PDF on Animal Learning and Behavior. A short review and meta-analysis".

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