Mirror neurons’ role in the brain's functioning has been emphasized in this article. Mirror neurons are a group of specialized neurons that mirror others' activity and behaviour.
While researching the grasp response in macaques, Giacomo Rizzolatti and colleagues accidentally discovered the mirror neuron system (MNS) in the premotor cortex's region F5 that fires when a macaque executes an action also discharges when it witnesses the identical movement being carried out by another animal.
The interaction of a biological effector (mouth, hand, etc.) with an item activates the MNS. Broadly congruent neurons are triggered by activities that are comparable but do not have the exact same effector-object interaction as strictly congruent neurons are by actions that are identical and include the effector and object. Brain imaging research says humans' observations of actions engage more brain regions than monkeys do.
Unlike monkeys, humans’ MNS gets activated while seeing intransitive actions. When transitive activities are observed, the frontal and temporal nodes of the MNS fire, but when intransitive actions are observed, only the frontal node fires.Their core competency is action comprehension. They convert visual observation into intellectual understanding. They have the capacity to discern the purpose behind the acts of others. As a result, observers are able to predict other people's activities by coding for their expected future behaviour.
Imitation is a social communication and identification tool. People are better able to form empathetic bonds with one another the more they copy one another. The limbic system and the core mirror neuron system interact during social mirroring. The ability to assume another person's perspective, share feelings emotionally with them, and exercise self-awareness and self-control are all components of the process of empathy. As a result, the limbic extension of the core mirror neuron system as well as empathy entails considerable interplay.
The capacity to comprehend that someone else has a mind distinct from one's own is known as theory of mind (ToM) or mentalization. It involves the capacity to infer another person's thoughts from their body language, tone of speech, and facial expression. It touches on the subject matter of movement imitation, facial imitation, and intention comprehension. Consequently, it is believed that the mirror neuron is essential to the ToM.
Social cognition involves areas that mediate working memory, ToM, empathy (particularly self reference), and facial perception. Additionally, mirror neurons in the human brain's Broca's region support the theory that the performance and comprehension of gestures may have served as the ancestor of human language.
Social impairment, ToM deficiency, and observable imitation skills impairments are characteristics of autism and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This suggests that MNS malfunction in ASD. Moreover, MNS influences schizophrenia and hyper sociality-related illnesses such as Turner's syndrome and William's syndrome etc.
Furthermore, MNS is crucial for attachment and bonding. It's possible that borderline and antisocial personality disorders are influenced by dysfunctional MNS. Patients with borderline personality disorder are unable to distinguish between their own and other people's mental states. Therefore, psychotherapy procedures employ MNS that account for empathy and ToM.
Reference:
Rajmohan, V, and E Mohandas. “Mirror neuron system.” Indian journal of psychiatry vol. 49,1 (2007): 66-9. doi:10.4103/0019-5545.31522
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