The Fascinating Human Brain- Part 9: Mirror Neurons

Did you know that we have a special kind of neurons that respond the same way to stimulus whether you are doing an action yourself, or you are watching someone else do it?

OK, stop and read that again.

There is a lot of cutting edge research going on now regarding mirror neurons. Monkey studies have shown these MN's come into play when a monkey watches someone pick up a cup repeatedly. After this, the MN's fire BEFORE the action is repeated, thus anticipating the other's intentions.

Kind of technical but let me flesh that out. Is it important for you to know someone else's intentions? YES! We use this skill when the stoplight is out, and you pay attention to other drivers to know when it's OK to go. But we use it relationally too. There are huge implications for explaining learned behaviors. If you grew up learning to mirror responses that were attuned, then your MN's were positively stimulated and you can do a good job reading other's intentions. But if you learned to mirror responses that were distant, flight-driven or fight-driven, then your MN's may be impoverished.

Can you stimulate the growth of mirror neurons? YES! You may just need intentional exposure to a different kind of mirroring!

MN's don't just come into play in knowing another's intentions, but also in a person's ability to exhibit EMPATHY. Think about that... your neurons ability to react to another's pain in a similar way as if it were your own.

Fascinatingly, mirror neurons are thought to be a key player in autism spectrum disorder (including Asberger's, and all Autism-related diagnoses), where children have very little empathetic ability.

One researcher believes that many more boys are diagnosed with Autism, in part because of a surge of testosterone that develops in boys between 18 mos to 3 years, which is also the age of the greatest amount of mirror-neuron production in the body. And testosterone is toxic to mirror neuron development! (What's up with that??) Interesting conjecture!

Anyhow, this has fascinating implications for parent-child interactions, and the direction of developing therapeutic interventions for children with autism... not to mention helping all kinds of people learn to grow in the ability to discern the intentions of others and respond with compassion. For a counselor seeking to help a person learn to clue into other people's cues, (or just as a human who wants to grow in empathetic ability), this is really important!