1. The document discusses the "broken mirror hypothesis" which claims that individuals with autism have impairments in their mirror neuron system. 2. Some studies have found differences in brain activity related to mirror neurons in individuals with autism compared to neurotypical individuals. However, other studies have failed to replicate findings of mirror neuron dysfunction. 3. A new study found that while individuals with autism may have weaker mirror neuron activity when young, their mirror system is intact and mirror activity increases with age to normal levels by age 30. This suggests the mirror neuron system is delayed rather than broken in autism.

1. MIRROR NEURONS AND AUTISM
walaa khader

2. HOW

DO WE STUDY THE BRAIN?
fMRI brain scanners let us see which 'brain
areas' are active for different tasks

3. WHY

DO PSYCHOLOGISTS STUDY AUTISM?
People with autism have a different way of
understanding the world and interacting with
the world

We want to know how & why

So what do we know already?

4. THE
BRAIN IN AUTISM

5. The brain stem of a person with autism is shorter
than a normal brain stem
 the structures at the junction of the pons and the
medulla are closer to the structures of the lower
medulla.
 It is as though a band of tissue were missing.
 The brain stem of a person with autism also did
not have the superior olive.
 the facial nucleus is smaller than normal.


6. PEOPLE
IN:
WITH AUTISM OFTEN HAVE TROUBLE
Communication and Socialization
 Empathy(Understanding and being aware of
the feelings of others.)
 Physical contact.
 Speech.
 They may learn clever ways to compensate
for this
 Some people with autism are exceptionally
good at drawing or maths or music …
 Many are good at seeing things in detail


7. STUDYING

THE MIRROR SYSTEM IN AUTISM
Mirror neurons are cells that fire during both
the doing and watching of a specific action.
They have been linked to many behaviors
and abilities, from empathy to learning by
imitation, as well as implicated in conditions
such as autism.

8. IS
A DYSFUNCTIONAL MIRROR
NEURON SYSTEM RESPONSIBLE FOR
THE
SYMPTOMS
OF AUTISM?

9. WHAT
IS THE BROKEN MIRROR?
The mirror system might be abnormal in autism
because:



children with autism
don’t imitate people
much
some of the functions
of the mirror system
overlap with the
difficulties seen in
autism
language can develop
slowly in children with
autism

10. there is very little good evidence to support
broken mirror hypothesis
1.GOAL DIRECTED IMITATION





3-6 year olds imitate goals
not means
Revealed by hand errors on
cross-body trials
Good imitation on all other
trials
Do children with ASD show
the same pattern of errors?
Test 26 children with ASD
and 25 typical children
Bekkering, et al, 2000
Gattis et al, 2002

11. GOAL
DIRECTED IMITATION
4
asd
hand errors
typically developing
2
0
same
side
cross
body
both
sides
• Both groups replicate Bekkering et al
• No problems with goals in children with ASD

12. CONCLUSIONS



FROM STUDY
1
Children with autism can imitate goals when
explicitly asked to do so
This suggests they do NOT have a broken mirror
system
This means that children with autism can learn
through imitation, but we need to explicitly ask
them to imitate us

13. 2.RAMACHANDRAN
AND
EXPERIMENT
OBERMAN
they used electroencephalography (EEG) to test
children’s brainwaves while doing and watch
actions.
 Results:
For most children, the same brainwaves were
detected whether they were doing or watch a
specific action. However, for children with ASD,
brainwaves were only detected when they were
doing an action and not detected when they were
watching someone else do the same action, or
even when they were imitating another’s action

14. This finding supports the "broken mirror
hypothesis" and clearly depicts the relationship
between mirror neurons and the poor social skills
observed in children with ASD (Ramachandran &
Oberman, 2006).
 Since mirror neurons systems are responsible for
humans’ ability to understand and mimic other
peoples’ behavior, the lack of this skill within
persons with ASD can be refer to an impaired
mirror neuron system.


15. 2. The "Broken Mirror Hypothesis" claims that
persons with ASD have impairments to their
mirror neuron system (Press, Richardson &
Bird, 2010)
3. The dysfunction of the mirror neuron
system is a main cause of the poor social
skills in persons with Autism (Marsh &
Hamilton, 2011).
4.some studies actually show that some
individuals with ASD have functioning mirror
neurons systems (Fan Decety, Yang, Liu, &
Yawei, 2010) and believe that there is still
much to learn about the "broken mirror
hypothesis".

16. MIRROR NEURON SYSTEM IN AUTISM:
BROKEN OR JUST SLOWLY DEVELOPING?
a new study published inBiological
Psychiatry reports that the mirror system in
individuals with autism is not actually broken, but
simply delayed.
 Dr. Christian Keysers, lead author on the project,
detailed their findings, "While most of us have
their strongest mirror activity while they are
young, autistic individuals seem to have a weak
mirror system in their youth, but their mirror
activity increases with age, is normal by about age
30 and unusually high thereafter."


17. THIS
GRAPH SHOWS THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN AGE AND MIRROR ACTIVITY FOR A
NORMAL BRAIN AND ONE WITH AUTISM.
(CREDIT: IMAGE COURTESY OF ELSEVIER)

18. Ramachandran, V.S., & Oberman, L., M. (2006).
Broken mirrors: A theory of Autism. Scientific
American, 17, 20-29.
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0607-20sp
 Press, C., Richardson, D., & Bird, G. (2010).
Intact imitation of emotional facial actions in
autism spectrum conditions. Neuropsychologia,
48, 3291–3297. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.
2010.07.012
 Marsh, L.E., & Hamilton, C. (2011). Dissociation
of mirroring and mentalising systems in autism.
Neuroimage, 56, 1511-1519.
doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.02.003


19. Fan, Y.T., Decety, J., Yang, C.Y., Liu, J.L., & Yawei,
C. (2010). Unbroken mirror neurons in autism
spectrum disorders. Journal of Child Psychology
and Psychiatry. 51(9), 981-988.
 Dr. Christian Keysers .May 5, 2011 . Biological
Psychiatry
 www.AutismResearchNottingham.org
