Mirror Neurons, Oxytocin and Autism

What's the relationship between mirror neurons and oxytocin? Science isn't even clear yet on what mirror neurons do, but news from the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience sparks some intriguing ideas.

Mirror neurons seem to fire when we perform an action and also when we watch someone else perform it. Most studies have been done with monkeys: They map which neurons fire when the monkey grasped an apple, and saw the same neurons become active when the monkey watched someone else hold the apple.

According to the press release from the conference, several researchers presented brain imaging studies comparing mirror neuron activity between children with autism and those with normal functioning.

Jaime Pineda, PhD, at the University of California, San Diego, did studies showing that the mirror neuron system is well-developed by the time a child is seven years old. His UCSD colleague, Lindsay Oberman, used EEG to monitor mirror neuron activity in ASD kids. She found that the system did work to some extent, and she saw normal activation of the mirror neurons when the children watched videos of family members, but not of strangers.

She suggests that people with normal brain function are able to generalize that all people are "like me," and therefore to understand them and have empathy for them, while kids on the spectrum are not able to make that leap. From the press release:

This evidence for normal mirror neuron activity in autistic children may indicate that mirror system dysfunction in these cases reflects an impairment in identifying with and assigning personal significance to unfamiliar people and things, Oberman suggests. Whether deficits in relating to unfamiliar people that are characteristic of autism are the cause or the result of a dysfunctional mirror neuron system is unclear.

This leads back to the oxytocin system. Many researchers think that ASD is due to dysfunction in the oxytocin system -- something is wrong with the brain's ability to produce or respond to oxytocin in social situations. Oxytocin influences generosity, increases empathy, and alleviates some of the symptoms of autism.   

Maybe oxytocin is necessary for the mirror neurons to fire; maybe it causes them to fire in response to social cues. Or perhaps, because oxytocin and dopamine are involved in social memory -- keeping track of who my family and friends are -- it's possible that the problem is in the oxytocin system, and the lack of appropriate social memory is what's keeping the mirror neurons to trigger.

This is all speculation; none of the scientists is working on this. Because human studies are so slow, costly and laborious, it seems that it's very difficult for scientists across disciplines to connect their work.

For a more detailed discussion of the research on mirror neurons, Ed Yong of Not Exactly Rocket Science has an excellent post. See Broken chains and faulty mirrors cause problems for autistic children.

Comments

[Anjuan]

Great post. I have two young boys (age 2 and 1), and a girl on the way so I am keen to understand autism. Both of my boys seem fine, and girls are not a susceptible as boys so I hope all of my kids will be ok. However, austism seems to be an epidemic sweeping the nation.

I wrote a post on my blog about the sexual double standard and one factor was the role of oxytocin. I would appreciate your comments! You have a link to my blog, but here is a direct link to the post:

http://transmyth.com/blog/2007/11/13/reasons-for-the-sexual-double-standard/

[Susan Kuchinskas]

I did read and respond; I think your ideas are compelling. I'm also glad that your boys have a parent who's so thoughtful and concerned about raising them as fully feeling and thinking humans.

[grasshopper]

Writing this comment nearly a year after your original post, so don't know if anyone will see it, but here goes ...

It seems to me possible that mirror neurons in infants/children are 'taught' their mirroring function by being exposed to empathetic, attuned behavior from the caregivers.

In other words, the child's mirror neurons fail to function properly because the parent was unattuned. So the child did not *experience* mirroring (which, incidentally, may be a prerequisite for the release of oxytocin.)

(Aside: Breaking things down into all these tiny pieces seems to make the obvious suddenly become blindingly opaque, in my view...but such is the western obsession with so-called 'science'.)

In my readings I've seen it speculated that as many as one in three children don't receive adequate mirroring and/or attunement from their mothers, this largely being not so much the fault of individual mothers per se as the fault of a culture that expects a single, harried mother to meet all the needs that a 'village' once provided for. Yet another argument against nuclear families!

[Susan Kuchinskas]

A lot of people find this blog by searching for a particular topic, so the date isn't necessarily so important. And I'm glad you posted. Your idea is fascinating and certainly could be true.

We know that a child's brain "wires" itself in response to experience and environment after birth. We also know that experience can cause genes to "switch on" or off, aka epigenetic influence.

Neurons and connections that don't get used wither away in a process known as neural pruning. So, certainly, it would make sense that the mirror neurons may wither or not reach their potential if a baby doesn't get enough mirroring.

And I totally agree with you that our culture with its emphasis on multitasking and constant media, along with the need for most mothers to work outside the home, is wreaking havoc with generations. I call this the Attachment Gap.

See http://www.hugthemonkey.com/2006/10/the_motherbaby_.html