I found this website through Google when I searched for mirror neurons and autism. Through all of the many articles I found this was among the very best for a few reasons. First of all the article is from an accredited university, it is a more recent article, and it is a clear, concise and easily understandable article. The author, Inga Kiderra, starts out by explaining to the reader what the function of mirror neurons are and why they are thought to be connected to autism. The mirror neurons are aptly named and are also sometimes called the “monkey see, monkey do” neurons. These neurons fire in the brain both when an individual sees and then does the same motion. Kiderra goes on to describe an experiment done by a group of scientists from UCSD
with an EEG machine. The study was done on 10 male autistics and 10 control subjects. The experiment involved watching videos of a certain activity, like a waving hand, and then the individuals would wave their hands on their own while they were being monitored to see what area of the brain would respond to the EEG. When the participants waved their own hands the neurons fired, but when watching the video they did not. This suggests that autistics are unable to comprehend what others are doing around them and thus they are unable to essentially learn from their environments. This explains many of the problems autistic children encounter such as problems with speech, and personal interactions. Kiderra brings up the possibility of therapies involving mirrors to trick the autistic brain into interacting with itself. To conclude Kiderra admits that there is still much to learn and much to overcome but that there plenty of opportunity in this new research. Overall this article was a excellent and I recomend it for a general understanding of mirror neurons. Kiderra, Inga. “Autism linked to mirror neuron dysfunction.” 30 Mar. 2005 Medical News Today. 25 Jan. 2007. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=21971
Picture: A child with autism, wearing an EEG cap to measure brain-waves, watches video of a moving hand. (Credit: Lindsay Oberman)
1 comment:
Onewingedangel,
I really admire your interest in the topic of autism. You seem very passionate about your interest in researching every aspect regarding the topic. I’m sorry about the situation with your cousin and the relationship being cut off; that would have given you useful information and first hand insight, however he seems to still be the motivating factor behind your studies.
Thank you for your helpful feedback on my blog. I realize that my topic is one sided and that I should maybe change the focus to an informative paper instead of a persuasive one. That way I can educate about the effects in a new light, helping others to understand just how smoking affects an un-born baby.
I think you did a very good job summarizing your article; it seemed to be very insightful, and reputable. I also like your topic, however the one you mentioned in your last blog really caught my interest because I had never heard of it before; the one about refrigerator mothers and the children not bonding with their mothers. (I study human development so that’s probably the reason why!) The only problem I see you maybe running into is the fact that there is still a lot of controversy over the new theory of mirror neurons. You might run out of information to talk about in an eight page paper, but it is a very good start and I’m sure you will do well!
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