Mirror neurons and the understanding of behavioural symptoms in psychiatric disorders

Buccino, Giovanni; Amore, Mario

doi:10.1097/yco.0b013e3282fbcd32

Cited by 56 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…It has been proposed that selective dysfunctions of the mirror system may play a key role in the genesis and maintenance of pathological deficits in social cognition (Buccino & Amore, 2008), particularly in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) (Williams, Whiten, Suddendorf, & Perrett, 2001), Williams Syndrome (Tager-Flusberg & Sullivan, 2000 and schizophrenia (Singh, Pineda & Cadenhead, 2011;McCormick et al, 2012). Arbib and Mundhenk (2005) extended this proposal and suggested that dysfunctions in the mirror neuron system may also contribute to deficits in self-monitoring in schizophrenia.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modulation of motor cortex activity when observing rewarding and punishing actions

et al. 2013

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a b s t r a c tInterpreting others' actions is essential for understanding the intentions and goals in social interactions. Activity in the motor cortex is evoked when we see another person performing actions, which can also be influenced by the intentions and context of the observed action. No study has directly explored the influence of reward and punishment on motor cortex activity when observing others' actions, which is likely to have substantial relevance in different social contexts. In this experiment, EEG was recorded while participants watched movie clips of a person performing actions that led to a monetary reward, loss or no change for the observer. Using the EEG mu rhythm as an index of motor resonance, our results demonstrate that observation of rewarding actions produce significantly greater motor cortex activity than punishing or neutral actions, with punishing actions producing greater activity than neutral ones. In addition, the dynamic change in the mu rhythm over sensorimotor cortex is modulated by reward and punishment, with punishing actions producing a prolonged suppression. These findings demonstrate that the associated reward value of an observed action may be crucial in determining the strength of the representation of the action in the observer's brain. Consequently, reward and punishment is likely to drive observational learning through changes in the action observation network, and may also influence how we interpret, understand, engage in and empathize with others' actions in social interaction.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modulation of motor cortex activity when observing rewarding and punishing actions

et al. 2013

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“…6,7 Impaired imitation ability and its consequences have been extensively explored in autism, 8 and the role of disturbed imitation in other psychiatric disorders has also been noted. 9 However, to date imitation ability in schizophrenia has not been systematically examined. The few previous studies that included imitation tasks have been motivated by known social impairments in schizophrenia 10 or have examined imitation in the context of emotion expression, 11,12 but imitation itself was not the main focus of these studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gesture Imitation in Schizophrenia

Matthews

Gold

Sekuler

et al. 2011

Schizophrenia Bulletin

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Recent evidence suggests that individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) are impaired in their ability to imitate gestures and movements generated by others. This impairment in imitation may be linked to difficulties in generating and maintaining internal representations in working memory (WM). We used a novel quantitative technique to investigate the relationship between WM and imitation ability. SZ outpatients and demographically matched healthy control (HC) participants imitated hand gestures. In Experiment 1, participants imitated single gestures. In Experiment 2, they imitated sequences of 2 gestures, either while viewing the gesture online or after a short delay that forced the use of WM. In Experiment 1, imitation errors were increased in SZ compared with HC. Experiment 2 revealed a significant interaction between imitation ability and WM. SZ produced more errors and required more time to imitate when that imitation depended upon WM compared with HC. Moreover, impaired imitation from WM was significantly correlated with the severity of negative symptoms but not with positive symptoms. In sum, gesture imitation was impaired in schizophrenia, especially when the production of an imitation depended upon WM and when an imitation entailed multiple actions. Such a deficit may have downstream consequences for new skill learning.

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“…From a clinical point of view, it has been argued that dysfunction of the MNS might not only be fundamental to explaining behavioural symptoms of autism (53)(54)(55), but also to the understanding of psychotic symptoms (56). For example, Arbib (57) suggested that misattribution of manual actions as well as inner speech to other persons could emerge from a dysfunction of the MNS.…”

Section: Mirror Neuron Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

From social neurons to social cognition: implications for schizophrenia research / Sosyal nöronlardan sosyal kognisyona: Şizofreni araştırmalarına etkileri

Brüne¹,

Ebert²

2011

Dusunen Adam

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From social neurons to social cognition: implications for schizophrenia researchThe term schizophrenia embraces a group of disorders that are characterised by a heterogeneous set of symptoms. Poor social cognition, including metacognitive dysfunction is present across all schizophrenia phenotypes, accounting for a large proportion of patients' social impairment. Metacognitive functioning is subserved by a distinct neural network of widely distributed regions of the brain, foremost areas of the prefrontal cortex, as well as, areas in the temporal and parietal lobes. While dysfunction of the metacognition neural network in schizophrenia has been well documented, the underlying neuronal correlates are only partially understood. This review focuses on two distinct cell populations that evolved during primate evolution: The mirror neurons, and the von Economo neurons. Empirical evidence suggests that these cell types have a special role in social cognition and metacognitive functioning. However, only recent studies have addressed their potential role in schizophrenia. In spite of current paucity of research on mirror neuron function in schizophrenia, it seems plausible to suggest that their functional properties are compromised, and contribute to aberrant imitation behaviour in schizophrenia. The potential impact of von Economo neurons in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia is even less clear, but future research may help to better understand the nature of this devastating group of disorders. Key words: Schizophrenia, cognition, metacognitive, metacognition, theory of mind ÖZET Sosyal nöronlardan sosyal kognisyona: Şizofreni araştırmalarına etkileriŞizofreni terimi, heterojen belirtilerle karakterize bir hastalık grubunu kapsar. Hastaların sosyal kaybının önem-li bir bölümünden sorumlu olan metakognitif işlev bozukluğunu da kapsayan kötü sosyal biliş, tüm şizofreni fenotiplerinde vardır. Metakognitif işlevsellik, temporal ve parietal loblardaki alanlar kadar prefrontal korteksin önemli alanları gibi beynin birçok bölgesine yaygın şekilde dağılan ayrı bir sinir ağı ile desteklenmektedir. Şizofrenideki metakognisyon sinir ağındaki işlev bozukluğu daha önceden iyi tanımlanmış olmakla birlikte, altta yatan sinirsel bağlantılar yalnızca kısmen anlaşılabilmiştir. Bu gözden geçirme, primat evrimi boyunca gelişen iki ayrı hücre popülasyonuna odaklanmıştır: ayna nöronlar ve von Economo nöronları. Ampirik kanıtlar bize, bu hücre tiplerinin sosyal biliş ve metakognitif işlevsellik konusunda özel bir rolü olduğunu düşündürt-mektedir. Bununla birlikte, sadece yakın zamandaki çalışmalar bunların şizofrenideki potansiyel rollerini tanım-layabilmiştir. Ayna nöron işlevlerine yönelik araştırmaların bazı eksikliklerine rağmen, bunların işlevsel özellikle-rinin etkilendiği ve şizofrenideki anormal taklit davranışına katkıda bulunduğu fikri akla yatkın görünüyor. Şizof-reninin patofizyolojisinde yer alan von Economo nöronlarının potansiyel etkisi hala yeterince açık değildir, fakat gelecek araştırmalar, belki bu yıkıcı hastalık...

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Mirror neurons and the understanding of behavioural symptoms in psychiatric disorders

Cited by 56 publications

References 46 publications

Modulation of motor cortex activity when observing rewarding and punishing actions

Modulation of motor cortex activity when observing rewarding and punishing actions

Gesture Imitation in Schizophrenia

From social neurons to social cognition: implications for schizophrenia research / Sosyal nöronlardan sosyal kognisyona: Şizofreni araştırmalarına etkileri

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