philosophy and religion: December 2007 Archives

Reuters has released their slideshow of the 2007 "Pictures of the Year." It's always amazing to see how much can happen in one year.

WARNING: The link resizes your window. I really, really hate it when websites resize my window. It's incredibly bad interface design. Leave my window how I want it, damn it. You're not the only tab open in my window, so hands off!

The Theory of Moral Neuroscience, from Reason Online, found through a science blog somewhere that I've lost track of.

Just like monkeys, it turns out that when we see someone perform an action—picking up a glass of water or kicking a ball—our mirror neurons simulate that action in our brains.

When discussing how this plays out for people with autism

In 2005, researchers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) compared brain wave activity associated with mirror neurons in high functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and in typical individuals. In normal individuals, mu brain wave activity is suppressed whenever they move their hand, imagine moving their hand, or see someone else move their hand. "The ASD group showed significant mu suppression to self-performed hand movements but not to observed hand movements. These results support the hypothesis of a dysfunctional mirror neuron system in high-functioning individuals with ASD," concluded the study.

Subsequent experiments by Jaime Pineda and his colleagues at UCSD found that individuals with ASD develop compensatory brain mechanisms that allow them to identify correctly the emotions of others and determine their intentions. Mirror neurons are not absent from the brains of ASD people, but they are misfiring. Pineda suggests that neurofeedback retraining might reduce some of the social symptoms of autism.

Of course, the mirror neurons can't be our only source of moral sense, otherwise you can imagine what trouble people with autism would be. The argument is that empathy or some kind of social metacognition, to borrow an ed psych term, is only one contributor to a person's morality

Empathy, the ability to feel someone else's joy, pain, and gratitude, helps guide our pre-reflective moral values.

I'm personally more interested in how much of an effect mirror neurons have on linguistic development, but I don't know how much of an effect something like a mirror neuron would have on development. I have much more research to do. Expect to hear more about this in the future.