From Mirror Neurons to Empathy and Autism

How do we understand other people’s thoughts and feelings? We will show how in monkeys, mirror neurons transform the sight and the sound of goal directed actions performed by other individuals into corresponding motor programs. We will show that in humans as well, the vision and the sound of goal directed actions activates regions involved in the execution of similar actions. We will then show that observing dynamic facial expressions triggers activity in regions of the premotor cortex irrespective of the type of expression (emotional or neutral). This phenomenon probably corresponds to the neural correlate of facial mimicry. If the facial expression is emotional, the activity spreads to the anterior insula involved in experiencing similar emotions, a phenomenon probably akin to emotional contagion. Participants that score higher on psychological measures of empathy activate their premotor and emotion regions more strongly while perceiving the actions and emotions of other individuals. To conclude, we will briefly show data that suggests that high functioning adults with autism spectrum disorders activate the premotor and emotional regions more strongly than matched control subjects in response to dynamic facial expressions. This last finding, that will be described in more detail in a separate contribution at the same conference, seems to challenge the idea that mirroring is grossly and generally impaired in autism, and may point towards an alternative explanation according to which dynamic facial expressions may cause an overreaction of the autistic brain that renders social interactions unpleasant.