Functions and Development of the Mirror Neuron System
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Function and Development of the Mirror Neuron System Project Summary Two fundamental abilities are central to adaptive human functioning: the ability to deploy actions strategically in the service of goals, and the ability to apprehend the goals of social partners in order to produce adaptive social responses. These abilities emerge in infancy and undergo foundational developments across childhood. Evidence from diverse scientific approaches indicates that these capacities may be supported by a common underlying neural network known as the mirror neuron system (MNS). This system is comprised of a network of inter-connected brain regions some of which may contain mirror neurons (MNs) and others that involve feedback loops across brain regions supporting these complex capabilities. The MNS responds both when we perform an action and when we observe someone else perform that action. The discovery of MNs, first made in non-human primates, holds the potential to revolutionize scientific understanding of goal-directed action, social perception and their development. During the initial award period, this Program Project began studies that investigated integrating the complex neural circuitry and functional aspects of the MNS in human infants and children, which arguably are some of the most powerful potential effects of the MNS. Our work highlighted the need for systematic investigations of the neural and functional aspects of the MNS during development, both for understanding typical developmental pathways and for shedding light on developmental disorders in which the development of social cognition and the potential functions of the MNS are disrupted, as in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). As well, it necessitates innovative methodological approaches to measure the networks activated during complex behaviors associated with the MNS. Advances in our work include description of an extended MNS, the result of a complex set of brain networks involved in action execution and observation; findings of significant changes in the MNS across development; and, not surprisingly, that the MNS is linked tightly to the emergence and integration of motor skills not only during infancy but across childhood. In the next five years we will advance an understanding of the neural networks of the MNS and relations to other cognitive systems; explore the potential contributions and limitations of the MNS for the development of social cognition; and investigate the modulation of the MNS via experience including active training. Finally, we will extend our approach to investigate factors that may drive the varied patterns of social deficit seen in autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Project II- Project Summary The mirror neuron system (MNS) has been hypothesized to broadly influence social cognitive development, but research has just begun to evaluate the nature and significance of these effects early in life. The proposed work in Project II seeks to elucidate the learning mechanisms that support early motor learning and social perception as well as the broader role that the MNS may play in supporting social-cognitive development. These issues are addressed in three aims, each of which involves recruiting behavioral data as well as electroencephalogram (EEG) measures of MNS function supported by Core B: Aim 1: Investigate the neural correlates and behavioral consequences of action learning in infants. Our prior results suggest that the MNS is plastic during early development, changing as a function of long-term motor experience, and that this plasticity may involve both long-term and short-term learning effects. Aim 1 investigates the neural and behavioral correlates of short- and long-term action training in order to shed light on how the processes involved in the initial stages of action learning relate to those that emerge with longer-term expertise as well as the behavioral functional significance of MNS activity at each timescale. Aim 2. Investigate the role of the MNS in supporting infants’ social interactive competence. A foundational set of social abilities emerges in the second year, including imitative learning, helping, and communicative skill, and these skills require rapid responses to others’ goal-directed actions. Research with adults has shown that the MNS supports rapid responses to others’ actions, raising the possibility that this may also occur during early development. To investigate this possibility Aim 2 will investigate the effects of action priming on infants’ imitation, helping, and communicative behavior, as well as the neural correlates of these social behaviors. Aim 3. Investigate longitudinal relations between early MNS activity and later social abilities. As yet, the longer-term developmental implications of MNS activity have not been studied in human infants. In Aim 3, we will follow infants longitudinally from 12 to 30 months, assessing individual variation in early MNS activity as a predictor of later-emerging social skills. Across these three aims, we will consider the role that the social context may play in modulating the MNS and the functions it supports. Most research to date has focused on the effects of motor experience. However, emerging evidence suggests that social experience may also be an important modulator of the MNS. Social interventions, and measures of social interaction with caretakers, will be used to evaluate the potential effects of social experience on the MNS and the social-cognitive functions it may support.
