Does the brain mirror not just actions, but people and culture too?

Mirror neurons are brain cells that are said to “fire” both when a person performs an action and when a person sees someone else performing the same action. They are thought to be connected to the ability to have empathy—-do you feel pain when you see someone else feel pain? when you see someone drinking a soda, do you feel thirsty; it has been posited that autistic persons’ mirror neurons may be somehow adversely affected, and that “a dysfunction of the mirror neuron system could result in some of the symptoms of autism.” (But see this thoughtful critique on mirror neurons and autism.)

A recent study by UCLA researchers shows that mirror neurons respond differently based on whether one is looking at someone from the same culture, or someone from a different one. Culture, that is, may influence the brain. Istvan Molnar-Szakacs, a researcher in the UCLA Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity, and Marco Iacoboni, director of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Lab at the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center of UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, led the study.

Notes today’s Science Daily:

The researchers used two actors, one an American, the other a Nicaraguan, to perform a series of gestures–American, Nicaraguan, and meaningless hand gestures, to a group of American subjects. A procedure called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to measure the levels of so-called “corticospinal excitability” (CSE)–which scientists use to probe the activity of mirror neurons.

They found that the American participants demonstrated higher mirror neuron activity while observing the American making gestures compared to the Nicaraguan. And when the Nicaraguan actor performed American gestures, the mirror neuron activation of the observers dropped.

“We believe these are some of the first data to show neurobiological responses to culture-specific stimuli,” said Molnar-Szakacs. “Our data show that both ethnicity and culture interact to influence activity in the brain, specifically within the mirror neuron network involved in social communication and interaction.”

“We are the heirs of communal but local traditions,” said Iacoboni. “Mirror neurons are the brain cells that help us in shaping our own culture. However, the neural mechanisms of mirroring that shape our assimilation of local traditions could also reveal other cultures, as long as such cross-cultural encounters are truly possible. All in all, our research suggests that with mirror neurons our brain mirrors people, not simply actions.”

Culture, as Molnar-Szakacs notes, has a “measurable influence on our brain and, as a result, our behavior.” He emphasized that “researchers need to take this into consideration when drawing conclusions about brain function and human behavior”—-might different cultures cause mirror neurons to “fire” differently, with a corresponding effect on brains and on behaviors? Might there be aspects of some culture vs. other that autistic persons might more readily be drawn to mirror?

The UCLA study is published in PLoS ONE.