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

By: Research on the Brain and Autism

Research on the Brain and Autism — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 21:12:45 +0000

[...] an action and when a person sees someone else performing the same action. It has been posited that autistic persons’ mirror neuron system has been adversely affected, and that autism has something to do with a dysfunction of the mirror [...]

By: Marcie

Marcie — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 20:43:06 +0000

I wonder how long it will take them (if ever) to do the same experiment with autistics watching other autistics.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:25:46 +0000

The researchers may have to expand their notion of “culture”—-what about autistic culture…..

By: abfh

abfh — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:45:18 +0000

Along the same lines, I suspect that non-autistics would have significantly less mirror neuron activity when observing a group of autistics interacting with one another.

By: Marcie

Marcie — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:57:06 +0000

I hope some researcher somewhere along the realizes that it’s *culture* that the autistics people aren’t picking up on. As you (Kristina) have noted before, we still pick up on emotions, even having a stronger reaction than a lot of NTs.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 03:09:20 +0000

Charlie has always been drawn to persons of Asian ethnicity—–when he was 4, his girlfriend (so to speak!) was South Asian.

By: KC's Mommy

KC's Mommy — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 02:31:19 +0000

I have noticed that when I take K.C. swimming with relatives in the pool, he is most attracted to the 10 year old girl who looks most like him (half asian) than he is to the other children. I have seen him willingly accept piggybacks from her over any of the other children. Maybe it’s because he looks most like her? He sees a connection?