Analyzing the Significance of Mirror Neurons in Psychology

This assignment delves into the significance of mirror neurons in the context of general psychology, exploring their role in learning, imitation, and social cognition. It discusses how mirror neurons facilitate the understanding of others' actions, emotions, and intentions, highlighting their importance for success in college and everyday life. The assignment also examines the consequences of disabled mirror neurons, particularly in relation to autism, outlining characteristics such as lack of empathy, social isolation, and language difficulties. Personal experiences with individuals exhibiting signs of disabled mirror neurons are shared, aligning with research findings on the impact of impaired mirror neuron function. This student contributed assignment is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wide range of study resources for students.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1PSYCHOLOGY
1. How do mirror neurons relate to your success in college, specifically General
Psychology?
Mirror Neurons are the neurons which fires both when we act and when we observe the
same action performed by some other individual (Wudneh, 2016). It is to note that General
Psychology is the study of all the basic problems, principles and the related methods which
underlies the psychological science. It comprise of the study of human development,
motivation, learning, senses, intelligence, emotions, processing, thinking and perceptions.
Mirror Neurons helps us in gaining the potential of mimicking what we see (Kilner, 2015). It
is related on our success in the college, particularly in the field of psychology in a way that
when we see our teachers doing something or presenting some presentation over a particular
topic or subject, we observe their actions and expressions as well as the tone of their voice
and then, do the same when we are asked to present presentation on something. Also, what
we read in our text books, we can recall it later with the help of mirror neurons only.
2. Is it possible to succeed in life without functioning mirror neurons? Why or why
not?
I don’t think it is possible for us to succeed in life without the functioning of mirror
neurons in our body. For us as student, Mirror neurons are the most powerful learning tool. It
helps us to learn effectively through imitation and also enable us to reflect the facial
expressions and emotions of our peers. Moreover, we are human beings and our survival in
this universe basically depends on our level of understanding the intentions, actions and the
emotions of others (Khalil et al., 2018). Mirror Neurons are the ones that help us in
understanding the ones we meet and interact with and to understand their intentions with us,
not only by means of conceptual reasoning but also through imitation. Mirror Neurons are
simply the key of a child’s growth and development as well as the development of our
relationships and level of education.
3. Describe the characteristics of a person with disabled mirror neurons.
A person with disabled mirror neurons usually suffers from Autism. Disabled mirror
neurons is the reason behind the rise of Autism within a person. Also, the other
characteristics include, lack of eye contact, social isolation of a person, absence of empathy,
poor capacity of language etc. Also, there are several individuals who face problems in
understanding the metaphors and also they face issues in interpreting them Literally (Ng et
al., 2016). People with disabled mirror neurons also find difficulty in miming the actions of
the other people and they often display some preoccupation with the trifles and ignore the
important and significant aspects of the environment they live in.

2PSYCHOLOGY
4. What personal experience have you had with someone that shows signs of disabled
neurons? Does the research agree with your observations?
I have come across a total of two people who show the signs of disabled neurons. I have
noticed one of my classmates during my secondary school years who used to fail in
mimicking what teachers have taught in the class just before two to three minutes. Also, he
was very weak at copying others words and actions. Also, one of my neighbour, just two
years elder than me has issues with reflecting body language, emotions and facial
expressions. Also, he is having issues with his language fluency and suffers from delay in
language. He is not capable of perceiving the different emotions as well. All his activities are
slower as compared to ours and is also very less activated. Many of the times we find his
parents scolding him for his inactiveness and they have also showed several doctors in order
to treat him.

3PSYCHOLOGY
References:
Khalil, R., Tindle, R., Boraud, T., Moustafa, A. A., & Karim, A. A. (2018). Social decision
making in autism: on the impact of mirror neurons, motor control, and imitative
behaviors. CNS neuroscience & therapeutics, 24(8), 669-676.
Kilner, J. M. (2015). Relating the ontogeny and function of mirror neurons to perceptual
learning and inference. New Frontiers in Mirror Neurons Research, 245.
Ng, R., Brown, T. T., Erhart, M., Järvinen, A. M., Korenberg, J. R., Bellugi, U., & Halgren,
E. (2016). Morphological differences in the mirror neuron system in Williams
syndrome. Social neuroscience, 11(3), 277-288.
Wudneh, E., Acharya, A., Ashraf, A., Krishnan, R., & Tohid, H. (2016). The Mystery of the
Mirror Neuron System. ARC Journal of Radiology and Medical Imaging, 1(2), 1-4.