2007/12/31
>>Delicacy

The mirror neuron system is a uniquely influential part of the brain. The construct of mirror neurons in the brain allow humans the ability to learn by observation a number of aspects ranging from the intricacies of displayed emotion to the technicalities of moving ones hands to catch a thrown ball. With mirror neurons, the brain is able to grasp the ability to place the owner in an observed person's place, seeing how they see and thinking how they think. In essence, the mirror neuron construct is what gives humans the ability to empathize.

The construct is set up throughout the brain in key locations to aid the areas within and adjacent to their location. It functions different depending on the stimulation and makes adjustments to neural pathways and learned mental maps accordingly. When an action or emotion made by an observed human being registers in the construct, the mirror neurons firing are dependent upon the type of action or emotion being witnessed, as well as the result of that action or emotion. Different parts of the construct are accessed depending on the type of action or emotion witnessed. The action-related one allows human beings to understand concepts of intention and goal-oriented behavior. The emotion-related one allows human beings to understand concepts of feelings in others, the causes and effects of emotions, and how the expressed emotion relates to environmental and situational context.

It has also been suggested, however unproven due to lack of research, that the mirror neuron construct assists the grasp of language and its situational/conditional usage, considering the proximity of part of the construct to certain known language centers in the brain.

A theory that is currently gaining ground relates unresponsive or missing mirror neurons to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Persons with ASD display a range of symptoms all tied to functions of the mirror neuron construct: they lack the ability to read emotions in others, are incapable of metaphorical language comprehension, have extremely underdeveloped social skills, lack of displayed curiosity/interest, missing language abilities, et cetera. Human beings with ASD have repeatedly given EEG readings that show a distinct lack of difference between the way their brain reacts to performing actions themselves versus observing another human being perform them. In human beings without ASD, these readings differ specifically within parts of the brain containing the mirror neuron construct. There is also a distinct physiological difference between the brains of those with ASD and those without, namely the thinning of key construct areas and the thinning of those areas correlating with the severity of the ASD.

The human race has not been able to prove that these correlations are necessarily causative. However, current research continues to lend support to the malformed mirror neuron system as a significant contributor to ASD.

Here, we part ways with the scientifically proven, and delve into logical conjecture.

These human beings affected with ASD will rarely show some kind of savant ability. The savant abilities the affected is capable of, however, has little to do with the their ASD. There are many different cases of savant abilities in people who do not have any kind of ASD. The neural pathway mapping of the brain in such individuals is markedly different from the normal mappings found in human beings, giving rise to savant abilities (such as photographic memory or number calculation) but simultaneously severely suppressing or altogether leaving out large sections of other abilities that are normally found in capable human beings (creating meaningful relationships with others, being able to view the larger picture instead of intensely focusing on one aspect uncontrollably). This profoundly different and unknown mental mapping is, perhaps, spurred on by the brain attempting to find ways around malformation in utero, trying to heal itself to somehow maintain a method of functioning.