Biological Basis of Social Cognition

Q: Biological Basis of Social Cognition

Social living requires social cognition and concepts like theory of mind. These skills and capabilities have a biological basis in neuroanatomy, including mirror neurons.

Test yourself on Biological Basis of Social Cognition

After reading these notes, test your knowledge with free interactive questions on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.

Recording Mirror Neuron Activity: Di Pellegrino et al. (1992)

Mirror neurons are neurons that fire when both performing an action and observing someone perform the same action. Electrodes were used to study the brain activity of macaque monkeys.

Method

The prefrontal cortex is an area of the brain believed to be involved in the planning and guidance of movement.
It is found in the frontal lobe.
Electrodes that record neuronal activity were inserted into individual neurons of the prefrontal cortex of macaque monkeys.
The activity of the neurons was monitored when the monkeys reached for food.

Results

The neurons were active both when the monkey reached for food and, unexpectedly, when the monkeys watched others reach for food.

Conclusion

This study was the first to provide evidence for the existence of these mirror neurons, though the exact function and purpose was unclear.
Future studies on the mirror neurons could provide an explanation for complex social behaviour.

Evaluation

Whenever animals are used in scientific studies, there is controversy.
Ethical issues are going to be especially apparent when electrodes are being inserted into the animals’ brains.
As this study’s purpose was not to examine mirror neurons, the findings were limited.

Mirror Neurons and Intentions: Fogassi et al. (2005)

Mirror neurons fire when both performing and observing someone perform, an action. These may be important in understanding the behaviour and actions of other people.

Fogassi et al. (2005)

Mirror neurons fire when both performing an action and when observing someone perform this action.
These may be important in understanding the behaviour and actions of other people.
Fogassi et al. (2005) studied these neurons in macaque monkeys as they observed a human complete an action.

Method

Humans completed two distinct actions while being observed by macaque monkeys:
- Picking up an apple and eating it
- Picking up an apple and placing it in a cup.
The neuronal activity of 41 individual neurons of 2 macaque monkeys was recorded by using electrodes.

Results

Observing the two different actions (eat or place) of placing and eating resulted in two different sets of neurons responding. - Additionally, a certain set of neurons fired after the apple was picked up but before the second action was completed (eat or place).

Conclusion

The set of neurons that fired before the second action was completed suggest that mirror neurons are important to help us understand the intentions of other actions.
The mirror neurons can also be used to predict others behaviours.

Evaluation

Ethical issues are raised whenever animals are used in scientific studies.
Another critique is that the study has low ecological validity as it was carried out in a laboratory setting.
A final criticism is that as the study was conducted on monkeys, it is difficult to generalise the results to humans.
Mirror neurons in humans may respond in different ways.