How Does Mirror Neurons Are Important?

The development of attachment bonds to other biological figures plays an important role in emotional development. Throughout life, an individual will form several relationships, some of which will be sincere and intimate while others will be superficial. However, collectively these relationships provide the foundation of our communities, families, and friendships and become essential to our survival as a species. A secure attachment bond can be classified as the interactive emotional relationship between a caregiver and infant involving the emotional responses of the caregiver to the infant 's cues (Bowlby, 1969). These emotional responses can be expressed in a variety of forms including gestures, sounds, or even movements. Thus, this interactive emotional relationship between the caregiver and infant brings the two closer together creating an environment that allows the infant to feel safe and secure, further developing their ability to communicate and interact with others (Bowlby, 1969).

Mirror neurons have been hailed by scientists as the most significant finding in neurology in the past decade, the key to understanding the secrets of human interaction and learning, and as significant to psychology as DNA is to biology. Mirror neurons are a newly-discovered structure of the brain responsible for the firing of neurons during both physical movement and the observation of physical movement. It is these firings during observation of movements that has scientists excited about their relation to learning and interaction. While mirror neurons have been found in both primates and humans, their role in terms of learning and perfecting motor skills is still unclear.

His breathing was rapid and his physical movements staccato; he was visibly anxious and his facial expressions changed quickly (Levine, 2010; Osofsky, 2004). Switching from a preformed and broken game to a three-dimensional and malleable medium allowed for a physical quality of expression that aided in the discharge of anxiety into the material (Malchiodi, 2003). The malleable quality of the Model Magic allowed JP to regress to an infantile state where I was able to facilitate breathing techniques and reduce his stress through mirroring (Axline, 1974; Bowlby 1982; Brisch, 2002; Hrdy 2009). JP’s ability to immediately attune himself to my controlled breathing in Session 2 may be an adaptive acuteness stemming from a developmental result commonly seen with Reactive Attachment Disorder and disorganized attachment (Brisch, 2002; Kay, 2013). The act of mirroring emotional regulation, such as calming breathing techniques in this case, is based on the secure attachment practices between the mother and infant (Bowlby, 1982; Brisch, 2002; Hrdy, 2009; Oppenheim, 2007). JP would continue the practice of looking to me for verification and emotional regulation after making artistic decisions, similar to how a young child looks for the visual and physical reaction of the caretaker (Armstrong, 2013; Wallin,

Secure early infant attachments are imperative to a person’s life because it assists in the development of empathy and emotional self-regulation. A healthy development of empathy and emotional self-regulation promotes prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior is the deliberate action of helping and/or benefiting another person, group, or society in general without any thought of being rewarded. Securing an early infant attachment can develop an automatic response of prosocial behavior which can be applied throughout an individual’s life as he or she responds to immediate situations that may occur throughout a lifetime. Anti-social behavior is developed when a person lacks the ability to help someone because he or she fails to identify with the feelings or difficulties of someone else (Steele, Bate, Nikitiades, & Buhl-Nielsen, 2015).

Even newborn infants show social behaviours. They love to be touched, held, smiled at and cooed to. At as young an age as one month old, infants can be seen to experiment with their faces and expressions, and may even try to mimic adults’ facial gestures. Because their facial muscles are fully developed at birth, they can make many expressions – “Newborns can smile slightly, knit their brows, or appear to pout or cry, and if you give them something that tastes awful, they look disgusted” (4).

First we have Carly who has report having a secure attachment classification. As a child with a secure attachment style, young Carly would have been distressed when her parent or caregiver left her, but would become happy upon their return. This is evidences that Carly and her caregiver developed a sense of trust between one another, allowing them to express positive emotions during interactions. Having been able to learn a

We also know, even though it may not always be the case, this condition derives from a maladaptive pattern of attachment to parental figures resulting from abuse, neglect,

On the opposite end of the spectrum of emotion, infants between two and forty eight hours old were tested in their response to touch in the article, “Classical conditioning in newborn humans 2–48 hours of age” written by Elliot M. Blass. In this article two groups of infants were stroked on their heads for different intervals of time and watched for any change in behavior. The second experimental group had been stroked for ten second intervals exhibited more head movements and more than half of the babies, about seven out of eight, cried as opposed to the one out of sixteen in the first control group of infants. While this helps and even goes so far as to prove that early bonding between newborns and their mothers should form a bond as early as possible, it also shows that classical conditioning can happen at any age.

This shows that a child can form social emotional interactions outside from the caregivers care. The evidence also points to the value of what support has been offered so that in turn emotional development can improve the emotional

I often hear the phrase, “humans learn through observing and imitating,” and after reading about mirror neurons, it makes sense. As babies, we learn our first words by imitating the sounds our parents make. Growing up, we observe our environments; we learn what is acceptable and what is not. In turn, what we learn about our society allows us to conform and have a sense of belongingness to our community—we start to socialize. Socialization then translates to empathy. We discover feelings and we start to relate to other people’s conditions and situations enabling us to facilitate connections and develop relationships. Of course, more research is needed to validate the correlation of these mirror neurons to learning, language, social behaviors

During the course we learn that neurons are critical early in childhood. On Page38 section 4 it states that there is a big increase in synaptic junctions, those that are used will survive, others will decay or be inhibited. The author argues that mirror neurons are highly present in infant monkeys. The argument is supported by reporting that surface electrodes had recorded mirroring monkeys one to seven days old. The young monkeys watched humans stick their tongues and smack their lips. The research was conducted properly by the first evidence that infants have mirror mechanism at birth that responds to facial gestures. Ehrenfeld also adds that many day old monkeys even stuck their tongues when they saw the human tongue. This corresponds with

According to Berk (2014), to be able to empathize with someone is to understand what they are feeling or, more properly, to understand what you would feel like if you were in the situation. Toddlers rely on words to communicate their feelings when they are younger until they are able to understand other people’s view. Parent’s influence these feeling greatly through social referencing, how they look, act, and react in different situations. This allows children to connect with one another, and depending on the child’s temperament, allow for sympathy to develop. Most foster children have a disorganized temperament meaning they do not react in the same manner every time they are placed in a situation. For instance Jodie

T’s foster carers frustration in not being able to understand T’s behaviour may be occurring within her own childhood experiences. If she was raised in a stressful care context, she may have developed an “early bias toward detecting nonverbal signs of anger and fear in others and this could be manifesting in a hyper vigilant style of processing…”. (p. 73). Hughes and Baylin (2012) entertain the idea that boosting oxytocin levels in parents with blocked care could assist in the decrease of their defensiveness and improve child reading abilities. A good therapeutic relationship for T foster carer with her counsellor may be one of the most important avenues to prime this chemical in her brain. (Hughes & Bayling,

Erickson’s psychosocial theory emphasizes social interactions between people, but Isabella does not understand her surroundings to the extent that she is able to develop trust towards other members within society. I was able to stay home and look after Isabella, which is the reason she became attached. It is necessary for an infant to feel protected by their caregiver, but also need to not

Affect dysregulation is assumed due to the description provided of Jack’s extreme reactivity and behaviours such as constant crying as an infant, kicking, screaming and disproportionate reactions in relation to the antecedent event. Affect dysregulation is promoted when a care-giver is unable to help modulate stress and reduce the internal tension and conflict within an infant (Cicchetti et al., 2005). Ally reveals that she often would lock herself in a room to avoid Jack’s constant crying which implies that she did not strive to help modulate Jack’s obvious stress and internal conflict. The development of affect dysregulation is detrimental as it can be accompanied by the development of lesser effective organisation of neurological systems (Cicchetti et al., 2005). The neurological