Saffin Jillian M, Tohid Hassaan
Department of Psychology, Northern Arizona University, Arizona, United States of America.
Neurosciences (Riyadh). 2016 Apr;21(2):108-19. doi: 10.17712/nsj.2016.2.20150472.
Understanding social cognition has become a hallmark in deciphering autism spectrum disorder. Neurobiological theories are taking precedence in causation studies as researchers look to abnormalities in brain development as the cause of deficits in social behavior, cognitive processes, and language. Following their discovery in the 1990s, mirror neurons have become a dominant theory for that the mirror neuron system may play a critical role in the pathophysiology of various symptoms of autism. Over the decades, the theory has evolved from the suggestion of a broken mirror neuron system to impairments in mirror neuron circuitry. The mirror neuron system has not gained total support due to inconsistent findings; a comprehensive analysis of the growing body of research could shed light on the benefits, or the disadvantage of continuing to study mirror neurons and their connection to autism.
理解社会认知已成为解读自闭症谱系障碍的一个标志。随着研究人员将大脑发育异常视为社交行为、认知过程和语言缺陷的原因，神经生物学理论在病因研究中占据了主导地位。自20世纪90年代被发现以来，镜像神经元已成为一种主流理论，即镜像神经元系统可能在自闭症各种症状的病理生理学中起关键作用。几十年来，该理论已从镜像神经元系统受损的观点发展到镜像神经元回路受损。由于研究结果不一致，镜像神经元系统尚未获得全面支持；对越来越多的研究进行全面分析可能会揭示继续研究镜像神经元及其与自闭症的联系的益处或弊端。
