Social neuroscience, empathy, brain integration, and neurodevelopmental disorders by James C. Harris Presented By Jennifer Kwok Jennifer Tom Luong Phan

Social neuroscience, empathy, brain integration, and

neurodevelopmental disorders by

James C. Harris

Presented ByJennifer KwokJennifer TomLuong Phan

Background

• Paul McLean

• “Why else are we here, if not to help one another.”

• Triune Brain

Parental behavior and the thalamocingulate system

• Evolution of Thalamocingulate system and Behavioral Triad of…


• Evolution of Thalamocingulate system and Behavioral Triad of…nursing, infant-mother audiovocal contact, and play in mammals



• Maternal Behavior & fMRI studies



• Maternal Behavior & fMRI studies

• What is the role of Thalamocingulate system in males


Isopraxis, mirror neuron and social displays

• Isopraxis vs. Imitation



• Isopraxis: performing or acting in a like manner; does not necessarily mean that you UNDERSTAND the other’s behavior and “follow in their footsteps”



• Isopraxis: performing or acting in a like manner; does not necessarily mean that you UNDERSTAND the other’s behavior and “follow in their footsteps”

• Imitation: behavior that you observing something else first and now understand it enough to replicate what they are doing


• Example: When a child sees their mom making dinner, child will imitate that action when playing house because they know that the mom is making dinner to feed the family so they imitate by cooking and feeding their dolls.


• Isopraxis and Autism



• Harris is interchanging the terms “isopraxis” and “imitation”



• Harris is interchanging the terms “isopraxis” and “imitation”

• Example: “Wohlschlager and Bekering suggest that human imitation (isopraxis) emerged from mirror neuron system”


• “The imitation of certain autistic stereotypes by a therapist may lead to the termination of the behavior in the subject”



• What are the implications?




• Is this isopraxis or imitation?




• Is this isopraxis or imitation?

• Mirror Neuron System in Autism


• Mirror neuron system is activated because they may understand what the therapist is doing BUT other studies show that autistic children have dysfunctional mirror neuron system


• Explanation: If the mirror neuron system IS dysfunctional, then perhaps mirror neuron are ONLY for imitating behavior but NOT observing imitative behavior thus there may be another circuit in the brain that plays a role in OBSERVING imitative behavior



• Questions:

• When does the autistic child TERMINATES their “normal” behavior?

•


• Questions:


• Furthermore...


• Questions:


• Furthermore... Looked up the article from citation and found NOTHING!

Emergence of social behavior

• Linking of the cold sense of vision with emotion allows for empathetic response



• Cold sense of vision




• We have vision and emotion, these two elements create an empathetic response




• We have vision and emotion, these two elements create an empathetic response

• Example: if you see someone in distress, you want to help because you have this empathetic response


• PAM (perception-action model) proposed by de Waal and Preston



• PAM and prefrontal functioning can explain different levels of empathy across species and different age groups



• PAM and prefrontal functioning can explain different levels of empathy across species and different age groups

• Harris proposes that social behavior either came from PAM or from mutual aid

Impact of brain lesions on social behavior

• Brain regions associated with social behavior



• Phileas Gage: damage to ventromedial frontal cortex



• Phileas Gage: damage to ventromedial frontal cortex personality changes




• fMRI study: Judging the trustworthiness of faces





• fMRI study: empathy and forgiveness









• Found activation in left superior frontal gyrus, orbitofrontal gyrus, and precuneus

Neurodevelopmental disorders and social neuroscience

• Neurodevelopment disruption of integrated brain systems may result in abnormal social behavior



• Focus on 2 syndromes: Autistic disorder and Lesch-Nyhan



• Focus on 2 syndromes: Autistic disorder and Lesch-Nyhan

• LNS: individual is subjectively aware but despite this awareness self-injuries and asks to be retrained by others from doing so

Failure of integrated brain functioning in autistic behavior and

Lesch-Nyhan syndrome • Autistic disorder: Failure of integrated

social functioning and the lack of appropriate use of social gestures




• Lack of social referencing and failure in affective attunement





• Stereotype behavior





• Stereotype behavior

• Deficient activity in the limbic system failure to develop social understanding


Lesch-Nyhan syndrome • LNS: Compulsive self-injury with tissue

damage beginning in infancy and subsequent deliberate self-harm




• Stereotypical behavior




• Stereotypical behavior

• Reduction Striatum


Lesch-Nyhan syndrome • DISCUSSION: In Huntington’s Disease



• Dopamine deficiency



• Dopamine deficiency

• Hypothesized that self-injury in human subjects with LNS is the result of DA deficiency in basal ganglia


Lesch-Nyhan syndrome • DISCUSSION: In Huntington’s Disease • Dopamine deficiency • Hypothesized that self-injury in human

subjects with LNS is the result of DA deficiency in basal ganglia

• DISCUSSION: DA deficiency in basal ganglia hypothesized cause in Parkinson’s so why do Parkinson’s patient not show these behaviors?

Conclusion

• Final Thoughts

• Questions?

Documents

Social neuroscience, empathy, brain integration, and neurodevelopmental disorders by James C. Harris Presented By Jennifer Kwok Jennifer Tom Luong Phan