Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Friday, 14 May 2010
Disagreement Over Role Of Mirror Neurons In Autism
Marco Iacoboni and Mirella Dapretta have long held that a defective mirror neuron system in the brains of autistics explains their relative inability to register social cues like emotional expressions. Their measurements have backed that up. However, Ilan Dinstein, of the Weizmann Institute in Israel, as Ewen Callaway reports in this New Scientist piece, begs to differ. He compared autistics and normal individuals in an fMRI scanner while they viewed either repetitive hand movements or a variety of hand movements. Excitation of the mirror neuron system declined with exposure to the repetitive stimulus in both autistics and controls. Perhaps general brain "noise" is the answer to autistic disability, he argues. Iacoboni and Dapretta apparently are worried about the small sample size in Dinstein's experiment and claim the jury is still out.
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