The Birth of Intersubjectivity by Massimo Ammaniti

Author:Massimo Ammaniti
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

MATERNAL EMPATHY AND THE MIRROR NEURONS SYSTEM

It is thus clear that intersubjective experiences are mapped onto an individual’s cerebral functioning from the first years of life. This aspect can be further illustrated by referring to the recent discovery of the mirror neurons system (MNS; Gallese, 2001; Gallese et al., 1996), which was discussed in chapter 1. Mirror neurons map observed and executed actions, personally experienced and observed emotions, or sensations within the same neural substrate by means of “embodied simulation” (Gallese, 2006, p. 15) processes. This concept of embodiment is used to explain how neurobiological events are sought to account for mental events (Emde, 2007). By means of “embodied simulation,” internal representations of the body states associated with actions, emotions, and sensations are evoked in the observer, as in the case of mothers, as though they would be doing a similar action or experiencing a similar emotion or sensation. These functional processes enhance individuals who are confronting the behavior of others, in experiencing a specific phenomenal state of intentional attunement. Such a condition generates a peculiar quality of familiarity with other individuals, produced by the collapse of the other’s intentions and emotions into the observer’s (Gallese, 2006). In this way, the MNS can be described as the neurobiological correlate of intersubjective system, since it represents the innate and embodied motivation to be in contact with others’ emotions and to share subjective experience with them.

On the basis of these considerations, we have carried out research (Lenzi et al., 2009) to study maternal intersubjectivity by exploration of mothers’ MNS during the presentation of infants’ emotional stimuli. We report now, in a more extensive way, our group’s study of different responses in mothers watching infant facial emotional expressions. The mothers have watched four facial emotional expressions—joy (J), distress (D), ambiguous (A), and neutral (N)—of their infants and of unfamiliar infants aged between 6 and 12 months. During fMRI scanning, mothers have been asked to perform two different tasks: to observe and empathize with the children’ emotions in pictures or to imitate them.

fMRI scanning has evidenced that mothers when observing and imitating facial expressions of their baby and of the unfamiliar one have activated premotor cortical regions, specifically the ventral premotor cortex (vPMC) and the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), which show mirror neurons properties as they are characterized by embodied simulation mechanism, by the activation of the same neural circuits underpinning emotional and sensorial experiences (Gallese, 2009a). MNS, by interacting with the limbic system (Ls), the key emotional center of the brain, through the anterior insula (I), may be critical for empathy (Carr et al., 2003), as has been confirmed in our study with mothers.

The results show that imitation of infant facial expressions (J/D/A) activates the MNS to a greater extent if confronted with a neutral face. Considering the response to different facial expressions, the imitation of joyous expression has activated a network that is distinct from that associated with other facial expressions. Mothers imitating children with happy expressions activate the right hemisphere, which is defined as the emotive brain.

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