The VICON Method is based on the belief that the neural system that guides us from imitation to empathy has the capacity to improve and evolve with early, intensive, effective, and professional attention. This intensive, evolutionary, online method is proposed as a pioneer for mirror neuron-based interventions to improve the symptoms of children with autism in their early years.
“Ramachandran wrote a fantastic article on the ‘broken mirror’. But the mirror system is never completely broken; it can always be improved if diagnosed early.” This was said by Giacomo Rizzolatti, who discovered mirror neurons twenty years ago. He was in Madrid, invited by the Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno Foundation, where on February 15th he explained how that discovery came about and the important implications it has had, before a very young audience, mostly university students, who packed the Foundation's auditorium. Under the title: "20 years of mirror neurons: from imitation to empathy“The dialogue was coordinated by the Chair of Neuroscience at the Autonomous University of Madrid-Tatiana Pérez Foundation, directed by Dr. Carmen Cavada.
Rizzolatti, awarded the prize Prince of Asturias Award for Research in 2011, highlighted the practical applications of his discovery of the mirror system in two important areas: rehabilitation and early intervention in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Autism seen from the perspective of mirror neurons It opens the hopeful possibility of correcting symptoms in the first months of life., as some early intervention studies already suggest.
But, What is the mirror system? This is how Rizzolatti explained it in Nature Clinical Practice in Neurology: “The essence of this “mirror” mechanism is this: When people observe an action performed by another person, a set of neurons that encode [the movement pattern] for that action is activated in the observers’ motor system. Because observers are aware of the outcomes of their [own] motor actions, they can understand what the other person is doing without having to initiate a cognitive process [to figure out the other’s intention].”
“Autism affects a wide variety of neural structures, from the cerebral cortex to the cerebellum and brainstem. However, in the broader context of neurodevelopmental deficits, a set of ASD symptoms (impaired communication, language, and emotion, as well as the ability to understand others) appears to coincide with functions mediated by the mirror mechanism. One hypothesis is that this set of deficits could depend on a deterioration of the mirror mechanism, and there is growing evidence to support this view,” Rizzolatti continues.
Autism seen through mirror neurons
This new vision on autism spectrum disorders, argues the University of Parma neuroscientist, could be used to establish new rehabilitation strategies based on a motor approach. The rationale behind this approach is that if the motor knowledge of people with ASD is improved, their social knowledge and behavior would also improve.
He clarifies this with an example: Children with ASD and typically developing children were asked to pick up a food item to eat or to place it in a container. In both cases, the activity of the mylohyoid muscle, which forms the floor of the mouth, was measured. In children without ASD, this muscle was activated as soon as they moved their arm to pick up the food. In contrast, there was no activation in children with ASD. In this case, muscle activation was evident only when they brought the food to their mouths. These data indicate that children with ASD are not only unable to organize their own motor actions into a unitary action characterized by a specific intention, but also show a deficit in the mirror mechanism, as reflected in the lack of activation of the muscles involved in an observed action.
And it is at this point that Rizzolatti disagrees with Ramachandran's broken mirror theory. Because, he asserts, the deteriorated, but not broken, mirror system can be improved by acting at a very early stage, in a critical window. And he cites the work of Sally Rogers, from Denver, “one of the stronger advocates for early diagnosis and intervention, in the first year of life,” he explains. Roger's worksStudies with children aged six to fifteen months, in whom early symptoms are detected (such as decreased eye contact, social interest, repetitive movement patterns, and lack of intentional communication) indicate that their developmental delay can be improved. And that this improvement is maintained over time.
The VICON Method is presented as a push for conventional therapies toward an innovative approach based on the preferences of children with autism for the technological world, making it an ideal alternative for families with logistics and realities shaped by these children, who require so much and such expensive stimulation.
The interview with Rizzollatti can be read here
Extracted from ABC Blogs