Children with autistic spectrum disorder can imagine actions— what can this reveal about the Broken Mirror Hypothesis?
ObjectiveThis study investigated whether children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can imagine object directed actions similarly to their typically developed (TD) peers.Study designWe tested the ability to imagine goal directed actions in children with ASD (n = 18) and TD (n = 18) peers by mean...
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| Format: | Article |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Neurology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2025.1490445/full |
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| author | Jessica Galli Jessica Galli Laura Dusi Gioacchino Garofalo Gioacchino Garofalo Alessandra Brizzi Michela Gritti Federica Polo Elisa Fazzi Elisa Fazzi Giovanni Buccino Giovanni Buccino |
| author_facet | Jessica Galli Jessica Galli Laura Dusi Gioacchino Garofalo Gioacchino Garofalo Alessandra Brizzi Michela Gritti Federica Polo Elisa Fazzi Elisa Fazzi Giovanni Buccino Giovanni Buccino |
| author_sort | Jessica Galli |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ObjectiveThis study investigated whether children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can imagine object directed actions similarly to their typically developed (TD) peers.Study designWe tested the ability to imagine goal directed actions in children with ASD (n = 18) and TD (n = 18) peers by means of VMIQ-2 questionnaire and a novel behavioral task, in which children were requested to imagine some daily actions, after seeing them through videoclips presented on a computer screen. Observed actions lasted 4 s and children were requested to follow the same time course during imagination. During this motor imagery (MI) task, children were interrupted at a specific timepoint (e.g., at 1.5 s) from the beginning of the task. Afterwards, they had to select one of two frames extracted from the videoclips: one showed the correct timepoint at which the imagined action was stopped, the other depicted an earlier or later timepoint. Children had to press the key associated to the correct frame to provide their responses.ResultsBoth groups performed similarly in the questionnaire and in the novel MI task, where they showed the same error rate. Errors distribution suggests that all children exploited a similar strategy to solve the task, being errors mainly distributed in judging the later frame.ConclusionThese findings support the view that children with ASD can imagine actions similarly to their TD peers. These results do not fully support the Broken Mirror Hypothesis and may encourage the use of MI as a cognitive strategy in the rehabilitation of autism. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-768d084b3bf24c8d97382ce9b524111b |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1664-2295 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Neurology |
| spelling | doaj-art-768d084b3bf24c8d97382ce9b524111b2025-01-23T05:10:21ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neurology1664-22952025-01-011610.3389/fneur.2025.14904451490445Children with autistic spectrum disorder can imagine actions— what can this reveal about the Broken Mirror Hypothesis?Jessica Galli0Jessica Galli1Laura Dusi2Gioacchino Garofalo3Gioacchino Garofalo4Alessandra Brizzi5Michela Gritti6Federica Polo7Elisa Fazzi8Elisa Fazzi9Giovanni Buccino10Giovanni Buccino11Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, ItalyUnit of Child Neurology and Psychiatry, ASST Spedali Civili of Brescia, Brescia, ItalyDepartment of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, ItalyDepartment of Philosophy, University of Bologna, Bologna, ItalyFaculty of Medicine and Surgery, University “Vita-Salute” San Raffaele, Milan, ItalyDepartment of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, ItalyUnit of Child Neurology and Psychiatry, ASST Spedali Civili of Brescia, Brescia, ItalyUnit of Child Neurology and Psychiatry, ASST Spedali Civili of Brescia, Brescia, ItalyDepartment of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, ItalyUnit of Child Neurology and Psychiatry, ASST Spedali Civili of Brescia, Brescia, ItalyFaculty of Medicine and Surgery, University “Vita-Salute” San Raffaele, Milan, ItalyIRCCS San Raffaele, Milan, ItalyObjectiveThis study investigated whether children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can imagine object directed actions similarly to their typically developed (TD) peers.Study designWe tested the ability to imagine goal directed actions in children with ASD (n = 18) and TD (n = 18) peers by means of VMIQ-2 questionnaire and a novel behavioral task, in which children were requested to imagine some daily actions, after seeing them through videoclips presented on a computer screen. Observed actions lasted 4 s and children were requested to follow the same time course during imagination. During this motor imagery (MI) task, children were interrupted at a specific timepoint (e.g., at 1.5 s) from the beginning of the task. Afterwards, they had to select one of two frames extracted from the videoclips: one showed the correct timepoint at which the imagined action was stopped, the other depicted an earlier or later timepoint. Children had to press the key associated to the correct frame to provide their responses.ResultsBoth groups performed similarly in the questionnaire and in the novel MI task, where they showed the same error rate. Errors distribution suggests that all children exploited a similar strategy to solve the task, being errors mainly distributed in judging the later frame.ConclusionThese findings support the view that children with ASD can imagine actions similarly to their TD peers. These results do not fully support the Broken Mirror Hypothesis and may encourage the use of MI as a cognitive strategy in the rehabilitation of autism.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2025.1490445/fullautism spectrum disordermotor imagerymirror neuron systemBroken Mirror Hypothesismotor system |
| spellingShingle | Jessica Galli Jessica Galli Laura Dusi Gioacchino Garofalo Gioacchino Garofalo Alessandra Brizzi Michela Gritti Federica Polo Elisa Fazzi Elisa Fazzi Giovanni Buccino Giovanni Buccino Children with autistic spectrum disorder can imagine actions— what can this reveal about the Broken Mirror Hypothesis? Frontiers in Neurology autism spectrum disorder motor imagery mirror neuron system Broken Mirror Hypothesis motor system |
| title | Children with autistic spectrum disorder can imagine actions— what can this reveal about the Broken Mirror Hypothesis? |
| title_full | Children with autistic spectrum disorder can imagine actions— what can this reveal about the Broken Mirror Hypothesis? |
| title_fullStr | Children with autistic spectrum disorder can imagine actions— what can this reveal about the Broken Mirror Hypothesis? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Children with autistic spectrum disorder can imagine actions— what can this reveal about the Broken Mirror Hypothesis? |
| title_short | Children with autistic spectrum disorder can imagine actions— what can this reveal about the Broken Mirror Hypothesis? |
| title_sort | children with autistic spectrum disorder can imagine actions what can this reveal about the broken mirror hypothesis |
| topic | autism spectrum disorder motor imagery mirror neuron system Broken Mirror Hypothesis motor system |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2025.1490445/full |
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