Excessive mirror movements and aggression.
The presence of mirror movements was assessed as part of the overall neurological examination of 170 inpatients in a child psychiatric unit. It was found that when patients were divided by presence or absence of problems of repetitive aggressiveness, the aggressive patients, particularly the subgroup of aggressive male patients, had significantly more mirror movements than nonaggressive patients. The results persisted after the exclusion of patients with focal neurological or electroencephalographic abnormalities. It is hypothesized that mirror movements and repetitive aggressive behavior may both result from a delay in the development of normal inhibitory mechanisms.
D000293:Adolescent; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D009433:Neural Inhibition; D009460:Neurologic Examination