title: Mirror neuron system based therapy for emotional disorders.
abstract: Mirror neuron system (MNS) represents one of the most important discoveries in the area of neuropsychology of past decades. More than 500 papers have been published in this area (PubMed), and the major functions of MNS include action understanding, imitation, empathy, all of which are critical for an individual to be social. Recent studies suggested that MNS can modulate emotion states possibly through the empathy mechanism. Here we propose that MNS-based therapies provide a non-invasive approach in treatments to emotional disorders that were observed in autism patients, post-stroke patients with depression as well as other mood dysregulation conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Li Kai Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, 21 Sassoon Road, Hong Kong. yuantf@hku.hk
authors.forename: Ti-Fei
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hoff
mesh_terms: D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000628:therapy*; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000628:therapy; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000379:methods; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D040921:Stress Disorders, Traumatic / Q000628:therapy; D016896:Treatment Outcome