Given this, and knowing that people with autism suffer from being unable to understand people’s gestures, taking things in a literal way and having a lack of empathy, it is reasonable to hypothesize that there could be something wrong with this ‘mirror neuron’ reaction. Researchers have described people with autism as having a ‘broken mirror’, hence the ‘broken mirror hypothesis’. Some research has taken place into supporting this theory. Obviously it would be unethical to place an electrode into a human brain, so researchers have used other methods to record brain activity. One example is a research group at U.C.S.D who used an electroencephalogram (EEG) which measures brain waves. In normal children, an EEG component called an MU wave is suppressed both when doing and watching another person do a certain action. In autistic children, they found that the MU wave is suppressed when doing an action, but not when watching someone else do it. They concluded that the children’s mirror neuron network was deficient, implying that autistic children are capable of doing actions, but not …show more content…
Environmental factors include anything to do with your environment, such as the chemicals in the air you breathe. Statistics have shown that the number of children diagnosed with autism has dramatically increased in the last 15 years. Ivra Hertz-Picciotto said in an interview that “There's genetics and there's environment. And genetics don't change in such short periods of time”. Household products such as antibacterial soap could have ingredients that harm the brain by changing immune systems, Hertz-Picciotto said. Many chemicals in the environment are neurodevelopmental toxins and so they can change how the brain develops. Therefore, if a pregnant woman is exposed to these chemicals, it could alter how a baby’s brain structure develops, which could then trigger autism in that