Excessive mirror movements and aggression
Woods, B.T.; Eby, M.D.
Biological Psychiatry 17(1): 23-32
1982
ISSN/ISBN: 0006-3223 PMID: 7059636 Document Number: 194492
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.