Dynamics of scientific research on mirror neuron system

Over 30 years, research into the Mirror Neuron System (MNS) has flourished, but criticisms emerged in 2014 regarding its role in empathy, mind-reading, and psychiatric disorders. One would expect that these criticisms to be considered with a time lag in the field of psychiatry because they were not originally formulated in the field of psychiatry. We found no time lag in publications on the social-cognition hypothesis between the peaks of publications on psychiatric disorders and all the other publications (both peaks in June 2014). Our findings indicate an effective knowledge dissemination between psychiatric research and other research fields.