Echopraxia

Echopraxia (also known as echokinesis) is the involuntary repetition or imitation of another person's actions. Similar to echolalia, the involuntary repetition of sounds and language, it is one of the echophenomena ("automatic imitative actions without explicit awareness"). It has long been recognized as a core feature of Tourette syndrome, and is considered a complex tic, but it also occurs in autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and catatonia, aphasia, and disorders involving the startle reflex such as latah. Echopraxia has also been observed in individuals with epilepsy, dementia and autoimmune disorders; the causes of and the link between echopraxia and these disorders is undetermined.

The etymology of the term is from Ancient Greek: "ἠχώ (ēkhō) from ἠχή (ēkhē "sound") and "πρᾶξις (praksis, "action, activity, practice)".

Characteristics

Echopraxia is the involuntary mirroring of an observed action. Imitated actions can range from simple motor tasks such as picking up a phone to violent actions such as hitting another person.

Imitative learning and emulation of physical and verbal actions are critical to early development (up to the age of two or three), but when these behaviors become reactions rather than a means for learning, they are considered echophenomena (copying behaviors).

Causes

Echopraxia is a typical symptom of Tourette syndrome but causes are not well elucidated.

One theoretical cause subject to ongoing debate surrounds the role of the mirror neuron system (MNS), a group of neurons in the inferior frontal gyrus (F5 region) of the brain that may influence imitative behaviors, but no widely accepted neural or computational models have been put forward to describe how mirror neuron activity supports cognitive functions such as imitation.