Abstract: Autism is a brain development disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication. Until now, how autism occurs is not well understood. “Broken Mirror” Theory is a new theory in the psychological field of autism research, which can explain many clinical symptoms of autism and represents a unified mechanism for them. This paper first reviews the origin and development of the theory, then points out that the deficiency of action recognition, motion mimicry, Tom, empathy and language in autistic people could be explained by the dysfunction of mirror neuron system. Finally, we suggest that both the study of voluntary emulation and automatic mimicry as well as the modulation of mirror neuron system in other brain regions are necessary in the future.

Key words: autism, broken mirror theo ry, mirror neuron system, voluntary emulation, automatic mimicry