Mirror neurons seem to be involved in empathy and social skills, but they also seem to be fairly plastic, with much of their activity modulated by environmental factors. This result seems reasonable. A social creature that has a high degree of flexibility in social behavior would need flexibility in the ability to learn social cues.

My question is how does play influence the development of these networks, and what do we know about the relationship between how much access to play children have and the development of these pathways?