Is Autism caused by a deficiency of mirror neurons?

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I just read an article on Wikipedia about mirror neurons and how one theory suggests that a deficiency of mirror neurons causes Autism. A mirror neuron is a neuron found in humans and animals that is related to mirroring the behavior of others, understanding the actions of others, and learning skills by imitating others. It would make sense if a deficiency in these neurons is the cause of Autism because people on the Autism spectrum sometimes have a hard time understanding the actions of others and mirroring the behavior of others. One example of this is that people on the Autism spectrum often have an accent that is different from the people around them because they don't mirror the way that other people speak. I thought it was an interesting theory that could be valid. What do other people on here think? Here's a link to the Wikipedia page on mirror neurons.

Mirror neuron

I rather liked http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12759587 from last year.

This is very interesting. A combination of this theory, the intense world theory, and the broken mirrors theory would probably be enough to completely define Autism if the three were unified.

Not the main cause. I may not mimic the people around me but I mimic my favourite actors, even dress similar.

Also, this:
http://www.autismhwy.com/articledetails.php?id=74

I think it was disproven some time back; something along the lines of those with an ASD and the controls having a similar amount. This is all vague and IIRC though, so take it for that.

I'm all for brain damage being the main cause.

I listened to this Radiolab podcast (http://www.radiolab.org/2010/jan/11/spindle-cells/) a while back that mentioned "spindle cells." They talk about these neurons as distinguishing features between humans and animals, but it immediately sounded to me like something that could be related to ASD...some of the commenters on that page seem to have thought the same thing. I think they're completely different than mirror neurons, but super interesting nonetheless.

I think the mirror neuron hypothesis is extremely overinflated. It's a good hypothesis in general, but it's been magnified in importance, in my opinion. Many studies talk about mirror neurons like they're THE key to ASDs. It is much more complex than that, and I think that mirror neurons are only one piece of a jigsaw puzzle that has many parts.