The mirror-neurons system: data and models (original) (raw)
Related papers
Annu. Rev. Neurosci., 2004
I Abstract A category of stimuli of great importance for primates, humans in particular, is that formed by actions done by other individuals. If we want to survive, we must understand the actions of others. Furthermore, without action understanding, social organization is impossible. In the case of humans, there is another faculty that depends on the observation of others' actions: imitation learning. Unlike most species, we are able to learn by imitation, and this faculty is at the basis of human culture. In this review we present data on a neurophysiological mechanism-the mirror-neuron mechanism-that appears to play a fundamental role in both action understanding and imitation. We describe first the functional properties of mirror neurons in monkeys. We review next the characteristics of the mirror-neuron system in humans. We stress, in particular, those properties specific to the human mirror-neuron system that might explain the human capacity to learn by imitation. We conclude by discussing the relationship between the mirror-neuron system and language.
The human mirror neuron system and embodied representations
Advances in experimental medicine and biology, 2009
Mirror neurons are defined as neurons in the monkey cortex which respond to goal oriented actions, whether the behavior is self-generated or produced by another. Here we briefly review this literature and consider evidence from behavioral, neuropsychological, and brain imaging studies for a similar mirror neuron system in humans. Furthermore, we review functions of this system related to action comprehension and motor imagery, as well as evidence for speculations on the system's ties with conceptual knowledge and language.
Watching Others' Actions: Mirror Representations in the Parietal Cortex
The Neuroscientist, 2007
An observation that neurons in the motor cortex of the monkey are active both when the monkey performs a specific action and when he watches an actor executing the same action led to the mirror-system hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that primates perceive and interpret others' actions by generating an internal motor representation (e.g., simulation). Recent evidence suggests that humans have a similar mirror system. In this review, we focus on the essential congruence between the motor and visual properties of an action. We summarize behavioral and imaging studies in humans that show that observing others' actions can interfere with our own motor execution. We discuss a framework for understanding such an internal representation and suggest that the activity in the parietal cortex during observation of others' actions is based on the sensory-to-motor remapping properties of this region, which are necessary for fine control of our own actions. NEUROSCIENTIST 13 : 667-672, 2007.
The mirror neuron system and action recognition
Brain and Language, 2004
Mirror neurons, first described in the rostral part of monkey ventral premotor cortex (area F5), discharge both when the animal performs a goal-directed hand action and when it observes another individual performing the same or a similar action. More recently, in the same area mirror neurons responding to the observation of mouth actions have been also found. In humans, through an fMRI study, it has been shown that the observation of actions performed with the hand, the mouth and the foot leads to the activation of different sectors of BrocaÕs area and premotor cortex, according to the effector involved in the observed action, following a somatotopic pattern which resembles the classical motor cortex homunculus. These results strongly support the existence of an execution-observation matching system (mirror neuron system). It has been proposed that this system is involved in action recognition. Experimental evidence in favor of this hypothesis both in the monkey and humans are shortly reviewed.
Language and Cognition, 2014
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract\_S1866980814000362 How to cite this article: DAVID KEMMERER Does the motor system contribute to the perception and understanding of actions? Reflections on Gregory Hickok's The myth of mirror neurons: the real neuroscience of communication and cognition. Language and Cognition, a b s t r a c t It has been said that mirror neurons are "the most hyped concept in neuroscience" (Jarrett, 2012 ). In his book The myth of mirror neurons: the real neuroscience of communication and cognition , Gregory Hickok does the fi eld a great service by cutting through this hype and showing that, contrary to the views of many laypeople as well as some experts, mirror neurons are not the fundamental 'basis' of action understanding. I argue here, however, that he takes his critique too far by eff ectively denying that the motor system plays any signifi cant role at all in the perception and interpretation of actions. In fact, a large literature strongly supports the hypothesis that motor regions in the frontal and parietal lobes not only subserve the execution of actions, but also contribute to the comprehension of actions, regardless of whether they are directly observed or linguistically represented. In addition, recent research suggests that although the articulatory system is involved primarily in speech production, it enhances speech perception too, even when the auditory stimuli are not explicitly attended.
Why the Mirror Neurons Cannot Support Action Understanding
After the discovery of the " mirror " neurons in primates, some researchers tended to explain action understanding as a result of functioning of these units. The proponents of the traditional view on the nature of this cognitive and social phenomenon assume that the mirror neurons do not provide action understanding or provide it only partly. There exist empirical data that cannot be explained through the mirror neuron model of understanding others' actions. Analyzing the mirror neuron data, I revise their function and propose an alternative role of this type of neurons. At first, goals and intentions of the executor's action are coded outside the mirror neuron system. If the action is important for the observer and can be useful in his own motor repertoire, his/her mirror neuron system implicitly reproduces the action, retrieving the kinematics and sensory consequences the observer experienced in the past while executing the same action. Thus, the implicit reproduction facilitates the observer to execute this action either immediately or in the future. More likely, precisely this, but not action understanding, is the function of the mirror neurons.