The anthropomorphic brain: The mirror neuron system responds to human and robotic actions (original) (raw)
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Robotic actions preferentially engage the human mirror system
As humans, we gather a wide range of information about other people from watching them move. A network of parietal, premotor, and occipitotemporal regions within the human brain, termed the action observation network (AON), has been implicated in understanding others' actions by means of an automatic matching process that links observed and performed actions. Current views of the AON assume a matching process biased towards familiar actions; specifically, those performed by conspecifics and present in the observer's motor repertoire. In this study, we test how this network responds to form and motion cues when observing natural human motion compared to rigid roboticlike motion across two independent functional neuroimaging experiments. In Experiment 1, we report the surprising finding that premotor, parietal, occipitotemporal regions respond more robustly to rigid, robot-like motion than natural human motion. In Experiment 2, we replicate and extend this finding by demonstrating that the same pattern of results emerges whether the agent is a human or a robot, which suggests the preferential response to robot-like motion is independent of the agent's form. These data challenge previous ideas about AON function by demonstrating that the core nodes of this network can be flexibly engaged by novel, unfamiliar actions performed by both human and non-human agents. As such, these findings suggest that the AON is sensitive to a broader range of action features beyond those that are simply familiar. Hum Brain Mapp 33:2238-2254,
Human and Robotic Action Observation Elicit Automatic Imitation
Symposium on Imitation in Animals and Artifacts, 2005
Recent behavioural and neuroimaging studies found that observation of biological action, but not of robotic action, elicits imitation and activates the 'mirror neuron system'in the premotor cortex (Kilner, Paulignan, and Blakemore, 2003; Castiello, Lusher, Mari, Edwards, and Humphreys, 2002; Meltzoff, 1995; Tai, Scherfler, Brooks, Sawamoto, and Castiello, 2004). This implies that the actions of other people and of mechanical devices are processed in categorically different ways. However, if the mirror system develops through ...
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.
The Human Premotor Cortex Is 'Mirror' Only for Biological Actions
Current Biology, 2004
studies showing that the observation of grasping movements activates the left premotor cortex [9][10][11][12][13][14]. We ex-Hammersmith Hospital Imperial College pect the left premotor cortex to be activated during observation of a human, but not a robot, hand grasping London W12 0NN United Kingdom the target. If this were the case, it would parallel the finding of a lack of mirror neuron activation in monkeys 2 Department of Psychology Royal Holloway observing actions performed by a human model with tools. This is because, as for the "tools" condition in University of London Egham TW20 monkey studies where there is a visible agent using the tool, our robot condition implies the presence of an United Kingdom agent activating the robot arm. We performed a hypothesis-driven analysis by looking at voxels within left premotor cortex with significant Summary activation between conditions (see Experimental Procedures). As predicted, we observed activation of the left Previous work has shown that both human adults and premotor cortex in the region of the ventral premotor children attend to grasping actions performed by ancortex during observation of manual grasping actions other person but not necessarily to those made by a performed by the human versus observation of the static mechanical device [1-3]. According to recent neurohuman (P ϭ 0.001; ); we did not see this activation physiological data, the monkey premotor cortex confor the grasping robot contrasted with the static robot tains "mirror" neurons that discharge both when the (
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.
PloS one, 2012
Mirror neurons are single cells found in macaque premotor and parietal cortices that are active during action execution and observation. In non-human primates, mirror neurons have only been found in relation to object-directed movements or communicative gestures, as non-object directed actions of the upper limb are not well characterized in non-human primates. Mirror neurons provide important evidence for motor simulation theories of cognition, sometimes referred to as the direct matching hypothesis, which propose that observed actions are mapped onto associated motor schemata in a direct and automatic manner. This study, for the first time, directly compares mirror responses, defined as the overlap between action execution and observation, during object directed and meaningless non-object directed actions. We present functional MRI data that demonstrate a clear dissociation between object directed and non-object directed actions within the human mirror system. A premotor and parietal network was preferentially active during object directed actions, whether observed or executed. Moreover, we report spatially correlated activity across multiple voxels for observation and execution of an object directed action. In contrast to predictions made by motor simulation theory, no similar activity was observed for non-object directed actions. These data demonstrate that object directed and meaningless non-object directed actions are subserved by different neuronal networks and that the human mirror response is significantly greater for object directed actions. These data have important implications for understanding the human mirror system and for simulation theories of motor cognition. Subsequent theories of motor simulation must account for these differences, possibly by acknowledging the role of experience in modulating the mirror response.
Mirror neuron framework yields representations for robot interaction
2009
Common coding is a functional principle that underlies the mirror neuron paradigm. It insures actual parity between perception and action, since the perceived and performed actions are equivalently and simultaneously represented within the mirror neuron system. Based on the parity of this representation we show how the mirror neuron system may facilitate the interaction between two robots. Synchronization between neuron groups in different structures of the mirror neuron system are on the basis of the interaction behavior. The robotic simulation is used to illustrate several interactions. The resulting synchronization and turn taking behaviors show the potential of the mirror neuron paradigm for designing of socially meaningful behaviors.
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.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2005
& In the present study, we describe a new type of visuomotor neurons, named tool-responding mirror neurons, which are found in the lateral sector of monkey ventral premotor area F5. Tool-responding mirror neurons discharge when the monkey observes actions performed by an experimenter with a tool (a stick or a pair of pliers). This response is stronger than that obtained when the monkey observes a similar action made with a biological effector (the hand or the mouth). These neurons respond also when the monkey executes actions with both the hand and the mouth. The visual and the motor responses of each neuron are congruent in that they share the same general goal, that is, taking possession of an object and modifying its state. It is hypothesized that after a relatively long visual exposure to tool actions, a visual association between the hand and the tool is created, so that the tool becomes as a kind of prolongation of the hand. We propose that tool-responding mirror neurons enable the observing monkey to extend action-understanding capacity to actions that do not strictly correspond to its motor representations. Our findings support the notion that the motor cortex plays a crucial role in understanding action goals. &