Mirror Neurons and the Evolution of Brain and LanguageMaxim I. Stamenov, Vittorio Gallese The emergence of language, social intelligence, and tool development are what made homo sapiens sapiens differentiate itself from all other biological species in the world. The use of language and the management of social and instrumental skills imply an awareness of intention and the consideration that one faces another individual with an attitude analogical to that of one’s own. The metaphor of ‘mirror’ aptly comes to mind.Recent investigations have shown that the human ability to ‘mirror’ other’s actions originates in the brain at a much deeper level than phenomenal awareness. A new class of neurons has been discovered in the premotor area of the monkey brain: ‘mirror neurons’. Quite remarkably, they are tuned to fire to the enaction as well as observation of specific classes of behavior: fine manual actions and actions performed by mouth. They become activated independent of the agent, be it the self or a third person whose action is observed. The activation in mirror neurons is automatic and binds the observation and enaction of some behavior by the self or by the observed other. The peculiar first-to-third-person ‘intersubjectivity’ of the performance of mirror neurons and their surprising complementarity to the functioning of strategic communicative face-to-face (first-to-second person) interaction may shed new light on the functional architecture of conscious vs. unconscious mental processes and the relationship between behavioral and communicative action in monkeys, primates, and humans. The present volume discusses the nature of mirror neurons as presented by the research team of Prof. Giacomo Rizzolatti (University of Parma), who originally discovered them, and the implications to our understanding of the evolution of brain, mind and communicative interaction in non-human primates and man.(Series B) |
From inside the book
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... input? Data from Perrett and coworkers (Perrett et al. 1989, 1990) show that in the anterior part of the superior temporal sulcus (STSa) there are neurons responding to the sight of hand-object interactions. These neurons apparently do ...
... input? Data from Perrett and coworkers (Perrett et al. 1989, 1990) show that in the anterior part of the superior temporal sulcus (STSa) there are neurons responding to the sight of hand-object interactions. These neurons apparently do ...
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... input for F5 motor neurons and then be transformed into a pragmatic representation. Alternatively, it could occur in PF from the integration between the visual response to action observation and the efference copy of the motor ...
... input for F5 motor neurons and then be transformed into a pragmatic representation. Alternatively, it could occur in PF from the integration between the visual response to action observation and the efference copy of the motor ...
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... input only at a later developmental stage. In adulthood, canonical neurons represent objects in terms of hand motor actions: a small object is a “precision grasp” action, a large object becomes a “whole hand” action. Mirror neurons ...
... input only at a later developmental stage. In adulthood, canonical neurons represent objects in terms of hand motor actions: a small object is a “precision grasp” action, a large object becomes a “whole hand” action. Mirror neurons ...
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... input from the STS. The presence in both areas F5 and PF of mirror neurons often indistinguishable in their “visual” and “motor” responses suggests that the concept “action representation” should be attributed more to the whole circuit ...
... input from the STS. The presence in both areas F5 and PF of mirror neurons often indistinguishable in their “visual” and “motor” responses suggests that the concept “action representation” should be attributed more to the whole circuit ...
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... inputs to primate motor cortex: evidence for four somatotopically organized 'premotor' areas. Brain Research, 177, 176– 182. Murata, A., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., Gallese, V., Raos, V., & Rizzolatti, G. (1997). Object representation in ...
... inputs to primate motor cortex: evidence for four somatotopically organized 'premotor' areas. Brain Research, 177, 176– 182. Murata, A., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., Gallese, V., Raos, V., & Rizzolatti, G. (1997). Object representation in ...
Contents
The coevolution of language and working memory capacity in the human brain | |
Episodic action memory Characterization of the time course and neural circuitry | |
Mirror neurons vocal imitation and the evolution of particulate speech | |
Constitutive features of human dialogic interaction Mirror neurons and what they tell us about human abilities | |
Some features that make mirror neurons and human language faculty unique | |
Altercentric perception by infants and adults in dialogue Egos virtual participation in Alters complementary act | |
Visual attention and selfgrooming behaviors among fourmonthold infants Indirect evidence pointing to a developmental role for mirror neurons | |
The role of mirror neurons in the ontogeny of speech | |
Mirror neurons registration of biological motion A resource for evolution of communication and cognitivelinguistic meaning | |
Looking for neural answers to linguistic questions | |
The role of objects in imitation | |
The mirror system and joint action | |
Brain activation to passive observation of grasping actions | |
Mirror neurons and the self construct | |
Behavioral synchronization in human conversational interaction | |
Symmetry building and symmetry breaking in synchronized movement | |
Mirror neurons system and the evolutionof brain communication and language | |
On the evolutionary origin of language | |
Mirror neurons and cultural transmission | |
Applications | |
Mirror neurons and the neural basis for learning by imitation Computational modeling | |
Mirror neurons and feedback learning | |
A connectionist model which unifies the behavioral and the linguistic processes Results from robot learning experiments | |
Name index | |
Subject index | |
Other editions - View all
Mirror Neurons and the Evolution of Brain and Language Maksim Stamenov,Vittorio Gallese Limited preview - 2002 |
Mirror Neurons and the Evolution of Brain and Language Maksim Stamenov,Vittorio Gallese No preview available - 2002 |
Mirror Neurons and the Evolution of Brain and Language Maksim Stamenov,Vittorio Gallese No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
action game action observation action understanding activation adult agent altercentric Arbib area F5 articulatory Bråten Broca’s area capacity chimpanzees cognitive communicative behavior complex condition coordination cortical cultural effects encoding error evolution evolutionary example execution Experimental Brain Research experiments facial Fadiga Figure fMRI Fogassi frontal function Gallese gestures goal grasping hominid Homo erectus human brain imitation individual infants inferior parietal lobule input Intersubjective intraparietal sulcus Journal language learning linguistic lobe macaque matching means mechanism Meltzoff memory mental mirror neurons mirror system monkey mouth movements neocortex neural Neuroscience non-human primates object observed action one’s parietal lobe parietal lobule patterns perception performance prefrontal cortex premotor cortex primates representation response Rizzolatti robot role sequence signal simulation social spatial specific speech structure sulcus superior parietal lobule symbolic symmetry task temporal theory of mind tion verbal Vihman virtual participation visual vocal Weigand words