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The Role of the Human Mirror Neuron System in Communication and Social Interaction| old_uid | 973 |
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| title | The Role of the Human Mirror Neuron System in Communication and Social Interaction |
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| start_date | 2006/03/29 |
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| schedule | 11h-12h30 |
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| online | no |
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| summary | In the past few years my lab has investigated the human homolog of the macaque mirror neuron system, initially discovered in monkeys with single-unit recordings. We have prevalently studied the role of the human mirror neuron system in imitation and intention understanding, the links between this system and empathy, and the neural and functional links between the mirror neuron system and neural systems concerned with language. We are now also expanding this line of research with developmental neuroimaging studies that investigate typically developing adolescents and children with social deficits associated with autism. What emerges from this work is a ‘core circuit’ composed by inferior frontal and posterior parietal mirror neuron areas and by the superior temporal cortex. This core circuit may share neural and functional properties with classical language areas and may facilitate forms of mirroring that seem important in speech perception. Moreover, the core circuit needs to interact with other systems to provide flexible social behavior. For instance, the interaction between the core circuit, the insula, and the amygdala, may be essential for social mirroring. Furthermore, the existence of such a core circuit essentially dedicated to imitation and mirroring, also requires control mechanisms. Anatomo-physiological considerations and recently acquired data suggest that human pre-SMA may contain ‘super mirror neurons’ that either modulate - sometimes suppressing mirror neuron activity when overt mirroring is not required - or concatenate in functionally relevant sequences lower-level mirror neuron responses. All in all, this work suggests that the edifice of human cognition – in particular those aspects of human cognition that are critical to social behavior - may have been built from the bottom up, with the ground floor of perception and action supporting the upper floors of concepts and symbols. |
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| responsibles | Muschall |
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