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Journal ArticleDOI

Through the looking glass: counter‐mirror activation following incompatible sensorimotor learning

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TLDR
The results suggest that, rather than being innate or the product of unimodal visual or motor experience, the mirror properties of the mirror system are acquired through sensorimotor learning.
Abstract
The mirror system, comprising cortical areas that allow the actions of others to be represented in the observer's own motor system, is thought to be crucial for the development of social cognition in humans. Despite the importance of the human mirror system, little is known about its origins. We investigated the role of sensorimotor experience in the development of the mirror system. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure neural responses to observed hand and foot actions following one of two types of training. During training, participants in the Compatible (control) group made mirror responses to observed actions (hand responses were made to hand stimuli and foot responses to foot stimuli), whereas the Incompatible group made counter-mirror responses (hand to foot and foot to hand). Comparison of these groups revealed that, after training to respond in a counter-mirror fashion, the relative action observation properties of the mirror system were reversed; areas that showed greater responses to observation of hand actions in the Compatible group responded more strongly to observation of foot actions in the Incompatible group. These results suggest that, rather than being innate or the product of unimodal visual or motor experience, the mirror properties of the mirror system are acquired through sensorimotor learning.

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Toward a second-person neuroscience.

TL;DR: Evidence from neuroimaging, psychophysiological studies, and related fields are reviewed to argue for the development of a second-person neuroscience, which will help neuroscience to really “go social” and may also be relevant for the understanding of psychiatric disorders construed as disorders of social cognition.
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Where do mirror neurons come from

TL;DR: It is argued that the adaptation and associative hypotheses both offer plausible accounts of the origin of mirror neurons, but the associative hypothesis has three advantages: it provides a straightforward, testable explanation for the differences between monkeys and humans, and it is consistent with emerging evidence that mirror neurons contribute to a range of social cognitive functions, but do not play a dominant, specialised role in action understanding.
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Mirror neurons: from origin to function

TL;DR: It is argued that mirror neurons are forged by domain-general processes of associative learning in the course of individual development, and, although they may have psychological functions, they do not necessarily have a specific evolutionary purpose or adaptive function.
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Neural correlates of action: Comparing meta-analyses of imagery, observation, and execution

TL;DR: Previous models of the similarities in the networks for Motor Imagery, Action Observation, and Movement Execution are quantified and amended, while highlighting key differences in their recruitment of motor cortex, parietal cortex, and subcortical structures.
Journal ArticleDOI

More than one pathway to action understanding

TL;DR: It is proposed that action understanding requires more than merely the AON, and might be achieved through interactions between a ventral pathway and the dorsal AON.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Statistical parametric maps in functional imaging: A general linear approach

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a general approach that accommodates most forms of experimental layout and ensuing analysis (designed experiments with fixed effects for factors, covariates and interaction of factors).
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The mirror-neuron system.

TL;DR: A neurophysiological mechanism appears to play a fundamental role in both action understanding and imitation, and those properties specific to the human mirror-neuron system that might explain the human capacity to learn by imitation are stressed.
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Premotor cortex and the recognition of motor actions.

TL;DR: It is suggested that the development of the lateral verbal communication system in man derives from a more ancient communication system based on recognition of hand and face gestures.

Research report Premotor cortex and the recognition of motor actions

TL;DR: In the monkey premotor cortex there are neurons that discharge both when the monkey performs an action and when he observes a similar action made by another monkey or by the experimenter as mentioned in this paper.
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Empathy for Pain Involves the Affective but not Sensory Components of Pain

TL;DR: Only that part of the pain network associated with its affective qualities, but not its sensory qualities, mediates empathy, suggesting that the neural substrate for empathic experience does not involve the entire "pain matrix".
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