scholarly journals From monkey mirror neurons to primate behaviours: possible ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ pathways

2009 ◽  
Vol 364 (1528) ◽  
pp. 2311-2323 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. F. Ferrari ◽  
L. Bonini ◽  
L. Fogassi
Keyword(s):  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Action Understanding ◽  
Correspondence Problem ◽  
Voluntary Movements ◽  
Unified Framework ◽  
The Core ◽  
Motor Activation ◽  
Motor Representations

The discovery of mirror neurons (MNs), deemed to be at the basis of action understanding, could constitute the potential solution to the ‘correspondence problem’ between one's own and others' action that is crucial for of imitative behaviours. However, it is still to be clarified whether, and how, several imitative phenomena, differing in terms of complexity and cognitive effort, could be explained within a unified framework based on MNs. Here we propose that MNs could differently contribute to distinct imitative behaviours by means of two anatomo-functional pathways, subjected to changes during development. A ‘direct mirror pathway’, directly influencing the descending motor output, would be responsible for neonatal and automatic imitation. This proposal is corroborated by some new behavioural evidences provided here. During development, the increased control of voluntary movements and the capacity to efficiently suppress automatic motor activation during action observation assign to the core MNs regions essentially perceptuo-cognitive functions. These functions would be exploited by an ‘indirect mirror pathway’ from the core regions of the MN system to prefrontal cortex. This latter would play a key role in parsing, storing and organizing motor representations, allowing the emergence of more efficient and complex imitative behaviours such as response facilitation and true imitation.

scholarly journals No evidence for somatosensory attenuation during action observation of self-touch

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantina Kilteni ◽  
Patrick Engeler ◽  
Ida Boberg ◽  
Linnea Maurex ◽  
H. Henrik Ehrsson
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Mirror Neuron System ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Motor Command ◽  
Voluntary Action ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Motor Representations

AbstractThe discovery of mirror neurons in the macaque brain in the 1990s triggered investigations on putative human mirror neurons and their potential functionality. The leading proposed function has been action understanding: accordingly, we understand the actions of others by ‘simulating’ them in our own motor system through a direct matching of the visual information to our own motor programs. Furthermore, it has been proposed that this simulation involves the prediction of the sensory consequences of the observed action, similar to the prediction of the sensory consequences of our executed actions. Here, we tested this proposal by quantifying somatosensory attenuation behaviorally during action observation. Somatosensory attenuation manifests during voluntary action and refers to the perception of self-generated touches as less intense than identical externally generated touches because the self-generated touches are predicted from the motor command. Therefore, we reasoned that if an observer simulates the observed action and, thus, he/she predicts its somatosensory consequences, then he/she should attenuate tactile stimuli simultaneously delivered to his/her corresponding body part. In three separate experiments, we found a systematic attenuation of touches during executed self-touch actions, but we found no evidence for attenuation when such actions were observed. Failure to observe somatosensory attenuation during observation of self-touch is not compatible with the hypothesis that the putative human mirror neuron system automatically simulates the observed action. In contrast, our findings emphasize a sharp distinction between the motor representations of self and others.

Mirror Neurons Responding to Observation of Actions Made with Tools in Monkey Ventral Premotor Cortex

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pier Francesco Ferrari ◽  
Stefano Rozzi ◽  
Leonardo Fogassi
Keyword(s):  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
Action Understanding ◽  
Similar Action ◽  
Motor Responses ◽  
Visual Exposure ◽  
New Type ◽  
General Goal ◽  
Motor Representations ◽  
Action Goals

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.

scholarly journals Virtual Reality Augmented Feedback Rehabilitation Associated to Action Observation Therapy in Buccofacial Apraxia: Case Report

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 117954762199457
Author(s):  
Daniele Emedoli ◽  
Maddalena Arosio ◽  
Andrea Tettamanti ◽  
Sandro Iannaccone
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Voluntary Movements ◽  
Augmented Feedback ◽  
Lower Face ◽  
Facial Movements ◽  
Upper Face ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Buccofacial Apraxia

Background: Buccofacial Apraxia is defined as the inability to perform voluntary movements of the larynx, pharynx, mandible, tongue, lips and cheeks, while automatic or reflexive control of these structures is preserved. Buccofacial Apraxia frequently co-occurs with aphasia and apraxia of speech and it has been reported as almost exclusively resulting from a lesion of the left hemisphere. Recent studies have demonstrated the benefit of treating apraxia using motor training principles such as Augmented Feedback or Action Observation Therapy. In light of this, the study describes the treatment based on immersive Action Observation Therapy and Virtual Reality Augmented Feedback in a case of Buccofacial Apraxia. Participant and Methods: The participant is a right-handed 58-years-old male. He underwent a neurosurgery intervention of craniotomy and exeresis of infra axial expansive lesion in the frontoparietal convexity compatible with an atypical meningioma. Buccofacial Apraxia was diagnosed by a neurologist and evaluated by the Upper and Lower Face Apraxia Test. Buccofacial Apraxia was quantified also by a specific camera, with an appropriately developed software, able to detect the range of motion of automatic face movements and the range of the same movements on voluntary requests. In order to improve voluntary movements, the participant completed fifteen 1-hour rehabilitation sessions, composed of a 20-minutes immersive Action Observation Therapy followed by a 40-minutes Virtual Reality Augmented Feedback sessions, 5 days a week, for 3 consecutive weeks. Results: After treatment, participant achieved great improvements in quality and range of facial movements, performing most of the facial expressions (eg, kiss, smile, lateral angle of mouth displacement) without unsolicited movement. Furthermore, the Upper and Lower Face Apraxia Test showed an improvement of 118% for the Upper Face movements and of 200% for the Lower Face movements. Conclusion: Performing voluntary movement in a Virtual Reality environment with Augmented Feedbacks, in addition to Action Observation Therapy, improved performances of facial gestures and consolidate the activations by the central nervous system based on principles of experience-dependent neural plasticity.

scholarly journals What Happened to Mirror Neurons?

2021 ◽  
pp. 174569162199063
Author(s):  
Cecilia Heyes ◽  
Caroline Catmur
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Motor Learning ◽  
Brain Stimulation ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Action Understanding ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Visual Motor

Ten years ago, Perspectives in Psychological Science published the Mirror Neuron Forum, in which authors debated the role of mirror neurons in action understanding, speech, imitation, and autism and asked whether mirror neurons are acquired through visual-motor learning. Subsequent research on these themes has made significant advances, which should encourage further, more systematic research. For action understanding, multivoxel pattern analysis, patient studies, and brain stimulation suggest that mirror-neuron brain areas contribute to low-level processing of observed actions (e.g., distinguishing types of grip) but not to high-level action interpretation (e.g., inferring actors’ intentions). In the area of speech perception, although it remains unclear whether mirror neurons play a specific, causal role in speech perception, there is compelling evidence for the involvement of the motor system in the discrimination of speech in perceptually noisy conditions. For imitation, there is strong evidence from patient, brain-stimulation, and brain-imaging studies that mirror-neuron brain areas play a causal role in copying of body movement topography. In the area of autism, studies using behavioral and neurological measures have tried and failed to find evidence supporting the “broken-mirror theory” of autism. Furthermore, research on the origin of mirror neurons has confirmed the importance of domain-general visual-motor associative learning rather than canalized visual-motor learning, or motor learning alone.

Intentionality of movement: Mirror neuron system and theory of mind

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 2113-2113 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.M. Borghi ◽  
F. Binkofski
Keyword(s):  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Mirror Neuron System ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Action Understanding ◽  
Imaging Studies ◽  
Motor Representation ◽  
Neuron System ◽  
State Of Mind ◽  
Additional Explanation

The ability to understand intentions of actions performed by others is one of the prerequisites for social interaction. This ability has been attributed to our capacity to mentalize others’ behaviour, by simulating or predicting their mental states that would cause that behaviour and make it comprehensible. Brain imaging studies revealed the so called “mentalizng network” including the pSTS/TPJ, the temporal poles and the medial prefrontal cortex. This network gets constantly activated anytime we try to take the perspective of others or try to simulate their state of mind. On the other hand the discovery of mirror neurons has provided an additional explanation for understanding of the content of actions. The functional properties of these neurons point out that action understanding is primarily based on a mechanism that directly matches the sensory representation of perceived actions with one's own motor representation of the same actions. We provide evidence that both systems interact closely during the processing of intentionality of actions. Thus mentalizing is not the only form of intentional understanding and motor and intentional components of action are closely interwoven. Both systems play an important role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Effects of model types in observational learning on implicit sequential learning

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (7) ◽  
pp. 1596-1606
Author(s):  
Kanji Tanaka ◽  
Katsumi Watanabe
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Reaction Time Task ◽  
Test Session ◽  
Sequential Learning ◽  
Test Sequence ◽  
Learning Effects ◽  
Behavior Type ◽  
Movie Clip ◽  
Motor Representations

This study investigated whether implicit learning of sequence by observation occurred in a serial reaction time task and whether the learning effects were modulated by model behavioral type. In Experiment 1, we let 20 participants perform a sequence for 12 blocks and chose the best and worst performance models based on reaction time and errors. In Experiment 2, new observers viewed a movie clip chosen from the following three: the best model performing the sequential task in the first (the first six blocks) or second session (the last six blocks), or the worst model performing the task in the first session. Then, the observers performed the observed sequence, a test sequence and awareness test. We found that (1) implicit sequential learning occurred by observation regardless of model behavior type, (2) the learning effects were not susceptible to model behavior type and (3) speed index reflecting reaction time became larger even in the test session when the observers viewed the best model performing the second session. Overall, observers developed general motor representations through action–observation. In addition, their responses were also contagious; if the model performed the sequence faster, the observer might be able to perform the sequence faster.

Action observation therapy in pediatric patients with neuromotor deficits of the upper limbs secondary to central nervous system tumors

2019 ◽  
Vol 105 (6) ◽  
pp. NP75-NP78
Author(s):  
Marco Chisari ◽  
Raffaella Sensi ◽  
Carlo Alfredo Clerici ◽  
Fulvia Angela Gariboldi ◽  
Filippo Spreafico ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Case Series ◽  
Central Nervous System Tumor ◽  
Assessment Tests ◽  
System Tumor ◽  
Positive Results

This study reports a case series of patients with upper limb neuromotor deficits following pediatric central nervous system tumor and treated with rehabilitative therapy according to action observation therapy (AOT). AOT is based on the “mirror neurons” system and had positive results in various non-oncologic neurologic pathologies. This study is the first experience in the oncology field, and included 6 patients, 4 of whom were fully evaluated at 6-month follow-up. In all patients, therapy showed improvement in all assessment tests. These promising results lead to further studies to confirm their effectiveness.

Robots can be perceived as goal-oriented agents

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Sciutti ◽  
Ambra Bisio ◽  
Francesco Nori ◽  
Giorgio Metta ◽  
Luciano Fadiga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor System ◽  
Humanoid Robot ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Humanoid Robots ◽  
Interpersonal Interaction ◽  
Action Understanding ◽  
Motor Resonance ◽  
Implicit Processing ◽  
Gaze Behaviour ◽  
Open Question

Understanding the goals of others is fundamental for any kind of interpersonal interaction and collaboration. From a neurocognitive perspective, intention understanding has been proposed to depend on an involvement of the observer’s motor system in the prediction of the observed actions (Nyström et al. 2011; Rizzolatti & Sinigaglia 2010; Southgate et al. 2009). An open question is if a similar understanding of the goal mediated by motor resonance can occur not only between humans, but also for humanoid robots. In this study we investigated whether goal-oriented robotic actions can induce motor resonance by measuring the appearance of anticipatory gaze shifts to the goal during action observation. Our results indicate a similar implicit processing of humans’ and robots’ actions and propose to use anticipatory gaze behaviour as a tool for the evaluation of human-robot interactions. Keywords: Humanoid robot; motor resonance; anticipation; proactive gaze; action understanding

Relating the “mirrorness” of mirror neurons to their origins

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Kilner ◽  
Karl J. Friston
Keyword(s):  
Social Communication ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Selective Pressure ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Action Understanding ◽  
Neuron Function

AbstractEver since their discovery, mirror neurons have generated much interest and debate. A commonly held view of mirror neuron function is that they transform “visual information into knowledge,” thus enabling action understanding and non-verbal social communication between con-specifics (Rizzolatti & Craighero 2004). This functionality is thought to be so important that it has been argued that mirror neurons must be a result of selective pressure.

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