Download The Mirror Mechanism: A Mechanism for Understanding Others

Cognitivist Autumn in Torun 2010
Mirror Neurons: from action to empathy
http://www.kognitywistyka.umk.pl/2010
The Mirror Mechanism:
A Mechanism for Understanding Others
Giacomo Rizzolatti
University of Parma, Italy
Director of Department of Neurosciences,
Section of Human Physiology
Contact: http://www.unipr.it/arpa/mirror/english/staff/rizzolat.htm
Abstract
Mirror neurons are a set of neurons that discharge both when the monkey executes a specific
motor act and when it observes another individual doing a similar act.
In the first part of my lecture, I will review the basic functional properties of monkey
frontal mirror neurons. I will describe first their motor properties. I will show that, as most
neurons in the premotor cortex, mirror neurons code the goal of a motor act. I will review then
their visual properties showing that mirror neurons represent a mechanism that allows a direct
understanding of what the agent is doing.
I will show then that in both the frontal and parietal cortex most mirror neurons become
active only if the observed motor act is part of a specific motor chain (e.g. grasping-to-eating).
Thus, the observation of a given motor act excites, according to the context and other
contingencies, a specific motor chain that replicates in the observer the most likely future
action of the agent. This mechanism allows the observer to understand why the individual is
performing a giving motor, i.e. his/her intention (e.g. grasping-to-eating).
Mirror mechanism also exists in humans. Yet, there is some controversy on the role of
the mirror mechanism in social cognition. I will discuss this issue and will show that,
although there are several mechanisms through which one can understand the behaviour of
others, the parieto-frontal mechanism is the only one that allows understanding others’ actions
from the inside giving the observing individual a “first-person” person grasp of other
individuals’ motor goals and intentions.
I will conclude by discussing the role of mirror neurons in autism. I will show that
while children with autism understand the what of an observed motor act, they fail to
recognize the why of it when it does not correspond to a standard context-determined
behavior. Because of this impairment, children with autism lack experiential understanding of
others, relying in their behavior on external factors.
NOTES:
CAT 2010: Mirror Neurons: from action to empathy
April 14-16, Torun 2010, Poland | University Hotel, Szosa Chełmińska 83