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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