Mirror Neurons and the Evolution of Brain and Language
Recent investigations have shown that the human ability to ‘mirror’ other’s actions originates in the brain at a much deeper level than phenomenal awareness. A new class of neurons has been discovered in the premotor area of the monkey brain: ‘mirror neurons’. Quite remarkably, they are tuned to fire to the enaction as well as observation of specific classes of behavior: fine manual actions and actions performed by mouth. They become activated independent of the agent, be it the self or a third person whose action is observed. The activation in mirror neurons is automatic and binds the observation and enaction of some behavior by the self or by the observed other. The peculiar first-to-third-person ‘intersubjectivity’ of the performance of mirror neurons and their surprising complementarity to the functioning of strategic communicative face-to-face (first-to-second person) interaction may shed new light on the functional architecture of conscious vs. unconscious mental processes and the relationship between behavioral and communicative action in monkeys, primates, and humans.
The present volume discusses the nature of mirror neurons as presented by the research team of Prof. Giacomo Rizzolatti (University of Parma), who originally discovered them, and the implications to our understanding of the evolution of brain, mind and communicative interaction in non-human primates and man.(Series B)
Table of Contents
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Introduction | pp. 1–10
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I. Mirror neurons system – Past, present, and future of a discovery
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The neural correlates of action understanding in non-human primatesLeonardo Fogassi and Vittorio Gallese | pp. 13–35
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The mirror system in humansGiacomo Rizzolatti, Laila Craighero and Luciano Fadiga | pp. 37–59
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II. Further developments in the study of mirror neurons system and interpretations of its functions
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Is the human brain unique?Gerhard Roth | pp. 63–76
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The co-evolution of language and working memory capacity in the human brainOliver Gruber | pp. 77–86
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Episodic action memory: Characterization of the time course and neural circuitryAva J. Senkfor | pp. 87–99
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The role of objects in imitationAndreas Wohlschläger and Harold Bekkering | pp. 101–113
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The mirror system and joint actionGünther Knoblich and Jerome Scott Jordan | pp. 115–124
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Brain activation to passive observation of grasping actionsFrancis McGlone, Matthew Howard, Krish Singh and Neil Roberts | pp. 125–134
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Mirror neurons and the self constructKai Vogeley and Albert Newen | pp. 135–150
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Behavioral synchronization in human conversational interactionJennifer L. Rotondo and Steven M. Boker | pp. 151–162
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Symmetry building and symmetry breaking in synchronized movementSteven M. Boker and Jennifer L. Rotondo | pp. 163–171
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III. Mirror neurons system and the evolution of brain, communication, and language
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On the evolutionary origin of languageCharles N. Li and Jean-Marie Hombert | pp. 175–205
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Mirror neurons, vocal imitation, and the evolution of particulate speechMichael Studdert-Kennedy | pp. 207–227
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Constitutive features of human dialogic interaction: Mirror neurons and what they tell us about human abilitiesEdda Weigand | pp. 229–248
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Some features that make mirror neurons and human language faculty uniqueMaxim I. Stamenov | pp. 249–271
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Altercentric perception by infants and adults in dialogue: Ego’s virtual participation in Alter’s complementary actStein Bråten | pp. 273–294
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Visual attention and self-grooming behaviors among four-month-old infants: Indirect evidence pointing to a developmental role for mirror neuronsSamuel W. Anderson, Marina Koulomzin, Beatrice Beebe and Joseph Jaffe | pp. 295–304
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The role of mirror neurons in the ontogeny of speechMarilyn Vihman | pp. 305–314
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Mirror neurons’ registration of biological motion: A resource for evolution of communication and cognitive/linguistic meaningLoraine McCune | pp. 315–322
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Looking for neural answers to linguistic questionsBernard H. Bichakjian | pp. 323–331
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Mirror neurons and cultural transmissionIndia Morrison | pp. 333–340
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IV. Applications
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Mirror neurons and the neural basis for learning by imitation: Computational modelingAude Billard and Michael A. Arbib | pp. 343–352
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Mirror neurons and feedback learningSteve Womble and Stefan Wermter | pp. 353–362
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A connectionist model which unifies the behavioral and the linguistic processes: Results from robot learning experimentsYuuya Sugita and Jun Tani | pp. 363–376
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Name index | pp. 377–383
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Subject index | pp. 385–390