Degrees of Separation: Are mirror neurons human language specific?

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Degrees of Separation: Are mirror neurons human language specific? Bernadine Cocks1, 2*, Graham Jamieson1, Ian Evans1 and Bruce Stevenson1 1 University of New England, Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences (BCSS) - Psychology, Australia 2 University of South Australia, Division Office, Australia Since the discovery of mirror neurons in the late 1990s, a number of theories have been proposed concerning their role in human cognition, most notably in the area of human language. Although a handful of studies have examined such theories, none thus far have tested for differences in mirror neuron responses in the human brain between listening to human and non-human vocal communication. To this end, continuous EEG was recorded as human participants in the current study listened to a random selection of animal vocalizations including song bird tunes and monkey and ape calls, as well as a selection of everyday English language words. Event related band power decomposition is used to investigate differences in alpha desynchronization in known mirror neuron regions between listening to human and non-human communications. If mirror neurons respond selectively to human language, there should be no evidence of mirror neuron activity (event related alpha desynchronization) in relation to non-human vocalizations; if, however, mirror neurons do respond to non-human vocal communications, it is predicted that this response will be scale with phylogenetic distance from humans. Keywords: Mirror Neurons, Language, non-human vocalizations, EEG, event related alpha desynchronization Conference: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 29 Nov - 2 Dec, 2012. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Language Citation: Cocks B, Jamieson G, Evans I and Stevenson B (2012). Degrees of Separation: Are mirror neurons human language specific?. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.208.00026 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 25 Oct 2012; Published Online: 07 Nov 2012. * Correspondence: Mrs. Bernadine Cocks, University of New England, Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences (BCSS) - Psychology, Armidale, NSW, 2350, Australia, Bernie.Cocks@unisa.edu.au Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Bernadine Cocks Graham Jamieson Ian Evans Bruce Stevenson Google Bernadine Cocks Graham Jamieson Ian Evans Bruce Stevenson Google Scholar Bernadine Cocks Graham Jamieson Ian Evans Bruce Stevenson PubMed Bernadine Cocks Graham Jamieson Ian Evans Bruce Stevenson Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.