The Mirror Mechanism: A Mechanism for Understanding Others

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event The Mirror Mechanism: A Mechanism for Understanding Others Giacomo Rizzolatti1* 1 University of Parma , Italy 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 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 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 act, 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 mechanism that allows understanding others’ actions from the inside giving the observing individual a “first-person” person grasp of others’ behavior. 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.