Mirror neuron: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 02:12, 3 April 2006

Revision as of 02:13, 3 April 2006

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Since the discovery of mirror neurons, grand claims have been made for their importance (e.g. by Ramachandran). In particular, there has been much speculation about the evolution of mirror neurons, and their relationship to [[language evolution]]. While mirror neurons are present in macaque monkeys, these monkeys do not imitate each other's behaviour, so it seems unlikely that mirror neurons evolved for imitation learning. Instead, they may allow the monkey to understand what another monkey is doing, or to recognise the other monkey's action.<ref>Giacomo Rizzolatti and Michael A. Arbib, ''Language within our grasp'', Trends in neurosciences, Vol. 21, No. 5, 1998</ref>

In humans, mirror neurons are found in the inferior frontal cortex, close to [[Broca's area]], a language region. This has lead to suggestions that human language evolved from a gesture performance / understanding system implemented in mirror neurons. Mirror neurons certainly have the potential to provide a mechanism for action understanding, imitation learning, and the simulation of other people's behaviour.<ref>Skoyles, John R., ''Gesture, Language Origins, and Right Handedness'', Psycoloquy: 11,#24, 2000</ref> However, like many theories of language evolution, there is little direct evidence either way.

==Footnotes==