Giacomo Rizzolatti, a neurophysiologist, and Laila Craighero, a neuroscientist, say this:
A category of stimuli of great importance for primates, humans in
particular, is that formed by actions done by other individuals. If we want to survive,
we must understand the actions of others. Furthermore, without action understanding,
social organization is impossible. In the case of humans, there is another faculty that
depends on the observation of others’ actions: imitation learning. Unlike most species,
we are able to learn by imitation, and this faculty is at the basis of human culture. In
this review we present data on a neurophysiological mechanism—the mirror-neuron
mechanism—that appears to play a fundamental role in both action understanding and
imitation. We describe first the functional properties of mirror neurons in monkeys.
We review next the characteristics of the mirror-neuron system in humans. We stress,
in particular, those properties specific to the human mirror-neuron system that might
explain the human capacity to learn by imitation. We conclude by discussing the
relationship between the mirror-neuron system and language.
Rizzolatti G, Craighero L, “The mirror-neuron system,” in Annual Review of Neuroscience, issue 27 (2004) p. 1
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Giacomo Rizzolatti, a neurophysiologist, and Laila Craighero, a neuroscientist, say this:
- sally mckay 3-01-2008 9:24 pm