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Mirror Neurons
Mirror neurons discharge both when a macaque monkey performs an object-directed action, such as grasping a peanut, and when the monkey observes another individual performing the same action, such as when the monkey sees the experimenter grasp a peanut. Thus, these neurons “mirror” others' actions as if one would perform them oneself, providing a previously unexpected, direct link between individuals. This entry summarizes the most important findings on mirror neurons in monkeys and related findings on mirroring in humans.
Basic Findings
Using single cell recording, mirror neurons have, so far, been discovered in two areas of the macaque brain: first in area F5 of the inferior frontal cortex (ventral premotor cortex) and later in the inferior parietal lobule (IPL). These two brain areas work in concert and ...
- Action
- Action and Vision
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- Echolocation
- Effort: Perception of
- Embodied Perception
- Event Perception
- Eye and Limb Tracking
- Eye Movements and Action in Everyday Life
- Eye Movements during Cognition and Conversation
- Eye Movements: Behavioral
- Eye Movements: Effects of Neurological and Mental Disorders On
- Feature Integration Theory
- Film (Cinema) Perception
- Guidance Systems for Blind People
- Haptics
- Human-Machine Interface
- Kinesthesia
- Mirror Neurons
- Motion Parallax and Structure from Motion
- Motion Perception
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- Consciousness
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- Eye Movements during Cognition and Conversation
- Eyewitness Testimony
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- Language
- Magic and Perception
- Mind and Body
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- Music Cognition and Perception
- Music in Film
- Neural Prosthetic Systems
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- Time Perception
- Top-Down and Bottom-Up Processing
- Vision: Cognitive Influences
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- Tinnitus
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- Illusory Perceptions
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- Individual Differences in Perception
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- Contrast Enhancement at Borders
- Cortical Organization
- Cortical Reorganization following Damage
- Experience-Dependent Plasticity
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- Loss of a Sense: Effect on Others, Psychological
- Mirror Neurons
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- Cortical Reorganization following Damage
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- Loss of a Sense: Effect on Others, Psychological
- Molyneux's Question
- Motion Perception: Social
- Multimodal Interactions: Color-Chemical
- Multimodal Interactions: Neural Basis
- Multimodal Interactions: Pain-Touch
- Multimodal Interactions: Tactile-Auditory
- Multimodal Interactions: Thermal-Chemical
- Multimodal Interactions: Visual-Auditory
- Multimodal Interactions: Visual-Haptic
- Perceptual Development: Intermodal Perception
- Perceptual-Motor Integration
- Sensory Restoration and Substitution
- Synesthesia
- Taste and Food Preferences
- Skin and Body Senses
- Ageing and Touch
- Agnosia: Tactile
- Body Perception
- Body Perception: Disorders
- Braille
- Constancy
- Cutaneous Perception
- Cutaneous Perception: Physiology
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- Embodied Perception
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- Itch, Tickle, and Tingle
- Kinesthesia
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- Molyneux's Question
- Multimodal Interactions: Pain-Touch
- Multimodal Interactions: Tactile-Auditory
- Multimodal Interactions: Thermal-Chemical
- Multimodal Interactions: Visual-Haptic
- Out-of-Body Experience
- Pain: Assessment and Measurement
- Pain: Cognitive and Contextual Influences
- Pain: Neuromatrix Theory
- Pain: Physiological Mechanisms
- Pain: Placebo Effects
- Pain: Treatments for Chronic
- Perceptual Development: Touch and Pain
- Phantom Limb
- Proprioception
- Reaching and Grasping
- Surface and Material Properties Perception
- Tactile Acuity
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- Temperature Perception
- Texture Perception: Tactile
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- Information Theory
- Physiological Approach
- Psychophysical Approach
- Theoretical Approaches
- Theory of Mind
- Visual Perception
- Action and Vision
- Aesthetic Appreciation of Pictures
- Aftereffects
- Afterimages
- Ageing and Vision
- Agnosia: Visual
- Amblyopia
- American Sign Language
- Ames Demonstrations in Perception
- Amodal Perception
- Animal Color Vision
- Animal Depth Perception
- Animal Eye Movements
- Animal Eyes
- Animal Motion Perception
- Assistive Technologies for the Blind
- Atmospheric Phenomena
- Attention and Consciousness
- Attention and Emotion
- Attention and Medical Diagnosis
- Attention: Cognitive Influences
- Attention: Covert
- Attention: Cross-Modal
- Attention: Disorders
- Attention: Divided
- Attention: Effect of Breakdown
- Attention: Effect on Perception
- Attention: Object-Based
- Attention: Physiological
- Attention: Selective
- Attention: Spatial
- Attention: Theories of
- Attractiveness
- Binding Problem
- Binocular Vision and Stereopsis
- Bistable Perception
- Camouflage
- Causality
- Change Detection
- Color Constancy
- Color Deficiency
- Color Mixing
- Color Naming
- Color Perception
- Color Perception: Physiological
- Color: Genetics of
- Color: Philosophical Issues
- Computer Graphics and Perception
- Computer Vision
- Constancy
- Context Effects in Perception
- Contrast Perception
- Corollary Discharge
- Depth Perception in Pictures/Film
- Digital Imaging
- Direct Perception
- Dyslexia
- Ecological Approach
- Embodied Perception
- Event Perception
- Evoked Potential: Vision
- Experience-Dependent Plasticity
- Eye and Limb Tracking
- Eye Movements and Reading
- Eye Movements during Fixation
- Eye Movements: Behavioral
- Eye Movements: Physiological
- Eye: Structure and Optics
- Eyes: Evolution of
- Eyewitness Testimony
- Face Perception
- Face Perception: Physiological
- Film (Cinema) Perception
- Gestalt Approach
- Impossible Figures
- Inverted Spectrum
- Lateral Inhibition
- Light Measurement
- Lightness Constancy
- Lightning and Thunder
- Linear and Nonlinear System Analysis
- Low Vision
- Magic and Perception
- Mary the Color Scientist
- McCollough Effect
- Mirages
- Mirror Neurons
- Molyneux's Question
- Motion Parallax and Structure from Motion
- Motion Perception
- Motion Perception: Physiological
- Motion Perception: Social
- Multimodal Interactions: Color-Chemical
- Multimodal Interactions: Visual-Auditory
- Multimodal Interactions: Visual-Haptic
- Navigation through Spatial Layout
- Neuropsychology of Perception
- Nonveridical Perception
- Object Perception
- Object Perception: Physiology
- Object Persistence
- Optic Ataxia
- Perception in Unusual Environments
- Perceptual Development: Face Perception
- Perceptual Development: Imitation
- Perceptual Development: Object Perception
- Perceptual Development: Visual Acuity
- Perceptual Development: Visual Object Permanence and Identity
- Perceptual Development: Visually Guided Reaching
- Perceptual Organization: Vision
- Perceptual Segregation
- Perceptual-Motor Integration
- Pictorial Depiction and Perception
- Prostheses: Visual
- Reaching and Grasping
- Reading Typography
- Recognition
- Recovery of Vision following Blindness
- Retinal Anatomy
- Sleep and Dreams
- Social Perception
- Spatial Layout Perception, Neural
- Spatial Layout Perception, Psychophysical
- Spatial Memory
- Speechreading
- Statistical Learning
- Surface and Material Properties Perception
- Texture Perception: Visual
- Unconscious Processes
- Video Games
- Virtual Reality: Vision
- Vision
- Vision: Cognitive Influences
- Vision: Developmental Disorders
- Vision: Temporal Factors
- Visual Acuity
- Visual Categorization: Physiological Mechanisms
- Visual Disorders: Blindness
- Visual Displays
- Visual Filling in and Completion
- Visual Illusions
- Visual Imagery
- Visual Light- and Dark-Adaptation
- Visual Masking
- Visual Memory
- Visual Processing: Extrastriate Cortex
- Visual Processing: Primary Visual Cortex
- Visual Processing: Retinal
- Visual Processing: Subcortical Mechanisms for Gaze Control
- Visual Receptors and Transduction
- Visual Scene Perception
- Visual Scene Statistics
- Visual Search
- Visual Spatial Frequency Analysis
- Visual Stimuli
- Visual System Structure
- Visual System: Evolution of
- Visually Guided Actions
- Word Recognition
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