Audiovisual mirror neurons and action recognition
Abstract
Many object-related actions can be recognized both by their sound and by their vision. Here we describe a population of neurons in the ventral premotor cortex of the monkey that discharge both when the animal performs a specific action and when it hears or sees the same action performed by another individual. These 'audiovisual mirror neurons' therefore represent actions independently of whether these actions are performed, heard or seen. The magnitude of auditory and visual responses did not differ significantly in half the neurons. A neurometric analysis revealed that based on the response of these neurons, two actions could be discriminated with 97% accuracy.
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The associative account explains why tool-use mirror neurons develop when action performance is reliably predicted by the sight of actions performed with tools, and why audiovisual mirror neurons develop when action performance predicts characteristic action sounds.
“Equally, the associative account explains in a simple way why 'tool-use' MNs (Ferrari et al., 2005) develop when action performance is reliably predicted by the sight of actions performed with tools (e.g. food items being gripped with pliers), and why 'audiovisual' MNs (Keysers et al., 2003; Kohler et al., 2002) develop when action performance predicts characteristic action sounds (e.g. paper tear”
From Mirror neurons: from origin to function (2014) · cites this paper as Keysers et al., 2003
Single-unit data show that even when mirror neurons respond to object-directed actions, they have field properties suggesting they were not tuned to do this by genetic evolution.
“Single-unit data also show that, even when they are responding to object-directed actions, MNs have field properties suggesting that they were not tuned to do this by genetic evolution.”
From Mirror neurons: from origin to function (2014) · cites this paper as Keysers et al., 2003
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“In fact, even the sound of an action in the dark activates these neurons [6,7].”
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Keysers, C., Kohler, E., Umilt�, M. A., Nanetti, L., Fogassi, L., & Gallese, V.
- Affiliations
- University of Parma (IT)
- University of Ferrara (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Keysers, C.
- Venue
- Experimental Brain Research
- Published
- 2003-12-01
- Volume
- 153
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 628-636
- ISSN
- 0014-4819 (ISSN-L)
- 1432-1106
- OpenAlex
- W2066008732
- Cited by
- 420
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 30
- FWCI
- 19.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Experimental Brain Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- European Social Fund
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Keywords
- human action recognition, ventral premotor cortex, multisensory integration
- MeSH terms
- Acoustic Stimulation, Action Potentials, Animals, Auditory Perception, Macaca nemestrina, Motor Activity, Motor Cortex, Nerve Net, Neural Pathways, Neurons, Photic Stimulation, Psychomotor Performance, Reaction Time, ROC Curve, Visual Perception
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