Hearing Sounds, Understanding Actions: Action Representation in Mirror Neurons
Abstract
Many object-related actions can be recognized by their sound. We found neurons in monkey premotor cortex that discharge when the animal performs a specific action and when it hears the related sound. Most of the neurons also discharge when the monkey observes the same action. These audiovisual mirror neurons code actions independently of whether these actions are performed, heard, or seen. This discovery in the monkey homolog of Broca's area might shed light on the origin of language: audiovisual mirror neurons code abstract contents-the meaning of actions-and have the auditory access typical of human language to these contents.
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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 Kohler et al., 2002
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 Kohler et al., 2002
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- Authors
- Kohler, E., Keysers, C., Umiltà, M. A., Fogassi, L., Gallese, V., & Rizzolatti, G.
- Affiliations
- University of Parma (IT)
- Istituto di Fisiologia Umana, Università di Parma, Italy.
- Corresponding author
- Rizzolatti, Giacomo
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2002-08-02
- Volume
- 297
- Issue
- 5582
- Pages
- 846-848
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W2088313145
- Cited by
- 1,801
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 58 · 2023: 59 · 2022: 69 · 2021: 48 · 2020: 38 · 2019: 59 · 2018: 73 · 2017: 65 · 2016: 80 · 2015: 112 · 2014: 94 · 2013: 90 · 2012: 105
- FWCI
- 86.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- 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 › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Keywords
- mirror neurons, action representation, sound recognition, action understanding, premotor cortex, Broca's area, origin of language, action semantics
- MeSH terms
- Acoustic Stimulation, Analysis of Variance, Animals, Auditory Perception, Electrophysiology, Biological Evolution, Hearing, Humans, Language, Macaca, Motor Cortex, Neurons, Nuts, Photic Stimulation, Sound, Visual Perception
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