Mirror Neurons Responding to Observation of Actions Made with Tools in Monkey Ventral Premotor Cortex
Abstract
In the present study, we describe a new type of visuomotor neurons, named tool-responding mirror neurons, which are found in the lateral sector of monkey ventral premotor area F5. Tool-responding mirror neurons discharge when the monkey observes actions performed by an experimenter with a tool (a stick or a pair of pliers). This response is stronger than that obtained when the monkey observes a similar action made with a biological effector (the hand or the mouth). These neurons respond also when the monkey executes actions with both the hand and the mouth. The visual and the motor responses of each neuron are congruent in that they share the same general goal, that is, taking possession of an object and modifying its state. It is hypothesized that after a relatively long visual exposure to tool actions, a visual association between the hand and the tool is created, so that the tool becomes as a kind of prolongation of the hand. We propose that tool-responding mirror neurons enable the observing monkey to extend action-understanding capacity to actions that do not strictly correspond to its motor representations. Our findings support the notion that the motor cortex plays a crucial role in understanding action goals.
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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 Ferrari, Rozzi, & Fogassi, 2005
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 Ferrari et al., 2005
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- Authors
- Ferrari, P. F., Rozzi, S., & Fogassi, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Parma (IT)
- Venue
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Publisher
- MIT Press - Journals
- Published
- 2005-02-01
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 212-226
- ISSN
- 0898-929X (ISSN-L)
- 1530-8898
- OpenAlex
- W2124298096
- Cited by
- 283
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 21
- FWCI
- 28.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Keywords
- mirror neurons, ventral premotor cortex, F5, action observation, tool use, action understanding, motor cortex, action goals, rhesus monkeys
- MeSH terms
- Action Potentials, Animals, Brain Mapping, Imitative Behavior, Macaca nemestrina, Motor Activity, Motor Cortex, Neurons, Photic Stimulation, Psychomotor Performance, Reaction Time, Visual Perception, Statistics, Nonparametric, Hand Strength, Observation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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