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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 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
In the citing paper
“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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Metadata
- 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
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › 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
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