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Mesial frontal cortex and super mirror neurons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2008

Marco Iacoboni
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Brain Research Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; and Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, Los Angeles, CA 90095. [email protected]://iacoboni.bmap.ucla.edu

Abstract

Depth electrode recordings in the human mesial frontal cortex have revealed individual neurons with mirror properties. A third of these cells have excitatory properties during action execution and inhibitory properties during action observation. These cells – which we call super mirror neurons – provide the neural mechanism that implements the functions of layers 3+4 of the shared circuits model (SCM).

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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