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Mirror mechanism and dedicated circuits are the scaffold for mirroring processes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2014

Leonardo Fogassi
Leonardo Fogassi*
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma, 43100 Parma, Italy. [email protected]://www.unipr.it/
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Abstract

In the past decade many studies have demonstrated the existence of a mirror mechanism that matches the sensory representation of a biological stimulus with its somatomotor and visceromotor representation. This mechanism, likely phylogenetically very old, explains several types of mirroring behaviours, at different levels of complexity. The presence in primates of dedicated neuroanatomical pathways for specific sensorimotor integrations processes implies, at least in the primate lineage, a hard-wired mirror mechanism for social cognitive functions.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 199
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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