publication . Part of book or chapter of book . 2016

Mirror Neurons from Associative Learning

Cecilia Heyes; Caroline Catmur; Clare Press;

Open Access

Published: 01 Jul 2016

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Country: United Kingdom

Summary

Abstract

Mirror neurons fire both when executing actions and observing others perform similar actions. Their sensorimotor matching properties have generally been considered a genetic adaptation for social cognition; however, in the present chapter we argue that the evidence in favor of this account is not compelling. Instead we present evidence supporting an alternative account: that mirror neurons’ matching properties arise from associative learning during individual development. Notably, this process was not ‘designed’ by genetic evolution specifically to produce mirror neurons, but just happens to produce them when the developing system receives correlated experience ...

doi: 10.1002/9781118650813.ch20

Subjects

free text keywords: Cognitive science, Associative learning, Associative property, Imitation, media_common.quotation_subject, media_common, Cognitive neuroscience, Mirror neuron, Psychology

Related Organizations