title: Evidence of mirror neurons in human inferior frontal gyrus.
abstract: There is much current debate about the existence of mirror neurons in humans. To identify mirror neurons in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) of humans, we used a repetition suppression paradigm while measuring neural activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subjects either executed or observed a series of actions. Here we show that in the IFG, responses were suppressed both when an executed action was followed by the same rather than a different observed action and when an observed action was followed by the same rather than a different executed action. This pattern of responses is consistent with that predicted by mirror neurons and is evidence of mirror neurons in the human IFG.
authors.affiliation: The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, UCL, London, United Kingdom. j.kilner@fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Kilner
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Neal
authors.forename: Nikolaus
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Weiskopf
authors.forename: Karl J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Friston
authors.forename: Chris D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Frith
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
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