Neonatal imitation and an epigenetic account of mirror neuron development.
Neonatal imitation should not exclusively be considered at the population-level; instead, we propose that inconsistent findings regarding its occurrence result from important individual differences in imitative responses. We also highlight what we consider to be a false dichotomy of genetic versus learning accounts of the development of mirror neurons, and instead suggest a more parsimonious epigenetic perspective.
Dipartimento di Biologia Evolutiva e Funzionale, Università di Parma, 43100 Parma, Italy. a.tramacere@gmail.com pierfrancesco.ferrari@unipr.it http://mirroringdevelopment.uchicago.edu/project_3/people.shtml http://www.unipr.it/arpa/mirror/english/staff/ferrarip.htm.
Elizabeth A
EA
Simpson
Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-1131. fox@umd.edu http://education.umd.edu/EDHD/faculty/Fox/
Nathan A
NA
Fox
Dipartimento di Biologia Evolutiva e Funzionale, Università di Parma, 43100 Parma, Italy. a.tramacere@gmail.com pierfrancesco.ferrari@unipr.it http://mirroringdevelopment.uchicago.edu/project_3/people.shtml http://www.unipr.it/arpa/mirror/english/staff/ferrarip.htm.
Antonella
A
Tramacere
Dipartimento di Biologia Evolutiva e Funzionale, Università di Parma, 43100 Parma, Italy. a.tramacere@gmail.com pierfrancesco.ferrari@unipr.it http://mirroringdevelopment.uchicago.edu/project_3/people.shtml http://www.unipr.it/arpa/mirror/english/staff/ferrarip.htm.
Pier F
PF
Ferrari
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D059167:Mirror Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D012938:Social Perception