Understanding the role of mirror neurons in action understanding will require more than a domain-general account.
Cook et al. propose that mirror neurons emerge developmentally through a domain-general associative mechanism. We argue that experience-sensitivity does not rule out an adaptive or genetic argument for mirror neuron function, and that current evidence suggests that mirror neurons are more specialized than the authors' account would predict. We propose that future work integrate behavioral and neurophysiological techniques used with primates to examine the proposed functions of mirror neurons in action understanding.
Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520. alia.martin@yale.edu laurie.santos@yale.edu www.psychology.yale.edu.
Alia
A
Martin
Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520. alia.martin@yale.edu laurie.santos@yale.edu www.psychology.yale.edu.
Laurie R
LR
Santos
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D059167:Mirror Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D012938:Social Perception