Giacomo Rizzolatti

..We stress, in particular, those properties specific to the human mirror-neuron system that might explain the human capacity to learn by imitation. We conclude by discussing the relationship between the mirror-neuron system and language...

..We conclude by examining the relationship between the mirror mechanism and some features of the environmental dependency syndromes...

..It, however, also plays a crucial role in space perception and action understanding. The putative mechanisms linking action and perception in the v-d stream is discussed...

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..Growing evidence shows that a deficit in the mirror mechanism underlies some aspects of autism...

..These findings reveal how deeply motor and intentional components of action are intertwined, suggesting that both can be fully comprehended only starting from a motor approach to intentionality...

..The present data suggest that the IPL plays an important role in both action organization and action understanding and should be considered part of the motor system...

..Thus, these neurons not only code the observed motor act but also allow the observer to understand the agent's intentions...

..This finding strongly supports the notion that children with autism have a deficit in chaining motor acts into a global action...

..The human mirror system is involved in understanding others' actions and their intentions behind them, and it underlies mechanisms of observational learning. Herein, we will discuss the clinical implications of the mirror system...

..Children with ASD have no deficit in the second type of understanding, while they have difficulties in understanding others' intentions when they have to rely exclusively on motor cues...

..However, the response pattern depends upon the similarity between the observed motor act and the one executed by the hand, the natural motor template...

..A similar mechanism, but involving the activation of viscero-motor centers, underlies the experiential understanding of the emotions of others...

..e. understanding a motor intention). These findings suggest novel perspectives for understanding impairments in social behavior in WS...

..These findings extend the notion of mirror system from hand to mouth action and suggest that area F5, the area considered to be the homologue of human Broca's area, is also involved in communicative functions...

..Both behaviors were characterized by specific motor and vegetative responses and by a dramatic change in the monkey's responsiveness to external stimuli...

..We propose that, as a consequence of this functional impairment, high-functioning autistic children may understand the intentions of others cognitively but lack the mechanism for understanding them experientially...

..Here, we examined whether the observation of different types of hand movements (target directed, non-target directed, cyclic and non-cyclic) elicits different EEG cortical temporal patterns...

..Furthermore, both the left posterior/motor site and the left anterior/IFG site appear to be essential to language elaboration even when motor output is not required...

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..According to its anatomical locations, mirror mechanism plays a role in action and intention understanding, imitation, speech, and emotion feeling...

..The concomitant activation of mesial prefrontal areas, known to be involved in self-referential processing, might reflect how deeply participants are involved in the observed scenes...

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..These results suggest a key role of mirror neuron areas in the re-enactment of sensory-motor representations during conceptual processing of actions invoked by linguistic stimuli...

..Given the functional properties of area 46, a model of imitation learning is proposed based on interactions between this area and the mirror neuron system...

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..The relationship between ingestive and other behaviors is discussed in an evolutionary perspective...

..Preliminary evidence suggests that the ventral part of the lateral premotor cortex in humans may correspond to monkey area F4. A tentative map of the human lateral premotor areas founded on the reviewed evidence is presented...

..We propose that this area represents the neural substrate of the human capacity to understand tool use by using causal reasoning...

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..The data are interpreted as behavioral evidence that there is a close link between specific visual stimuli and specific motor actions. A neurophysiological model for this visuo-motor link is presented...

..Histological examination of the implanted brain region shows only a very marginal damage to the recording area. Advantages and problems related to long-term recording are discussed...

..Along with our previous data, this finding suggests that the hedonic state associated with activation of right dorsal anterior insula underpins esthetic experience for artworks...

..To ascribe an intention is to infer a forthcoming new goal, and this is an operation that the motor system does automatically...

..Ed.), The Cognitive Neurosciences, Third edition. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 943-956] proposal of a dominant role of the left DLPFC in modulating lower level systems and of a dominant role of the right DLPFC in monitoring operations...

..This finding provides a unifying mechanism for understanding the behaviors of others...

..Observation of shapes activated area 45, but not premotor F5. Convergence of object and action information in area 45 may be important for full comprehension of actions...

..These data provide the first direct evidence that listening to sentences that describe actions engages the visuomotor circuits which subserve action execution and observation...

..This sheds light on the functional organization of the MNS and predominance of goals in imitation...

..This increase was specific for smaller numbers (1 to 4) as compared to larger numbers (6 to 9). These findings indicate a close relationship between hand/finger and numerical representations...

..Although these data do not prove the motor theory of speech perception, they demonstrate for the first time that word listening produces a phoneme specific activation of speech motor centres...