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Nature 454, 167-168 (10 July 2008) | doi:10.1038/454167a; Published online 9 July 2008

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Behind the looking-glass

Antonio Damasio1 & Kaspar Meyer1

  1. Antonio Damasio and Kaspar Meyer are neuroscientists at the Brain and Creativity Institute of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.

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To understand how mirror neurons help to interpret actions, we must delve into the networks in which these cells sit, say Antonio Damasio and Kaspar Meyer.

A remarkable discovery was made more than ten years ago: some neurons in the brains of macaques are active both when a monkey moves and when it sees a person move in a comparable way1. The lead researchers, Giacomo Rizzolatti and Vittorio Gallese, called the cells involved 'mirror neurons'.

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