Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

The functional role of the parieto-frontal mirror circuit: interpretations and misinterpretations

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 11, pages 264–274 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

Key Points

  • The mirror mechanism is the mechanism that unifies perception and action, transforming sensory representations of the behaviour of others into motor representations of the same behaviour in the brain of the observer.

  • The parieto-frontal mirror circuit is the most studied of the circuits endowed with the mirror mechanism. Yet, there is still controversy about its role in social cognition and its contribution to understanding the actions and intentions of other individuals.

  • Recent findings show that the parieto-frontal mirror circuit in monkeys encodes the goal of the observed motor acts. In humans, there is evidence that the same circuit encodes the goal of the observed motor act and its individual movements.

  • The analysis of the properties of parieto-frontal mirror neurons shows that these neurons can encode the observed motor acts with a high degree of generality. None of the visual areas seems to have such a generality. This indicates that the parieto-frontal mirror circuit has a crucial role in understanding the actions of others.

  • The mirror mechanism is also involved in understanding the intentions of others. This capacity is mediated by the organization of the parieto-frontal mirror circuit in chains of neurons, in which each neuron encodes a specific motor act. This organization is present in both monkeys and humans, and recent studies have shown that it is impaired in children with autism.

  • Although the intentions of others might be understood in various ways, the mirror-based intention understanding is the only way that allows an individual to understand the actions of others 'from the inside' and provides the observer with a first-person grasp of another individual's motor goals and intentions.

Abstract

The parieto-frontal cortical circuit that is active during action observation is the circuit with mirror properties that has been most extensively studied. Yet, there remains controversy on its role in social cognition and its contribution to understanding the actions and intentions of other individuals. Recent studies in monkeys and humans have shed light on what the parieto-frontal cortical circuit encodes and its possible functional relevance for cognition. We conclude that, although there are several mechanisms through which one can understand the behaviour of other individuals, the parieto-frontal mechanism is the only one that allows an individual to understand the action of others 'from the inside' and gives the observer a first-person grasp of the motor goals and intentions of other individuals.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The parieto-frontal mirror network.
Figure 2: Goal coding in the monkey premotor cortex.
Figure 3: Mirror neuron responses in the monkey during observation of actions executed in the peripersonal and extrapersonal space.

References

  1. di Pellegrino, G., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., Gallese, V. & Rizzolatti, G. Understanding motor events: a neurophysiological study. Exp. Brain Res. 91, 176–180 (1992).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Gallese, V., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L. & Rizzolatti, G. Action recognition in the premotor cortex. Brain 119, 593–609 (1996).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Rizzolatti, G., Fadiga, L., Gallese, V. & Fogassi, L. Premotor cortex and the recognition of motor actions. Cogn. Brain Res. 3, 131–141 (1996).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Prather, J. F., Peters, S., Nowicki, S. & Mooney, R. Precise auditory-vocal mirroring in neurons for learned vocal communication. Nature 451, 249–250 (2008). This accurate and elegant study was the first to show the existence of the mirror mechanism in non-primates.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Keller, G. B. & Hahnloser, R. H. Neural processing of auditory feedback during vocal practice in a songbird. Nature 457, 187–190 (2009).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Gallese, V., Keysers, C. & Rizzolatti, G. A unifying view of the basis of social cognition. Trends Cogn. Sci. 8, 396–403 (2004).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Kraskov, A., Dancause, N., Quallo, M. M., Shepherd, S. & Lemon, R. N. Corticospinal neurons in macaque ventral premotor cortex with mirror properties: a potential mechanism for action suppression? Neuron 64, 922–930 (2009).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Nelissen, K., Luppino, G., Vanduffel, W., Rizzolatti, G. & Orban, G. A. Observing others: multiple action representation in the frontal lobe. Science 310, 332–336 (2005).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Belmalih, A., Borra, E., Gerbella, M., Rozzi, S. & Luppino, G. Connections of architectonically distinct subdivisions of the ventral premotor area F5 of the macaque. 37th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, California. Abstract 636.5 (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Gallese, V., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L. & Rizzolatti, G. in Common Mechanisms in Perception and Action: Attention and Performance Vol. 19 (eds Prinz, W. & Hommel, B.) 334–355 (Oxford University Press, New York, 2002).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Fogassi, L. et al. Parietal lobe: from action organization to intention understanding. Science 302, 662–667 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Rozzi, S., Ferrari, P. F., Bonini, L., Rizzolatti, G. & Fogassi, L. Functional organization of inferior parietal lobule convexity in the macaque monkey: electrophysiological characterization of motor, sensory and mirror responses and their correlation with cytoarchitectonic areas. Eur. J. Neurosci. 28, 1569–1588 (2008).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Rizzolatti, G., Fogassi, L. & Gallese, V. in The Cognitive Neuroscience (ed. Gazzaniga, M.), 625–640 (MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2009).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Rozzi, S. et al. Cortical connections of the inferior parietal cortical convexity of the macaque monkey. Cereb. Cortex 16, 1389–1417 (2006).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Borra, E. et al. Cortical connections of the macaque anterior intraparietal (AIP) area. Cereb. Cortex 18, 1094–1111 (2008).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Rizzolatti, G. & Luppino, G. The cortical motor system. Neuron 31, 889–901 (2001).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Fuster, J. M. The Prefrontal Cortex 4th edn (Academic Press, London, 2008).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Rizzolatti, G. & Craighero, L. The mirror neuron system. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 27, 169–192 (2004).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Grézes, J., Armony, J. L., Rowe, J. & Passingham, R. E. Activations related to “mirror” and “canonical” neurones in the human brain: an fMRI study. Neuroimage 18, 928–937 (2003).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Buccino, G. et al. Neural circuits underlying imitation learning of hand actions: an event-related fMRI study. Neuron 42, 323–334 (2004).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Gazzola, V. & Keysers, C. The observation and execution of actions share motor and somatosensory voxels in all tested subjects: single subject analyses of unsmoothed fMRI data. Cereb. Cortex 19, 1239–1255 (2009).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Kalaska, J. F. & Crammond, D. J. Deciding not to go: neuronal correlates of response selection in a go/nogo task in primate premotor and parietal cortex. Cereb. Cortex 5, 410–428 (1995).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Crammond, D. J. & Kalaska, J. F. Prior information in motor and premotor cortex: activity during the delay period and effect on pre-movement activity. J. Neurophysiol. 84, 986–1005 (2000).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Filimon, F., Nelson, J. D., Hagler, D. J. & Sereno, M. L. Human cortical representations for reaching: mirror neurons for execution, observation, and imagery. Neuroimage 37, 1315–1328 (2007).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Dinstein, I., Thomas, C., Behrmann, M. & Heger, D. I. A mirror up to nature. Curr. Biol. 18, R13–R18 (2008).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. Bartels, A., Logothetis, N. K. & Moutoussis, K. fMRI and its interpretations: an illustration on directional selectivity in area V5/MT. Trends Neurosci. 31, 444–453 (2008).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Sawamura, H., Orban, G. A. & Vogels, R. Selectivity of neural adaptation does not match response selectivity: a single-cell study of the fMRI adaptation paradigm. Neuron 49, 307–318 (2006).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Chong, T. T., Cunnington, R., Williams, M. A., Kanwisher, N. & Mattingley, J. B. fMRI adaptation reveals mirror neurons in human inferior parietal cortex. Curr. Biol. 18, 1576–1580 (2008).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  29. Kilner, J. M., Neal, A., Weiskopf, N., Friston, K. J. & Frith, C. Evidence of mirror neurons in human inferior frontal gyrus. J. Neurosci. 29, 10153–10159 (2009).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Dinstein, I., Hasson, U., Rubin, N. & Heeger, D. J. Brain areas selective for both observed and executed movements. J. Neurophysiol. 98, 1415–1427 (2007).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Lignau, A., Gesierich, B. & Caramazza, A. Asymmetric fMRI adaptation reveals no evidence for mirror neurons in humans. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 9925–9930 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., Pavesi, G. & Rizzolatti, G. Motor facilitation during action observation: a magnetic stimulation study. J. Neurophysiol. 73, 2608–2611 (1995).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Strafella, A. P. & Paus, T. Modulation of cortical excitability during action observation: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study. Neuroreport 11, 2289–2292 (2000).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Gangitano, M., Mottaghy, F. M. & Pascual-Leone, A. Phase-specific modulation of cortical motor output during movement observation. Neuroreport 12, 1489–1492 (2001).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Maeda, F., Kleiner-Fisman, G. & Pascual-Leone, A. Motor facilitation while observing hand actions: specificity of the effect and role of observer's orientation. J. Neurophysiol. 87, 1329–1335 (2002).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Borroni, P., Montagna, M., Cerri, G. & Baldissera, F. Cyclic time course of motor excitability modulation during the observation of a cyclic hand movement. Brain Res. 1065, 115–124 (2005).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Rizzolatti, G. et al. Functional organization of inferior area 6 in the macaque monkey: II. Area F5 and the control of distal movements. Exp. Brain Res. 71, 491–507 (1988).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Kakei, S., Hoffman, D. S. & Strick, P. L. Direction of action is represented in the ventral premotor cortex. Nature Neurosci. 4, 1020–1025 (2001).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Umiltà, M. A. et al. How pliers become fingers in the monkey motor system. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105, 2209–2213 (2008). This single-neuron recording study provides crucial evidence that the ventral premotor cortex (area F5) encodes the goal of motor acts.

  40. Hyvärinen, J. Posterior parietal lobe of the primate brain. Physiol. Rev. 62, 1060–1129 (1982).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Sakata, H., Taira, M., Murata, A. & Mine, S. Neural mechanisms of visual guidance of hand action in the parietal cortex of the monkey. Cereb. Cortex 5, 429–438 (1995).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Jeannerod, M., Arbib, M. A., Rizzolatti, G. & Sakata, H. Grasping objects: the cortical mechanisms of visuomotor transformation. Trends Neurosci. 18, 314–320 (1995).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Rizzolatti, G., Fogassi, L. & Gallese, V. Neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the understanding and imitation of action. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 2, 661–670 (2001).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Rizzolatti, G. & Sinigaglia, C. Mirrors in the Brain. How our Minds Share Actions and Emotions (Oxford University Press, Oxford/New York, 2008). An exhaustive review and discussion of the cognitive functions of the motor system.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Caggiano, V., Fogassi, L., Rizzolatti, G., Thier, P. & Casile, A. Mirror neurons differentially encode the peripersonal and extrapersonal space of monkeys. Science 324, 403–406 (2009). This single-neuron recording study shows that mirror-based goal encoding can be modulated by the position in space in which the observed action takes place and by the possibility of interacting with the object that is acted upon.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Rizzolatti, G. et al. Localization of grasp representation in humans by PET: 1. Observation versus execution. Exp. Brain Res. 11, 246–252 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  47. Grafton, S. T., Arbib, M. A., Fadiga, L. & Rizzolatti, G. Localization of grasp representations in humans by positron emission tomography: 2. Observation compared with imagination. Exp. Brain Res. 12, 103–111 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  48. Buccino, G. et al. Action observation activates premotor and parietal areas in a somatotopic manner: an fMRI study. Eur. J. Neurosci. 13, 400–404 (2001).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Decety, J., Chaminade, T., Grezes, J. & Meltzoff, A. N. A PET exploration of the neural mechanism involved in reciprocal imitation. Neuroimage 15, 265–272 (2002).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Gazzola, V., Rizzolatti, G., Wicker, B. & Keysers, C. The anthropomorphic brain: the mirror neuron system responds to human and robotic actions. Neuroimage 35, 1674–1684 (2007).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  51. Peeters, R. et al. The representation of tool use in humans and monkeys: common and unique human features. J. Neurosci. 29, 11523–11539 (2009). An elegant fMRI study showing that the observation of tool actions activates the parieto-frontal mirror circuit plus a specific parietal region involved in both tool use and the understanding of tool use.

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  52. Gazzola, V. et al. Aplasics born without hands mirror the goal of hand actions with their feet. Curr. Biol. 17, 1235–1240 (2007). This fMRI study provides one of the best demonstrations that the parieto-frontal mirror network in humans encodes the goal of the observed motor acts.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  53. Lewis, J. W., Brefczynski, J. A., Phinney, R. E., Janik, J. J. & De Yoe, E. A. Distinct cortical pathways for processing tool versus animal sounds. J. Neurosci. 25, 5148–5158 (2005).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  54. Gazzola, V., Aziz-Zadeh, L. & Keysers, C. Empathy and the somatotopic auditory mirror system in humans. Curr. Biol. 16, 1824–1829 (2006).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  55. Lui, F. et al. Neural substrates for observing and imaging non object-directed actions. Soc. Neurosci. 3, 261–275 (2008).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  56. Rizzolatti, G., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L. & Gallese, V. Resonance behaviors and mirror neurons. Arch. Ital. Biol. 137, 85–100 (1999).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  57. Altschuler, E. L., Vankov, A., Wang, V., Ramachandran, V. S. & Pineda, J. A. Person see, person, do: human cortical electrophysiological correlates of monkey see monkey do cells. 27th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, New Orleans, Los Angeles. Abstract 719.17 (1997).

  58. Hari, R. et al. Activation of human primary motor cortex during action observation: a neuromagnetic study. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 95, 15061–15065 (1998).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  59. Cochin, S., Barthelemy, C., Lejeune, B., Roux, S. & Martineau, J. Perception of motion and qEEG activity in human adults. Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol. 107, 287–295 (1998).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  60. Pineda, J. A. The functional significance of mu rhythms: translating “seeing” and “hearing” into “doing”. Brain Res. Brain Res. Rev. 50, 57–68 (2005).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  61. Oberman, L. M. et al. EEG evidence for mirror neuron dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders. Brain Res. Cogn. Brain Res. 24, 190–198 (2005).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  62. Oberman, L. M., Pineda, J. A. & Ramachandran, V. S. The human mirror neuron system: a link between action observation and social skills. Soc. Cog. Affect. Neurosci. 2, 62–66 (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  63. Kilner, J. M., Marchant, J. L. & Frith, C. D. Relationship between activity in human primary motor cortex during action observation and the mirror neuron system. PLoS ONE 4, e4925 (2009).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  64. Perry, A. & Bentin, S. Mirror activity in the human brain while observing hand movements: a comparison between EEG desynchronization in the mu-range and previous fMRI results. Brain Res. 1282, 126–132 (2009).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  65. Cattaneo, L., Caruana, F., Jezzini, H. & Rizzolatti, G. Representation of goal and movements without overt motor behavior in the human motor cortex: a TMS study. J. Neurosci. 29, 11134–11138 (2009).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  66. Kohler, E. et al. Hearing sounds, understanding actions: action representation in mirror neurons. Science 297, 846–848 (2002).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  67. Umiltà, M. A. et al. “I know what you are doing”: a neurophysiological study. Neuron 32, 91–101 (2001).

  68. Wilson, M. & Knoblich, G. The case of motor involvement in perceiving conspecifics. Psychol. Bull. 131, 460–473 (2005).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  69. Csibra, G. in Sensorimotor Foundations of Higher Cognition. Attention and Performance XII (eds Haggard, P., Rosetti, Y. & Kawato, M.) 453–459 (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007). The most interesting and critical assessment of the mirror mechanism and its function in cognition.

    Google Scholar 

  70. Jacob, P. What do mirror neurons contribute to human social cognition? Mind Lang. 23, 190–223 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  71. Jacob, P. The tuning-fork model of human social cognition: a critique. Conscious. Cogn 18, 229–243 (2009).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  72. Perrett, D. I. et al. Frameworks of analysis for the neural representation of animate objects and actions. J. Exp. Biol. 146, 87–113 (1989).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  73. Jellema, T. & Perrett, D. I. in The Cognitive Neuroscience of Social Behavior (eds Easton, A. & Emery, N. J.) 81–112 (Psychology Press, Hove/New York, 2005).

    Google Scholar 

  74. Allison, T., Puce, A. & McCarthy, G. Social perception from visual cues: role of the STS region. Trends Cogn. Sci. 4, 267–278 (2000).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  75. Puce, A. & Perrett, D. Electrophysiology and brain imaging of biological motion. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 358, 435–445 (2003).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  76. Miyhashita, Y. Neuronal correlate of visual associative long-term memory in the primate temporal cortex. Nature 335, 817–820 (1988).

    Google Scholar 

  77. Sakay, K. & Miyhashita, Y. Neural organization for long-term memory of paired associates. Nature 354, 152–155 (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  78. Cattaneo, L., Sandrini, M. & Schwarzbach, J. State-dependent TMS reveals a hierarchical representation of observed acts in the temporal, parietal and premotor cortices. Cereb. Cortex 4 Jan 2010 (doi:10.1093/cercor/bhp291). This study, based on a TMS adaptation paradigm, shows that, although the parietal and frontal motor areas generalize from one effector to another, the STS adapts only when the observed actions are perfomed with the same effector.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  79. Silvanto, J., Muggleton, N. & Walsh, V. State dependency in brain stimulation studies of perception and cognition. Trends Cogn. Sci. 12, 447–454 (2008).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  80. Wood, J. N. & Hauser, M. D. Action comprehension in non-human primates: motor simulation or inferential reasoning? Trends Cogn. Sci. 12, 461–465 (2008).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  81. Buccino, G. et al. Neural circuits involved in the recognition of actions performed by nonconspecifics: an fMRI study. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 16, 114–126 (2004).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  82. Bonini, L. et al. Ventral premotor and inferior parietal cortices make distinct contribution to action organization and intention understanding. Cereb. Cortex 5 Oct 2009 (doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhp200).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  83. Iacoboni, M. et al. Grasping the intentions of others with one's own mirror neuron system. PLoS Biol. 3, 529–535 (2005).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  84. Hamilton, A. F. C. & Grafton, S. T. Action outcomes are represented in human inferior frontoparietal cortex. Cereb. Cortex 18, 1160–1168 (2008).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  85. Cattaneo, L. et al. Impairment of actions chains in autism and its possible role in intention understanding. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 17825–17830 (2007). A fundamental study that shows the presence of motor chains in humans and how their impairment may account for the deficit in intention understanding in children with autism.

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  86. Deecke, L., Scheid, P. & Kornhuber, H. H. Distribution of readiness potential, pre-motion positivity and motor potential of the human cerebral cortex preceding voluntary finger movement. Exp. Brain Res. 7, 158–168 (1969).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  87. Kilner, J. M., Vargas, C., Duval, S., Blakemore, S.-J. & Sirigu, A. Motor activation prior to observation of a predicted movement. Nature Neurosci. 7, 1299–1301 (2004).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  88. Jellema, T. & Perrett, D. I. Cells in monkey STS responsive to articulated body motions and consequent static posture: a case of implied motorion? Neuropsychologia 41, 1728–1737 (2003).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  89. Rizzolatti, G. & Sinigaglia, C. Mirror neurons and motor intentionality. Funct. Neurol. 22, 205–210 (2007).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  90. Gallese, V. Before and below theory of mind: embodied simulation and the neural correlates of social cognition. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 362, 659–669 (2007).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  91. Sinigaglia, C. Mirror in action. J. Conscious. Stud. 16, 309–334 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  92. de Lange, F. P., Spronk, M., Willems, R. M., Toni, I. & Bekkering, H. Complementary systems for understanding action intentions. Curr. Biol. 18, 454–457 (2008).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  93. Brass, M., Schmitt, R. M., Spengler, S. & Gergely, G. Investigating action understanding: inferential processes versus action simulation. Curr. Biol. 17, 2117–2121 (2007).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  94. Liepelt, R., Von Cramon, D. Y. & Brass, M. How do we infer other's goals from non stereotypic actions? The outcome of context-sensitive inferential processing in right inferior parietal and posterior temporal cortex. Neuroimage 43, 784–792 (2008).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  95. Kilner, J. M. & Frith, C. Action observation: inferring intentions without mirror neurons. Curr. Biol. 18, R32–R33 (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  96. Keysers, C. & Gazzola, V. Integration simulation and theory of mind: from self to social cognition. Trends Cogn. Sci. 11, 194–196 (2007).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  97. Shepherd, S. V., Klein, J. T., Deaner, R. O. & Platt, M. L. Mirroring of attention by neurons in macaque parietal cortex. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 9489–9494 (2009).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  98. Ishida, H., Nakajima, K., Inase, M. & Murata, A. Shared mapping of own and others' bodies in visuotactile bimodal area of monkey parietal cortex. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 22, 83–96 (2009). An elegant study showing the involvement of mirroring in the recognition of the peripersonal space of others.

    Google Scholar 

  99. Colby, C. L., Duhamel, J.-R. & Goldberg, M. E. Ventral intraparietal area of the macaque: anatomic location and visual response properties. J. Neurophysiol. 69, 902–914 (1993).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  100. Duhamel, J.-R., Colby, C. L. & Goldberg, M. E. Ventral intraparietal area of the macaque: congruent visual and somatic response properties. J. Neurophysiol. 79, 126–136 (1998).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  101. Fogassi, L. et al. Coding of peripersonal space in inferior premotor cortex (area F4). J. Neurophysiol. 76, 141–157 (1996).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  102. Gentilucci, M., Scandolara, C., Pigarev, I. N. & Rizzolatti, G. Visual responses in the postarcuate cortex (area 6) of the monkey that are independent of eye position. Exp. Brain Res. 50, 464–468 (1983).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  103. Graziano, M. S., Yap, G. S. & Gross, G. Coding the visual space by premotor neurons. Science 266, 1054–1057 (1994).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  104. Godschalk, M., Lemon, R. N., Nijs, H. G. T. & Kuipers, H. G. J. M. Behaviour of neurons in monkey peri-arcuate and precentral cortex before and during visually guided arm and hand movements. Exp. Brain Res. 44, 113–116 (1981).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  105. Hickok, G. Eight problems for the mirror neuron theory of action understanding in monkeys and humans. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 21, 1229–1243 (2009).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  106. Catmur, C., Walsh, V. & Heyes, C. Sensorimotor learning configures the human mirror system. Curr. Biol. 17, 1527–1531 (2007).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  107. Heilman, K. M. & Valenstein, E. Clinical Neuropsychology (Oxford University Press, New York, 2003).

    Google Scholar 

  108. Pazzaglia, M., Pizzamiglio, L., Pes, E. & Aglioti, S. M. The sound of actions in apraxia. Curr. Biol. 18, 1766–1772 (2008). An important study showing a clear correlation between impairments in action production and action recognition in patients with apraxia.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  109. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edn (American Psychiatric Publishing, Washington, DC, 1994).

  110. Frith, U. Autism. Explaining the Enigma 2nd edn (Blackwell, Oxford, 2003).

    Google Scholar 

  111. Nishitani, N., Avikainen, S. & Hari, R. Abnormal imitation-related cortical activation sequences in Asperger's syndrome. Ann. Neurol. 55, 558–562 (2004).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  112. Bernier, R., Dawson, G., Webb, S. & Murias, M. EEG mu rhythm imitation impairments in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Brain. Cogn. 64, 228–237 (2007).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  113. Oberman, L. M., Ramachandran, V. S. & Pineda, J. A. Modulation of mu suppression in children with autism spectrum disorders in response to familiar or unfamiliar stimuli: the mirror neuron hypothesis. Neuropsychologia 46, 1558–1565 (2008).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  114. Martineau, J., Cochin, S., Magne, R. & Barthelemy, C. Impaired cortical activation in autistic children: is the mirror neuron system involved? Int. J. Psychophysiol. 68, 35–40 (2008).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  115. Théoret, H. et al. Impaired motor facilitation during action observation in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Curr. Biol. 15, R84–R85 (2005).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  116. Dapretto, M. et al. Understanding emotions in others: mirror neuron dysfunction in children with autism spectrum disorders. Nature Neurosci. 9, 28–30 (2006).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  117. Avikainen, S., Kulomäki, T. & Hari, R. Normal movement reading in Asperger subjects. Neuroreport 10, 3467–3470 (1999).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  118. Williams, J. H., Whiten, A., Suddendorf, T. & Perrett, D. I. Imitation, mirror neurons and autism. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 25, 287–295 (2001).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  119. Gallese, V. Intentional attunement: a neurophysiological perspective on social cognition and its disruption in autism. Brain Res. Cogn. Brain Res. 1079, 15–24 (2006).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  120. Rizzolatti, G., Fabbri-Destro, M. & Cattaneo, L. Mirror neurons and their clinical relevance. Nature Clin. Pract. Neurol. 5, 24–34 (2009). This paper summarizes recent experiments on the mirror mechanism with particular attention to its role in clinical syndromes.

    Google Scholar 

  121. Hamilton, A. F., Brindley, R. M. & Frith, U. Imitation and action understanding in autistic spectrum disorders: how valid is the hypothesis of a deficit in the mirror neuron system? Neuropsychologia 45, 1859–1868 (2007).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  122. Bird, G., Leighton, J., Press, C. & Heyes, C. Intact automatic imitation of human and robot actions in autism spectrum disorders. Proc. Biol. Sci. 274, 3027–3031 (2007).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  123. Leighton, J., Bird, G., Charman, T. & Heyes, C. Weak imitative performance is not due to a functional 'mirroring' deficit in adults with autism spectrum disorders. Neuropsychologia 46, 1041–1049 (2008).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  124. Southgate, V. & Hamilton, A. F. Unbroken mirrors: challenging a theory of autism. Trends Cogn. Sci. 12, 225–229 (2008).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  125. Boria, S. et al. Intention understanding in autism. PloS ONE 4, e5596 (2009).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors' work described in this Review was supported by a grant (FIL) of the University of Parma and by grants from Fondazione Monte Parma to G.R. and from Fondazione San Paolo to G.R. and C.S. C.S. was also supported by the Italian Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca, Prin 2007.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma, and the Italian Institute of Technology, Via Volturno 39, Parma, I-43100, Italy

    Giacomo Rizzolatti

  2. Department of Philosophy, University of Milan, Via Festa del Perdono 7, Milano, I-20122, Italy

    Corrado Sinigaglia

Authors
  1. Giacomo Rizzolatti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Corrado Sinigaglia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giacomo Rizzolatti.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Related links

Related links

FURTHER INFORMATION

Giacomo Rizzolatti's homepage

Glossary

Mirror mechanism

The mechanism that unifies perception and action, transforming sensory representations of the behaviour of others into motor representations of the same behaviour in the observer's brain.

Motor act

A movement with a specific motor goal (for example, reaching, grasping and manipulating). The successful achievement of its goal represents the reinforcement of the motor act.

Mirror-based action understanding

The comprehension of an observed action based on the activation of a motor programme in the observer's brain. The observed action is understood 'from the inside' as a motor possibility, rather than 'from the outside' as a mere visual description.

Superior temporal sulcus

(STS). This sulcus separates the superior temporal gyrus from the middle temporal gyrus. Some of the areas in the STS encode biological motion. Although connected with the parietal areas of the parieto-frontal mirror network, STS areas cannot be considered mirror areas because of their lack of motor properties.

Movement

A displacement of joints or body parts without a specific goal. It can be generated spontaneously or produced artificially by electrical or magnetic stimulation of motor areas.

TMS adaptation paradigm

A paradigm by which specific neural populations within the stimulated cortical region can be targeted. One population is 'adapted' and will therefore be less active. Because transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)targets less active neural populations, the adapted population will be facilitated more strongly by TMS

Inferential reasoning

The capacity to attribute to an agent mental states that might account for the observed motor action in terms of the reasons (for example, needs, desires and beliefs) underlying it.

Motor action

Several motor acts organized in a chain, leading to the achievement of a specific motor intention (for example, grasping a cup of coffee for drinking). The fulfilment of its motor intention represents the reinforcement of the motor action.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rizzolatti, G., Sinigaglia, C. The functional role of the parieto-frontal mirror circuit: interpretations and misinterpretations. Nat Rev Neurosci 11, 264–274 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2805

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2805

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing