Project Report: Testing Hypotheses of Mirror Neuron Function

Mirror neurons, discovered by Rizzolatti et al. in the 1990s , have been the subject of much debate. There are many theories regarding their possible function, both evolutionarily as well as in day to day life. It has been proposed that mirror neurons are the single neuron substrates of the Common Code , which links perceptual and action representations to allow the brain to predict of the outcomes of complex actions. Knoblich et al. have proposed that if this is true, the motor mirror neurons should be better able to predict the outcomes of one's own actions, seen from a third-person perspective, than those of another person. In this study I have replicated their experiment which measures the accuracy with which humans can anticipate outcomes of their own actions, compared with those of others.