Acquisition of automatic imitation is sensitive to sensorimotor contingency.

Resubmitted to: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance ACQUISITION OF AUTOMATIC IMITATION IS SENSITIVE TO SENSORIMOTOR CONTINGENCY Key words: Automatic imitation, associative sequence learning, mirror neuron system, contingency, sensorimotor learning

Resubmitted to: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance ACQUISITION OF AUTOMATIC IMITATION IS SENSITIVE TO SENSORIMOTOR CONTINGENCY Key words: Automatic imitation, associative sequence learning, mirror neuron system, contingency, sensorimotor learning

The associative sequence learning model proposes that the development of the mirror system depends on the same mechanisms of associative learning that mediate Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning. To test this model, two experiments used the reduction of automatic imitation through incompatible sensorimotor training to assess whether mirror system plasticity is sensitive to contingency (i.e....

Associative (not Hebbian) learning and the mirror neuron system.

The associative sequence learning (ASL) hypothesis suggests that sensorimotor experience plays an inductive role in the development of the mirror neuron system, and that it can play this crucial role because its effects are mediated by learning that is sensitive to both contingency and contiguity. The Hebbian hypothesis proposes that sensorimotor experience plays a facilitative role, and that i...

Contingency is Crucial for Creating Imitative Responses

A commentary on Acquisition of automatic imitation is sensitive to sensorimotor contingency In order to imitate, we must translate the visual representation of an action into the motor commands which will produce the same action. A growing body of evidence suggests that the mirror system – comprising brain areas active during both the observation and the performance of actions – is involved in ...

Effects of Sensorimotor Learning on the Human Mirror Neuron System

The discovery, in the monkey, of “mirror” neurons, which fire in response both to the performance and to the observation of specific actions, has prompted extensive research into their properties, and into the possible functions of a putative mirror neuron system in humans. Little is known, however, about how such neurons acquire their matching properties. This thesis addresses this question us...