Language and mirror neurons

Communication is a process of exchanging information via a common system. There are many natural ways in which individuals may communicate. Besides linguistic communication, which is at the core of human communication, humans communicate using arm gestures, body postures, facial expressions, eye contact, and head and body movements. Communication may be intentional and nonintentional. In both cases, the sender and the receiver of the messages must have a common code. The difference is that in the case of intentional communication the sender plays the leading role and imposes the communication on the receiver, while in the case of non-intentional communication, the sender sends the message without having any intention to do so. The message is just there. If sender and receiver have a common code, the message reaches the receiver, regardless of the will of the sender. Of these two types of communication, the non-intentional one is the most basic and primitive. It is evolutionarily necessary because, in social life, individuals have to understand what others are doing, whether or not those others intend to be understood. As will be argued later, it is very plausible that intentional communication is an evolutionarily late development of non-intentional communication. 47.2 Neurophysiological basis of non-intentional communication