We present an integrated environment for stereoscopic acquisition, off-line 3D elaboration, and visual presentation of biological hand actions. The system is used in neurophysiological experiments aimed at the investigation of the parameters of the external stimuli that mirror neurons visually extract and match on their movement related activity.

The discovery of mirror neurons in the 1990s has led to much excitement in the cognitive neurosciences. After the initial discovery more and more abilities have been attributed to these neurons. As mirror neurons are commonly viewed as vehicles of representation, we analyze the increasingly wider representational role mirror neurons play and argue for a principled distinction between mirror and...

Cook et al. argue that mirror neurons originate from associative learning processes, without evolutionary influence from social-cognitive mechanisms. We disagree with this claim and present arguments based upon cross-species comparisons, EEG findings, and developmental neuroscience that the evolution of mirror neurons is most likely driven simultaneously and interactively by evolutionarily adap...

Our understanding of the functions of motor system evolved remarkably in the last 20 years. This is the consequence not only of an increase in the amount of data on this system but especially of a paradigm shift in our conceptualization of it. Motor system is not considered anymore just a "producer" of movements, as it was in the past, but a system crucially involved in cognitive functions. In ...

In this experiment we examined the relationship between the mirror neuron system and increased attention caused by task demands. Whole head MEG recordings were made from 13 participants who were asked to passively observe finger movement sequences, observe these sequences with the knowledge they would later have to perform the sequence presented, and finally, to perform a nonmotor mathematics t...

We review three areas of research and theory relating to the involvement of motor processing in action observation: behavioural studies on imitation learning, behavioural work on short-term visuomotor interactions, and related neurophysiological and neuroimaging work. A large number of behavioural studies now indicate bi-directional links between perception and action: visual processing can aut...

The neural basis of action understanding in humans remains disputed, with some research implicating the putative mirror neuron system (MNS) and some a mentalizing system (MZS) for inferring mental states. The basis for this dispute may be that action understanding is a heterogeneous construct: actions can be understood from sensory information about body movements or from language about action,...