Neural Correlates of the Mirror Neuron System

项目总结(见说明)： 认知神经科学中的一个基本问题是大脑如何能够编码他人的行为和 意图。从这个角度来看，我们关于这些过程如何进行的最重要的进展之一 可以发生在大脑皮层的是镜像神经元的发现。主要的概念突破是由 他们的发现是，知觉和运动过程共享一个共同的代码。拟议的研究将 用非侵入性脑电图法研究MN系统在婴儿时期的出现 和年幼的孩子。它将比较婴儿特定频段所描述的脑电活动与 在儿童和成人中，MNS已被广泛研究。收购EEG将与一项 对受试者进行仔细的行为评估，以检验假设，即MN是基于特定的 匹配行为是知觉-行动关系发展的重要标志。我们会 同时，在非人类灵长类动物身上进行实验，以识别婴儿恒河猴的脑电节律 并首次将镜像神经元的单细胞记录与正在进行的脑电联系起来。

PROJECT SUMMARY (See Instructions): A fundamental issue in cognitive neuroscience is how the brain is able to encode others' actions and intentions. In this perspective one of the most important advances of our knowledge on how these processes can take place in the cortex is the discovery of mirror neurons. The main conceptual breakthrough open by their discovery is that perceptual and motor processes share a common code. The proposed research will investigate, with non-invasive electroencephalography methods, the emergence of the MN system in infancy and young children. It will compare the EEG activity depicted by specific frequency bands in infants with that of children and adults in which the MNs has been widely studied. Acquisition of EEG will be combined with a careful behavioral assessment of subjects in order to test the hypothesis that MNs are at the basis of specific matching behaviors that are important landmarks in the development of perception action relations. We will as well, carry out experiments in non-human primates to identify these EEG rhythms in infant Rhesus Macaque and to link, for the first time, single cell recordings of mirror neurons to the ongoing EEG.