Neural Correlates of the Mirror Neuron System

项目总结（见说明）： 认知神经科学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，我们对这些过程如何在皮层发生的认识的最重要进展之一是镜像神经元的发现。主要的概念突破， 他们的发现是知觉和运动过程共享一个共同的代码。拟议的研究将使用非侵入性脑电描记法调查婴儿和幼儿MN系统的出现。它将比较婴儿特定频段的脑电图活动， 儿童和成人的MNs已被广泛研究。EEG的采集将与受试者的仔细行为评估相结合，以检验MN是特定匹配行为的基础的假设，这些匹配行为是感知动作关系发展中的重要标志。我们将 此外，在非人类灵长类动物中进行实验，以识别婴儿恒河猴的EEG节律，并首次将镜像神经元的单细胞记录与正在进行的EEG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.