Search results for "Mirror neuron"
showing 10 items of 32 documents
The function of mirror neurons in the learning process
2017
In the last years, Neurosciences have developed very much, being elaborated many important theories scientific research in the field. The main goal of neuroscience is to understand how groups of neurons interact to create the behavior. Neuroscientists studying the action of molecules, genes and cells. It also explores the complex interactions involved in motion perception, thoughts, emotions and learning. Brick fundamental nervous system is the nerve cell, neuron. Neurons exchange information by sending electrical signals and chemical through connections called synapses. Discovered by a group of Italian researchers from the University of Parma, neurons - mirror are a special class of nerve …
The role of synergies within generative models of action execution and recognition: A computational perspective
2015
Controlling the body – given its huge number of degrees of freedom – poses severe computational challenges. Mounting evidence suggests that the brain alleviates this problem by exploiting “synergies”, or patterns of muscle activities (and/or movement dynamics and kinematics) that can be combined to control action, rather than controlling individual muscles of joints [1–10]. D’Ausilio et al. [11] explain how this view of motor organization based on synergies can profoundly change the way we interpret studies of action recognition in humans and monkeys, and in particular the controversy on the “granularity” of the mirror neuron system (MNs): whether it encodes either (lower) kinematic aspects…
What can synaesthesia tell us about our minds?
2014
Synaesthesia is considered here as a cognitive phenomenon in the context of developmental, neuropathological and linguistic perspectives. Developmental synaesthesia seems to arise as an effect of interplay between genotype and phenotype, during the implicit learning process in childhood, in those individuals who possess an inborn susceptibility to it. Some connections between synaesthesia and extraordinary experiences, brain restructuration and pain, are examined. Acquired types of synaesthesia may be related to sensory deprivation. The somatosensory cortex may be significant for cognitive synaesthesia, with especial importance placed on a mirror system. It is suggested here that synaesthes…
''Motor Resonance Mechanisms Are Preserved In Alzheimer's Disease Patients''
2012
Bisio, A. | Casteran, M. | Ballay, Y. | Manckoundia, P. | Mourey, F. | Pozzo, T.; International audience; ''This study aimed to better characterize the sensorimotor mechanisms underlying motor resonance, namely the relationship between motion perception and movement production in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease (AD). This work first gives a kinematic description of AD patients' upper limb movements, then it presents a simple paradigm in which a dot with different velocities is moved in front of the participant who is instructed to point to its final position when it stopped. AD patients' actions, as well as healthy elderly participants, were similarly influenced by the dot veloc…
Resonance of cortico-cortical connections of the motor system with the observation of goal directed grasping movements
2010
Goal directed movements require the activation of parietal, premotor and primary motor areas. In monkeys, neurons of these areas become active also during the observation of movements performed by others, especially for coding the goal of the action (mirror system). Using bifocal transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in healthy subjects, we tested whether the observation of goal directed reach to grasp actions may lead to specific changes in the short-latency connections linking key areas of the mirror system, such as the anterior intraparietal cortex (AIP) and the ventral premotor cortex (PMv), with the primary motor cortex (M1). We found that AIP-M1 and PMv-M1 cortico-cortical interacti…
Predicting domain-specific actions in expert table tennis players activates the semantic brain network.
2018
Motor expertise acquired during long-term training in sports enables top athletes to predict the outcomes of domain-specific actions better than nonexperts do. However, whether expert players encode actions, in addition to the concrete sensorimotor level, also at a more abstract, conceptual level, remains unclear. The present study manipulated the congruence between body kinematics and the subsequent ball trajectory in videos of an expert player performing table tennis serves. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the brain activity was evaluated in expert and nonexpert table tennis players during their predictions on the fate of the ball trajectory in congruent versus incongruent…
Disabilità visiva e neuroni specchio: processi di apprendimento nello sviluppo atipico
2009
Lo studio,verificherà: 1) che la modalità di codifica tra i soggetti non vedenti (acquisiti) e non vedenti (congeniti) segue dei circuiti neuronali differenti, ma che comunque coinvolgono il sistema dei neuroni specchio; 2) che l’attività dei neuroni specchio non è vincolata al solo input sensoriale della visione di un semplice movimento, ma ad un vero e proprio “vocabolario di atti” che il soggetto riconosce come dotati di significato e appartenenti alla propria esperienza soprattutto nel caso di una disabilità visiva acquisita (più grande e ricco è questo vocabolario di atti, più il soggetto è in grado di apprendere); 3) che comprendere l’effettivo significato di una frase, di un suono ch…
Science and news articles on mirror neurons: two degrees of popularization
2012
The paper deals with the linguistic strategies used by authors with a different degree of specialised expertise (scientists, experts, science and general journalists) to popularize and re-contextualize the mirror neuron discovery in the online Scientific American and New York Times versions. In particular, aiming at a comparison between the two journals, the authors focused on those linguistic and interdiscoursive strategies adopted to popularize three main aspects for each article: the definition of mirror neurons, the explanation of their activation in the brain and their function in social interaction.
Human Behavior in the Execution of Tasks: Influencing Factors of Decision-Making
2016
Making mistakes is part of general human behavior. This chapter gives an insight into the processes of the human brain and explains why and how we think and behave. Specific forms of human behavior are the reasons why specific methods of process management have developed.
Grasp-specific motor resonance is influenced by the visibility of the observed actor
2016
AbstractMotor resonance is the modulation of M1 corticospinal excitability induced by observation of others' actions. Recent brain imaging studies have revealed that viewing videos of grasping actions led to a differential activation of the ventral premotor cortex depending on whether the entire person is viewed versus only their disembodied hand. Here we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to examine motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in the first dorsal interosseous (FDI) and abductor digiti minimi (ADM) during observation of videos or static images in which a whole person or merely the hand was seen reaching and grasping a peanut (precision grip) or an apple (whole hand grasp). Part…