Mirror neurons responding to the observation of ingestive and communicative mouth actions in the monkey ventral premotor cortex

In the ventral premotor cortex (area F5) of the monkey there are neurons that discharge both when the monkey performs specific motor actions and when it observes another individual performing a similar action (mirror neurons). Previous studies on mirror neurons concerned hand actions. Here, we describe the mirror responses of F5 neurons that motorically code mouth actions. The results showed that about one-third of mouth motor neurons also discharge when the monkey observes another individual performing mouth actions. The majority of these 'mouth mirror neurons' become active during the execution and observation of mouth actions related to ingestive functions such as grasping, sucking or breaking food. Another…

• MD
  Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca
• CN
  Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique