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2 A schematic of the mirror neuron system, consisting of a frontal MNS in the inferior frontal gyrus and a posterior MNS in the inferior parietal lobule
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The human putative mirror neuron system (MNS) is a key network hypothesized to play a role in many social cognitive and language-related abilities. This chapter begins by discussing basic findings on the mirror system, which encompasses motor-related brain regions that fire when an individual both performs and observes others perform actions. We th...
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The effect of automatic imitation in a strategic context was examined within an East Asian culture (Japan) through a study using the game of rock-paper-scissors. The task of strategic players is to avoid imitating their opponents. Study participants (N = 42) were instructed to play the game and to win as many rounds as possible, while either or bot...
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... A longitudinal study showed the appearance and the development of the abilities of children to understanding the intentions of mothers in the first 2 years of life (Capobianco and Cerniglia, 2017;, which indicated that gesture-speech combinations play specific roles in children's early language development. This result is consistent with Liew et al.'s conclusion that the MNS also plays a key role in language-related abilities (Liew and Aziz-Zadeh, 2013). ...
Understanding the intentions of others while observing their actions is a fundamental aspect of social behavior. However, the differences in neural and functional mechanisms between observing actions from the first-person perspective (1PP) and third-person perspective (3PP) are poorly understood. The present study had two aims: (1) to delineate the neural basis of action observation and understanding from the 1PP and 3PP; and (2) to identify whether there are different activation patterns during action observation and understanding from 1PP and 3PP. We used a blocked functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experimental design. Twenty-six right-handed participants observed interactions between the right hand and a cup from 1PP and 3PP. The results indicated that both 1PP and 3PP were associated with similar patterns of activation in key areas of the mirror neuron system underlying action observation and understanding. Importantly, besides of the core network of mirror neuron system, we also found that parts of the basal ganglia and limbic system were involved in action observation in both the 1PP and 3PP tasks, including the putamen, insula and hippocampus, providing a more complete understanding of the neural basis for action observation and understanding. Moreover, compared with the 3PP, the 1PP task caused more extensive and stronger activation. In contrast, the opposite comparison revealed that no regions exhibited significantly more activation in the 3PP compared with the 1PP condition. The current results have important implications for understanding the role of the core network underlying the mirror neuron system, as well as parts of the basal ganglia and limbic system, during action observation and understanding.
... Once the learning process starts, the mirror neuron mechanism plays a key role. If one agent can reflect the compromise with the reputational thinking premise held by another one and feel it as if it was its own feeling, this propitiates the creation of a connection between them, [103][104][105], taking into account that success depends on the ability to understand how the other one feels towards the new scenario [106][107][108]. At last, the mirror neuron framework turns that connection into imitation, allowing the transmission of knowledge and values [109,110] and opening the road to sharing and improving reputational thinking. ...
This manuscript provides a novel approach to reputational management as a driver of entrepreneurial sustainability, using game theory to integrate three dimensions of reputation. First, if the entrepreneur perceives reputation as a risk source, the analysis is framed as a prisoner’s dilemma schema that is solved by protecting against reputational threats from entrepreneurial sustainability. Second, if the entrepreneur perceives reputation as a competitive advantage, the analysis is framed as an innovator’s dilemma that is solved by getting reputational opportunities from entrepreneurial sustainability. Third, if reputation is perceived as a strategic asset, the analysis is framed as a coordination game schema that results in the development of a reputational intelligence skill that has the potential to become crucial for success in entrepreneurial sustainability. Consequently, this manuscript provides an original multidisciplinary analysis of reputational management by relating well-known theoretical results from game theory to organizational realities.
... Although Sociology is beginning to catch on to the importance of cognitive brain science in general (cf. Franks and Turner 2013), and mirror neurons specifically (Liew and Aziz-Zadech 2013;Niemeyer 2013; Maryanski 2013), ethnography remains untouched by these findings. This disconnect is unfortunate because new findings reinforce the need for and importance of ethnographic work. ...
The discovery of mirror neurons opens new doors for ethnography. By attending to these advancements in cognitive science, ethnographers are provided firmer ground for investigating perceptual and emotional dynamics that are outside the realm of conscious deliberative processes. In this article, we explore these extra-deliberative processes in order to posit a new way to collect, analyze, and present findings. By examining how extra-deliberative dynamics shape action in systematic ways, we endeavor to bring together two aspects of sociological practice that have been assumed to be incompatible: (1) analytic efforts to build general theory and (2) a focus on emotions and other extra-deliberative dynamics. We conclude by suggesting that insights garnered through the analysis of extra-deliberative processes are optimally communicated using emotionally evocative writing.
... Single-cell recording studies with macaques have revealed neurons that are responsive to actions of others and/or themselves in the STS ( Perrett et al. 1989), ventral premotor cortex (Di Pellegrino et al. 1992), and IPL ( Fogassi et al. 2001;Gallese et al. 2002;Rizzolatti and Craighero 2004). These studies have shown that neurons can have strictly visual responses (i.e., they respond to the perception of specific actions in others; ( Perrett et al. 1989)), strictly congruent responses (i.e., they respond to observations of a specific action that the individual can also do themselves), or broadly congruent responses (i.e., they respond to the observation of a diverse array of actions and not only ones that the individual can perform themselves) ( Liew and Aziz-Zadeh 2013). Some of these neurons in the premotor cortex and IPL have been termed "mirror neurons" for their ability to respond to both an action that the individual performs and mirrored observations of that same action in others ( Rizzolatti and Craighero 2004). ...
The extent to which perception and action share common neural processes is much debated in cognitive neuroscience. Taking
a developmental approach to this issue allows us to assess whether perceptual processing develops in close association with
the emergence of related action skills within the same individual. The current study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy
(fNIRS) to investigate the perception of human action in 4- to 6-month-old human infants. In addition, the infants' manual
dexterity was assessed using the fine motor component of The Mullen Scales of Early Learning and an in-house developed Manual
Dexterity task. Results show that the degree of cortical activation, within the posterior superior temporal sulcus—temporoparietal
junction (pSTS-TPJ) region, to the perception of manual actions in individual infants correlates with their own level of fine
motor skills. This association was not fully explained by either measures of global attention (i.e., looking time) or general
developmental stage. This striking concordance between the emergence of motor skills and related perceptual processing within
individuals is consistent with experience-related cortical specialization in the developing brain.
... Perhaps this physical dimension of inner speech is one reason why we can exhaust ourselves with hard, prolonged thought. The subliminal motor activity involved in the experiments above ties speech to behavior and thereby gives an entry to MNs and their place in linguistic processes which are now seen as motor behavior (Sook-Lie & Aziz-Zadeh, 2012). ...
Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to be as comprehensive as possible about what is known about mirror neurons at this time.
Design/methodology/approach – This chapter offers a comprehensive critique including Churchland's hesitations about findings on mirror neurons (2011) which are balanced by Ramachandran's conviction that much of the research on mirror neurons is valid (2011). Following this is a summary of the results of the Mirror Neuron Forum (2011) wherein leading mirror neuron researchers exchange their views and conclusions about this subject.
Findings – The few single cells measures that we have show that they are much wider distributed throughout the brain than we have previously imagined. It should be stressed that single measures of mirror neurons have occurred albeit in limited situations. This establishes once and for all their relevance to humans.
Originality/value – The work on mirror neurons is a critical contribution from neuroscience to bringing the social brain into sociology and refining our understandings of intersubjectivity and of our biologically driven connections with others.
The mirror neuron system consists of fronto-parietal regions and responds to both goal-directed action execution and observation. The broader action observation network is specifically involved in observation of actions and is thought to play a role in understanding the goals of the motor act, the intention of others, empathy, and language. Many, but not all, studies have found mirror neuron system or action observation network dysfunction in autism spectrum disorder. The objective of this study was to use observation of a goal-directed action fMRI paradigm to examine the action observation network in autism spectrum disorder and to determine whether fronto-parietal activation is associated with language ability. Adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (n = 23) were compared to typically developing adolescents (n = 20), 11–17 years. Overall, there were no group differences in activation, however, the autism spectrum group with impaired expressive language (n = 13) had significantly reduced inferior frontal and inferior parietal activation during action viewing. In controls, right supramarginal gyrus activation was associated with higher expressive language; bilateral supramarginal and left pars opercularis activation was associated with better verbal-gesture integration. Results suggest that action-observation network dysfunction may characterize a subgroup of individuals with autism spectrum disorder with expressive language deficits. Therefore, interventions that target this dysfunctional network may improve expressive language in this autism spectrum subgroup. Future treatment studies should individualize therapeutic approaches based on brain-behavior relationships.
