The extended features of mirror neurons and the voluntary control of vocalization in the pathway to language
-
Leonardo Fogassi
,
Gino Coudé
Abstract
In this book it has been proposed that the mirror system can be a scaffold for building a language-ready brain, because of its property of matching action observation with action execution, a feature that can correspond to the “parity” requirement for communication. In this commentary we will first emphasize two properties of mirror neurons and motor cortex that may have contributed to language: the generalization of the property of understanding action goals and the capacity to decode the goal of action sequences. Then we will propose, based on recent behavioural and neurophysiological data in monkeys, that the vocalization in non-human primates could have reached a partial voluntary control, thus contributing to the emergence of a communicative system relying on the coordination of gestures and utterances.
©[2013] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Masthead
- Introduction
- Précis of How the brain got language: The Mirror System Hypothesis
- Acquired mirroring and intentional communication in primates
- The extended features of mirror neurons and the voluntary control of vocalization in the pathway to language
- A research program in neuroimaging for an evolutionary theory of syntax
- How did vocal behavior “take over” the gestural communication system?
- The tip of the language iceberg
- Vive la différence: Sign language and spoken language in language evolution
- The neurobiology of sign language and the mirror system hypothesis
- Action and language grounding in the sensorimotor cortex
- What happens to the motor theory of perception when the motor system is damaged?
- Where does language come from? Some reflections on the role of deictic gesture and demonstratives in the evolution of language
- Archeology and the language-ready brain
- Niche construction, too, unifies praxis and symbolization
- Complex imitation and the language-ready brain
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Masthead
- Introduction
- Précis of How the brain got language: The Mirror System Hypothesis
- Acquired mirroring and intentional communication in primates
- The extended features of mirror neurons and the voluntary control of vocalization in the pathway to language
- A research program in neuroimaging for an evolutionary theory of syntax
- How did vocal behavior “take over” the gestural communication system?
- The tip of the language iceberg
- Vive la différence: Sign language and spoken language in language evolution
- The neurobiology of sign language and the mirror system hypothesis
- Action and language grounding in the sensorimotor cortex
- What happens to the motor theory of perception when the motor system is damaged?
- Where does language come from? Some reflections on the role of deictic gesture and demonstratives in the evolution of language
- Archeology and the language-ready brain
- Niche construction, too, unifies praxis and symbolization
- Complex imitation and the language-ready brain
