Sponsored by the UCLA Brain Mapping Center Faculty
The focus of these talks is on advancing the use of brain mapping methods in neuroscience with an emphasis on contemporary issues of neuroplasticity, neurodevelopment, and biomarker development in neuropsychiatric disease.
Hosted By: John C. Mazziotta, M.D., Ph.D.
Vice Chancellor, UCLA Health Sciences
Dean, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Founding Director, UCLA Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center
Mirror Neurons: Past, Present, and Future
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Giacomo Rizzolatti, M.D. Department of Neuroscience University of Parma, Italy |
The mirror mechanism is a basic mechanism that transforms sensory information into a motor format. In the first part of my talk I will describe the functions of the mirror mechanism that is located in the parieto-fontal network of the macaque monkey. I will then present human data on the same network discussing the specific way in which the mirror mechanism enables us to understand others. This mechanism mediates what I named (with Corrado Sinigaglia) “understanding others from inside.” In the third part of my talk I will discuss the role of the mirror mechanism in understanding the basic Darwinian emotions and the subtle emotional states that Daniel Stern called “vitality forms." I will conclude by discussing the link between the motor system, including the mirror system, and autism spectrum disorder as well as some clinical applications of the mirror concept.
