Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2007 Mar;2(1):62-6.
doi: 10.1093/scan/nsl022.

The human mirror neuron system: a link between action observation and social skills

Lindsay M Oberman  1 , Jaime A Pineda, Vilayanur S Ramachandran
Affiliations

The human mirror neuron system: a link between action observation and social skills

Lindsay M Oberman et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2007 Mar.

Abstract

The discovery of the mirror neuron system (MNS) has led researchers to speculate that this system evolved from an embodied visual recognition apparatus in monkey to a system critical for social skills in humans. It is accepted that the MNS is specialized for processing animate stimuli, although the degree to which social interaction modulates the firing of mirror neurons has not been investigated. In the current study, EEG mu wave suppression was used as an index of MNS activity. Data were collected while subjects viewed four videos: (1) Visual White Noise: baseline, (2) Non-interacting: three individuals tossed a ball up in the air to themselves, (3) Social Action, Spectator: three individuals tossed a ball to each other and (4) Social Action, Interactive: similar to video 3 except occasionally the ball would be thrown off the screen toward the viewer. The mu wave was modulated by the degree of social interaction, with the Non-interacting condition showing the least suppression, followed by the Social Action, Spectator condition and the Social Action, Interactive condition showing the most suppression. These data suggest that the human MNS is specialized not only for processing animate stimuli, but specifically stimuli with social relevance.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mu suppression during the observation of human action. Bars represent the mean log ratio of power in the mu frequency (8–13 Hz) during the Social Action, Interactive (white), Social Action, Spectator (gray stripe), and Non-interacting (dark gray) over the power in the baseline condition for scalp locations C3, Cz and C4. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean. For all values, a mean log ratio less than zero indicates mu suppression.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Ratings of perceived social content. Bars represent the mean rating on a 5-point Likert scale of social content of the three experimental videos. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean. Zero on the Likert scale was labeled ‘No Social Content,’ while 5 was labeled ‘Extremely Social.’
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Altschuler EL, Vankov A, Hubbard EM, Roberts E, Ramachandran VS, Pineda JA. Mu wave blocking by observer of movement and its possible use as a tool to study theory of other minds. Poster Session Presented at the 30th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience; New Orleans: LA. 2000. Nov,
    1. Altschuler EL, Vankov A, Wang V, Ramachandran VS, Pineda JA. Person see, person do: Human cortical electrophysiological correlates of monkey see monkey do cells. Poster Session Presented at the 27th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience; New Orleans: LA. 1997.
    1. Babiloni C, Babiloni F, Carducci F, et al. Human cortical EEG rhythms during the observation of simple aimless movements: a high-resolution EEG study. NeuroImage. 2002;17:559–72. - PubMed
    1. Buccino G, Binkofski F, Fink GR, et al. Action observation activates premotor and parietal areas in a somatotopic manner: a fMRI study. European Journal of Neuroscience. 2001;13:400–4. - PubMed
    1. Cochin S, Barthelemy C, Lejeune B, Roux S, Martineau J. Perception of motion and qEEG activity in human adults. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology. 1998;107:287–95. - PubMed