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The mirror mechanism: a basic principle of brain function

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 17, pages 757–765 (2016)Cite this article

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Key Points

  • The mirror mechanism is a basic brain mechanism that transforms sensory representations of others' behaviour into one's own motor or visceromotor representations concerning that behaviour. According to its location, it may fulfil a range of cognitive functions, including action and emotion understanding.

  • A large number of studies in monkeys demonstrate that premotor and parietal mirror neurons encode action goals rather than mere bodily movements. Similar results have been found in humans.

  • Different lines of evidence support the claim that the mirror mechanism might contribute to understanding others' actions, facilitating the identification of the outcome to which those actions are directed.

  • The mirror mechanism is also involved in others' emotion processing. Brain-imaging and lesion studies indicate that identifying others' emotions may depend on one's own visceromotor processes and representations concerning those emotions.

  • Recent studies suggest that the mirror mechanism may contribute to understanding the vitality forms that characterize others' actions by transforming the sensory information concerning others' vitality forms into motor representations of those forms.

  • Mirror-based understanding has been defined as an 'understanding from the inside' because it provides a route to knowledge of others, which can be taken by capitalizing on one's own motor or visceromotor representations. This also suggests that how people experience their own actions, emotions and vitality forms may share a core phenomenal aspect with how people experience the same actions, emotions and vitality forms when observing others displaying them.

Abstract

The mirror mechanism is a basic brain mechanism that transforms sensory representations of others' behaviour into one's own motor or visceromotor representations concerning that behaviour. According to its location in the brain, it may fulfil a range of cognitive functions, including action and emotion understanding. In each case, it may enable a route to knowledge of others' behaviour, which mainly depends on one's own motor or visceromotor representations.

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Figure 1: The monkey parietofrontal mirror network for hand-grasping actions.
Figure 2: The human grasping-observation network.
Figure 3: Insular region encoding vitality forms.
Figure 4: Insular connections with the parietofrontal grasping circuit in the monkey.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank S. Butterfill for his helpful comments on the manuscript. This works was supported by a grant from Fondazione Cariparma, by Inter University Attraction Program (IUAP) and an European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant to G.R.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma, via Volturno 39, I-43100, Parma, Italy

    Giacomo Rizzolatti

  2. Brain Center for Motor and Social Cognition, Italian Institute of Technology, I-43100, Parma, Italy

    Giacomo Rizzolatti

  3. Department of Philosophy, University of Milan, via Festa del Perdono 7, I-20122, Milano, Italy

    Corrado Sinigaglia

  4. Center for the Study of Social Action, University of Milan, I-20122, Milan, Italy

    Corrado Sinigaglia

Authors
  1. Giacomo Rizzolatti
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  2. Corrado Sinigaglia
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giacomo Rizzolatti.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Glossary

Mirror neurons

Neurons that discharge both when an individual performs a given behaviour and when an individual observes another person performing the same or a similar behaviour; these neurons are found in many brain cortical areas of monkeys and other species, including humans, marmosets and birds.

Mirror mechanism

A basic brain mechanism that transforms sensory representations of others' behaviour into one's own motor or visceromotor representations concerning that behaviour and, depending on the location, can fulfil a range of cognitive functions, including action and emotion understanding.

Action goals

The outcomes to which actions are directed. In non-technical contexts, the term is also used when people talk about the goal of their struggles or assert that their goal is to work at their best.

Vitality form

Agents' affective states, moods and attitudes that characterize how their actions and emotions are displayed and experienced; it has been hypothesized that the identification of others' vitality forms, which is crucial for social interaction, could involve the mirror mechanism.

Understanding from the inside

A notion that describes how the mirror mechanism might provide a route to knowledge of others by capitalizing on one's own motor or visceromotor representations. It also reflects the idea that there are phenomenal aspects common to experiences of one's own and other's actions, emotions and vitality forms.

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Rizzolatti, G., Sinigaglia, C. The mirror mechanism: a basic principle of brain function. Nat Rev Neurosci 17, 757–765 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.135

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