Degrees of Separation: Are mirror neurons human language specific?
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1
University of New England, Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences (BCSS) - Psychology, Australia
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2
University of South Australia, Division Office, Australia
Since the discovery of mirror neurons in the late 1990s, a number of theories have been proposed concerning their role in human cognition, most notably in the area of human language. Although a handful of studies have examined such theories, none thus far have tested for differences in mirror neuron responses in the human brain between listening to human and non-human vocal communication. To this end, continuous EEG was recorded as human participants in the current study listened to a random selection of animal vocalizations including song bird tunes and monkey and ape calls, as well as a selection of everyday English language words. Event related band power decomposition is used to investigate differences in alpha desynchronization in known mirror neuron regions between listening to human and non-human communications. If mirror neurons respond selectively to human language, there should be no evidence of mirror neuron activity (event related alpha desynchronization) in relation to non-human vocalizations; if, however, mirror neurons do respond to non-human vocal communications, it is predicted that this response will be scale with phylogenetic distance from humans.
Keywords:
Mirror Neurons,
Language,
non-human vocalizations,
EEG,
event related alpha desynchronization
Conference:
ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 29 Nov - 2 Dec, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Language
Citation:
Cocks
B,
Jamieson
G,
Evans
I and
Stevenson
B
(2012). Degrees of Separation: Are mirror neurons human language specific?.
Conference Abstract:
ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.208.00026
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Received:
25 Oct 2012;
Published Online:
07 Nov 2012.
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Correspondence:
Mrs. Bernadine Cocks, University of New England, Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences (BCSS) - Psychology, Armidale, NSW, 2350, Australia, Bernie.Cocks@unisa.edu.au