Mirror neurons do not have the right response properties to support action understanding

Ten years ago the action understanding interpretation of monkey mirror neurons was the only game in town.  There really was no other viable account so even if there were problems with the theory (e.g., 8 in particular), it was the best we had.  Now there are alternative explanations.  Cecelia Heyes has argued that they reflect learned sensorimotor associations (that don't support understanding), recent writings of Michael Arbib and separately James Kilner have argued that they fundamentally serve a motor control function but which are used fruitfully to augment perceptual function via predictive coding, and I have argued for something of a hybrid between Heyes and Arbib/Kilner: MNs reflect learned sensorimotor associations that are critical for motor control (action selection specifically) and may modulate perception a tiny bit under rather rare circumstances.This is great progress because it means we are now in position to evaluate the various theories against existing data and just see which one does a better job of explaining the facts.I have argued extensively that the action understanding theory does not hold up well to lesion data. Disruption of the mirror system by stroke, sodium amytal, degenerative disease, or developmental disease does not impair action understanding in the way that the Parma story should predict.  Add to this an impressive, new, large N study on gesture comprehension, and the evidence against the action understanding theory...
Source: Talking Brains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Source Type: blogs