Information Processing in the Mirror Neuron System in Primates and Machines
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Demiris, Yiannis
Aziz-Zadeh, Lisa
Bonaiuto, James
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The mirror neuron system in primates matches observations of actions with the motor representations used for their execution, and is a topic of intense research and debate in biological and computational disciplines. In robotics, models of this system have been used for enabling robots to imitate and learn how to perform tasks from human demonstrations. Yet, existing computational and robotic models of these systems are found in multiple levels of description, and although some models offer plausible explanations and testable predictions, the difference in the granularity of the experimental setups, methodologies, computational structures and selected modeled data make principled meta-analyses, common in other fields, difficult. In this paper, we adopt an interdisciplinary approach, using the BODB integrated environment in order to bring together several different but complementary computational models, by functionally decomposing them into brain operating principles (BOPs) which each capture a limited subset of the model’s functionality. We then explore links from these BOPs to neuroimaging and neurophysiological data in order to pinpoint complementary and conflicting explanations and compare predictions against selected sets of neurobiological data. The results of this comparison are used to interpret mirror system neuroimaging results in terms of neural network activity, evaluate the biological plausibility of mirror system models, and suggest new experiments that can shed light on the neural basis of mirror systems.
Date Issued
2014-01-01
Citation
Neuroinformatics, 2014, 12 (1), pp.63-91
ISSN
1539-2791
Publisher
Springer
Start Page
63
End Page
91
Journal / Book Title
Neuroinformatics
Volume
12
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12021-013-9200-7
Description
01.04.15 KB. Ok to add accepted version to spiral, author confirmed is accepted version and not pre-print. Embargo expired.
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000330973900005&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Neurosciences
Computer Science
Neurosciences & Neurology
Mirror system
BODB
Computational modeling
Robotics
Imitation
VENTRAL PREMOTOR CORTEX
SOCIAL COGNITION
VISUAL CONTROL
RHESUS-MONKEY
FRONTAL-LOBE
BROCAS AREA
IMITATION
PERCEPTION
MODEL
RECOGNITION
Publication Status
Published