What are mirror neurons and what is their purpose?
In this interview, Dr. Giacomo Rizzolatti of the University of Parma, Italy, describes his discovery of a unique type of neurons in the human motor cortex. These neurons respond both when a person initiates a particular action, as well as when the person perceives another person perform a similar action. Because of this defining characteristic neurons with this characteristic are labeled as 'mirror neurons'. Dr. Rizzolatti describes how he and his colleagues first came across these types of neurons and the initial response by the scientific community. Since then, the discovery of mirror neurons has sparked substantial interests in a wide range of fields - ranging from motor learning to language and social and emotional processing. Dr. Rizzolatti addresses many of the research questions that are currently being investigated and some of the more recent advances in the field. He also stresses the applications based on mirror neuron mechanisms that his research group is actively pursuing. The interview was conducted by goCognitive in the Spring of 2011 (funding by the National Science Foundation DUE-0942497).
