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Flexibility and development of mirroring mechanisms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2008

Matthew R. Longo
Affiliation:
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Psychology, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom
Bennett I. Bertenthal
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405. m.longo@ucl.ac.ukbbertent@indiana.eduhttp://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucjtml0/

Abstract

The empirical support for the shared circuits model (SCM) is mixed. We review recent results from our own lab and others supporting a central claim of SCM that mirroring occurs at multiple levels of representation. By contrast, the model is silent as to why human infants are capable of showing imitative behaviours mediated by a mirror system. This limitation is a problem with formal models that address neither the neural correlates nor the behavioural evidence directly.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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