Dissociating object directed and non-object directed action in the human mirror system; implications for theories of motor simulation.

Mirror neurons are single cells found in macaque premotor and parietal cortices that are active during action execution and observation. In non-human primates, mirror neurons have only been found in relation to object-directed movements or communicative gestures, as non-object directed actions of the upper limb are not well characterized in non-human primates. Mirror neurons provide important evidence for motor simulation theories of cognition, sometimes referred to as the direct matching hypothesis, which propose that observed actions are mapped onto associated motor schemata in a direct and automatic manner. This study, for the first time, directly compares mirror responses, defined as the overlap between action execution and observation, during object directed and meaningless non-object directed actions. We present functional MRI data that demonstrate a clear dissociation between object directed and non-object directed actions within the human mirror system. A premotor and parietal network was preferentially active during object directed actions, whether observed or executed. Moreover, we report spatially correlated activity across multiple voxels for observation and execution of an object directed action. In contrast to predictions made by motor simulation theory, no similar activity was observed for non-object directed actions. These data demonstrate that object directed and meaningless non-object directed actions are subserved by different neuronal networks and that the human mirror response is significantly greater for object directed actions. These data have important implications for understanding the human mirror system and for simulation theories of motor cognition. Subsequent theories of motor simulation must account for these differences, possibly by acknowledging the role of experience in modulating the mirror response

Multilayer optical learning networks

A new approach to learning in a multilayer optical neural network based on holographically interconnected nonlinear devices is presented. The proposed network can learn the interconnections that form a distributed representation of a desired pattern transformation operation. The interconnections are formed in an adaptive and self-aligning fashioias volume holographic gratings in photorefractive crystals. Parallel arrays of globally space-integrated inner products diffracted by the interconnecting hologram illuminate arrays of nonlinear Fabry-Perot etalons for fast thresholding of the transformed patterns. A phase conjugated reference wave interferes with a backward propagating error signal to form holographic interference patterns which are time integrated in the volume of a photorefractive crystal to modify slowly and learn the appropriate self-aligning interconnections. This multilayer system performs an approximate implementation of the backpropagation learning procedure in a massively parallel high-speed nonlinear optical network

Recognizing Speech in a Novel Accent: The Motor Theory of Speech Perception Reframed

The motor theory of speech perception holds that we perceive the speech of another in terms of a motor representation of that speech. However, when we have learned to recognize a foreign accent, it seems plausible that recognition of a word rarely involves reconstruction of the speech gestures of the speaker rather than the listener. To better assess the motor theory and this observation, we proceed in three stages. Part 1 places the motor theory of speech perception in a larger framework based on our earlier models of the adaptive formation of mirror neurons for grasping, and for viewing extensions of that mirror system as part of a larger system for neuro-linguistic processing, augmented by the present consideration of recognizing speech in a novel accent. Part 2 then offers a novel computational model of how a listener comes to understand the speech of someone speaking the listener's native language with a foreign accent. The core tenet of the model is that the listener uses hypotheses about the word the speaker is currently uttering to update probabilities linking the sound produced by the speaker to phonemes in the native language repertoire of the listener. This, on average, improves the recognition of later words. This model is neutral regarding the nature of the representations it uses (motor vs. auditory). It serve as a reference point for the discussion in Part 3, which proposes a dual-stream neuro-linguistic architecture to revisits claims for and against the motor theory of speech perception and the relevance of mirror neurons, and extracts some implications for the reframing of the motor theory

The Tell-Tale Hand: Gothic Narratives and the Brain

The opening story in Winesburg, Ohio (1919) by Sherwood Anderson is called simply “Hands.” It is about a teacher’s remarkable hands that sometimes seem to move independently of his will. This essay explores some of the relevant contexts and potential links, beginning with other representations of teachers’ hands, such as Caravaggio’s St. Matthew and the Angel, early efforts to establish a sign-language for the deaf, and including the Montessori method of teaching children to read and write by tracing the shape of letters with their hands on rough emery paper. The essay then explores filmic hands that betray or work independently of conscious intentions, from Dr Strangelove, Mad Love, to The Beast With Five Fingers. Discussion of the medical literature about the “double” of our hands in the brain, including “phantom hands,” leads on to a series of images that register Rodin’s lifelong fascination with sculpting separate hands

Scientist - performers - audiences. Different modes of meaning-making

This paper provides a brief overview of the emergence of dance in the field of cognitive neuroscience and sustains the importance to understand-ing how dance is conceptualised in other disciplines in order to design valuable future research employing dance. It is proposed that recognising the distinct modes of meaning-making will undoubtedly affect and advance the scientific progress understanding by modes of meaning-making the phenomenological difference in how a dancer relates to a movement phrase from how a scientist or a choreographer watches, interprets, and experiences a dance phrase. The overall message is that the different modes of meaning-making requires consideration in scientific studies where a new generation of artists-scientists is needed, driven to excel in both, data handling and artistic purposes.//Abstract in Spanish:Este artículo proporciona una breve descripción de la aparición de la danza en el campo de la neurociencia cognitiva y sostiene que es importante entender cómo se conceptualiza la danza en otras disciplinas para diseñar in-vestigaciones futuras que la empleen. Se propone que reconocer los distintos modos de creación de significado afectará y avanzará el progreso científico entendiendo por modos de creación de significado la diferencia fenomenológica en la forma en que un bailarín se relaciona con una frase de movimiento de cómo lo hace un científico o un coreógrafo. El mensaje general es que los dif-erentes modos de creación de significado requieren consideración en estudios científicos donde son necesarios una nueva generación de artistas-científicos, impulsados a sobresalir tanto en el manejo de datos como en los propósitos artísticos

The social brain: allowing humans to boldly go where no other species has been

The biological basis of complex human social interaction and communication has been illuminated through a coming together of various methods and disciplines. Among these are comparative studies of other species, studies of disorders of social cognition and developmental psychology. The use of neuroimaging and computational models has given weight to speculations about the evolution of social behaviour and culture in human societies. We highlight some networks of the social brain relevant to two-person interactions and consider the social signals between interacting partners that activate these networks.Wemake a case for distinguishing between signals that automatically trigger interaction and cooperation and ostensive signals that are used deliberately.We suggest that this ostensive signalling is needed for ‘closing the loop’ in two-person interactions, where the partners each know that they have the intention to communicate. The use of deliberate social signals can serve to increase reputation and trust and facilitates teaching. This is likely to be a critical factor in the steep cultural ascent ofmankind

The Psycho-neurology of Embodiment with Examples from Authentic Movement and Laban Movement Analysis

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Helen Payne, 'The Psycho-neurology of Embodiment with Examples from Authentic Movement and Laban Movement Analysis', American Journal of Dance Therapy, June 2017. Under embargo. Embargo end date: 7 June 2018. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s10465-017-9256-2.There is widespread agreement that thought is embodied cognition and that our earliest learning is implicit, through the body, and nonverbal expression. This article advances the proposition that the integration of thought and emotion is felt through the body. Embodiment and embodied simulation (ES) (Gallese in Neuropsychoanalysis 13(2):196–200, 2011) represent controversial topics in both the philosophy of mind (Clark in Being there: Putting brain, body, and world together again, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1998) and cognitive neuroscience (Gallagher in Cognitive Syst Res 34–35:35–43, 2015a; Gallagher in Conscious Cogn 36:452–465, 2015b; Gallese & Sinigaglia in J Conscious Stud 18(7–8):117–143, 2011a; Gallese in Philos Trans R Soc B 369(1644):20130177, 2014). As a result of advances in these areas of research, there is a need to re-conceptualize our understanding of the mechanisms and processes involved in dance movement psychotherapy. Could ES be applied to the psychology of movement? This article attempts to apply this theory of embodiment to the practice of Authentic Movement (AM) and Laban Movement Analysis. The theory of ES is proposed as one possible explanation of how the witness in AM comes to know her inner experience in the presence of a mover, which may lead to an “offering” to that mover from the witness’ conscious body (Adler in Offering from the conscious body: The discipline of Authentic Movement, Inner Traditions, Rochester, VT, 2002). Furthermore, there is an examination of how ES connects to the task of movement observation and how meaning is arrived at from the various movement patterns observed.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Continuous volumetric imaging via an optical phase-locked ultrasound lens

In vivo imaging at high spatiotemporal resolution is key to the understanding of complex biological systems. We integrated an optical phase-locked ultrasound lens into a two-photon fluorescence microscope and achieved microsecond-scale axial scanning, thus enabling volumetric imaging at tens of hertz. We applied this system to multicolor volumetric imaging of processes sensitive to motion artifacts, including calcium dynamics in behaving mouse brain and transient morphology changes and trafficking of immune cells