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Prinz, W. (1997). Perception and action planning.
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Ramachandran, V. S. (2000). Mirror neurons and imitation learning as the driving force behind “the great leap forward” in human evolution.
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Ramachandran, V. S. (2000). Mirror neurons and imitation learning as the driving force behind “the great leap forward” in human evolution.
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Iacoboni, M., Woods, R. P., Brass, M., Bekkering, H., Mazziotta, J. C., & Rizzolatti, G. (1999). Cortical mechanisms of human imitation.
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Heiser, M., Iacoboni, M., Maeda, F., Marcus, J., & Mazziotta, J. C. (2003). The essential role of Broca’s area in imitation.
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| imitating the fingering required to make a set of guitar chords that they were shown
Buccino, G., Vogt, S., Ritzl, A., Fink, G. R., Zilles, K., Freund, H. J., & Rizzolatti, G. (2004). Neural circuits underlying imitation learning of hand actions: An event-related fMRI study.
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| Gordon’s account of the second route
Ross, L., Greene, D., & House, P. (1977). The “false consensus effect”: An egocentric bias in social perception and attribution processes.
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Gallese, V., & Goldman, A. (1998). Mirror neurons and the simulation theory of mind-reading.
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| “the fundamental mechanism that allows us a direct experiential grasp
Gallese, V., Keysers, C., & Rizzolatti, G. (2004). A unifying view of the basis of social cognition.
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Rizzolatti, G., & Sinigaglia, C. (2010). The functional role of the parieto-frontal mirror circuit: Interpretations and misinterpretations.
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| found mirror neurons that fit the bill
Kohler, E., Keysers, C., Umilta, M. A., Fogassi, L., Gallese, V., & Rizzolatti, G. (2002). Hearing sounds, understanding actions: Action representation in mirror neurons.
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Hickok, G. (2009). Eight problems for the mirror neuron theory of action understanding in monkeys and humans.
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| that the mirror neurons respond to actions that involve objects that cannot be seen
Umilta, M. A., Kohler, E., Gallese, V., Fogassi, L., Fadiga, L., Keysers, C., & Rizzolatti, G. (2001). I know what you are doing: A neurophysiological study.
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| Humans are certainly capable of seeing an object
Lee, H., Simpson, G. V., Logothetis, N. K., & Rainer, G. (2005). Phase locking of single neuron activity to theta oscillations during working memory in monkey extrastriate visual cortex.
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| She suggests that the purpose of mirror neurons
Heyes, C. (2010). Mesmerising mirror neurons.
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| Heyes designed a clever
countermirroring
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Catmur, C., Walsh, V., & Heyes, C. (2007). Sensorimotor learning configures the human mirror system.
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Newman-Norlund, R. D., van Schie, H. T., van Zuijlen, A. M., & Bekkering, H. (2007). The mirror neuron system is more active during complementary compared with imitative action.
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Fox, M. D., Snyder, A. Z., Vincent, J. L., Corbetta, M., Van Essen, D. C., & Raichle, M. E. (2005). The human brain is intrinsically organized into dynamic, anticorrelated functional networks.
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Spunt, R. P., & Lieberman, M. D. (in press). Automaticity, control, and the social brain. In J. Sherman, B. Gawronski, & Y. Trope (Eds.).
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Vallacher, R. R., & Wegner, D. M. (1987). What do people think they’re doing? Action identification and human behavior.
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| are more likely to focus on the thoughts they are trying to convey
Carver, C. S. (1979). A cybernetic model of self-attention processes.
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Jacob, P., & Jeannerod, M. (2005). The motor theory of social cognition: A critique.
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| figuring out the how, what, and why of other people’s behavior
Spunt, R. P., & Lieberman, M. D. (2012). Dissociating modality-specific and supramodal neural systems for action understanding.
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Spunt, R. P., & Lieberman, M. D. (2012). Dissociating modality-specific and supramodal neural systems for action understanding.
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| this was still the case when participants were distracted
Spunt, R. P., & Lieberman, M. D. (2013). The busy social brain: Evidence for automaticity and control in the neural systems supporting social cognition and action understanding.
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| “blooming, buzzing confusion”
James, W. (1890/1950).
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empathy
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Titchener, E. B. (1909).
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| something like a first-person experience from the object’s perspective
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Zaki, J., & Ochsner, K. (2012). The neuroscience of empathy: Progress, pitfalls and promise.
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| individuals watched others receive shocks to their hands or feet
Avenanti, A., Bueti, D., Galati, G., & Aglioti, S. M. (2005). Transcranial magnetic stimulation highlights the sensorimotor side of empathy for pain.
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| muscles in our own faces immediately mimic the expression in subtle ways
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Wicker, B., Keysers, C., Plailly, J., Royet, J. P., Gallese, V., & Rizzolatti, G. (2003). Both of us disgusted in
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| trying to understand why someone is experiencing a particular emotion
Spunt, R. P., & Lieberman, M. D. (2012). An integrative model of the neural systems supporting the comprehension of observed emotional behavior.
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| affect matching can sometimes lead to avoidance behavior
Batson, C. D. (1991).
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| empathy occurs only when there is an appropriate emotional response
Ibid.
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| Given that nearly all of the follow-ups to Singer’s seminal work have focused on empathy
Fan, Y., Duncan, N. W., de Greck, M., & Northoff, G. (2011). Is there a core neural network in empathy? An fMRI based quantitative meta-analysis.
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| almost none of the studies that have been done have linked neural responses
Hein, G., Silani, G., Preuschoff, K., Batson, C. D., & Singer, T. (2010). Neural responses to ingroup and outgroup members’ suffering predict individual differences in costly helping.
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156
| Sylvia Morelli, Lian Rameson, and I ran an fMRI study
Morelli, S. A., Rameson, L. T., & Lieberman, M. D. (in press). The neural components of empathy: Predicting daily prosocial behavior.
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| the hot area of study in the next ten years
Cf. Moll, J., Zahn, R., de Oliveira-Souza, R., Bramati, I. E., Krueger, F., Tura, B., … , & Grafman, J. (2011). Impairment of prosocial sentiments is associated with frontopolar and septal damage in frontotemporal dementia.
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| the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC)—the CEO of the brain’s mentalizing system
Andy, O. J., & Stephan, H. (1966). Septal nuclei in primate phylogeny: A quantitative investigation.
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Olds, J., & Milner, P. (1954). Positive reinforcement produced by electrical stimulation of septal area and other regions of rat brain.
Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 47
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159
| Two decades later a similar study was conducted
Heath, R. G. (1972). Pleasure and brain activity in man.
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159
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Brady, J. V., & Nauta, W. J. (1953). Subcortical mechanisms in emotional behavior: Affective changes following septal forebrain lesions in the albino rat.
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| Lesion studies in rats, mice, and rabbits suggest
Carlson, N. R., & Thomas, G. J. (1968). Maternal behavior of mice with limbic lesions.
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| one way to reconcile the findings is to characterize the septal area as shifting the balance
Inagaki, T. K., & Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Neural correlates of giving support to a loved one.
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160
| The septal area is rich in oxytocin receptors
Insel, T. R., Gelhard, R., & Shapiro, L. E. (1991). The comparative distribution of forebrain receptors for neurohypophyseal peptides in monogamous and polygamous mice.
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| Among rodents, pups who receive more parental care
Lukas, M., Bredewold, R., Neumann, I. D., & Veenema, A. H. (2010). Maternal separation interferes with developmental changes in brain vasopressin and oxytocin receptor binding in male rats.
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162
| Just two years after the first Sally-Anne test for Theory of Mind
Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”?
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163
| Subsequent studies have demonstrated other mentalizing deficits
Baron-Cohen, S., O’Riordan, M., Stone, V., Jones, R., & Plaisted, K. (1999). Recognition of faux pas by normally developing children and children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism.
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| Autistic individuals are also much less likely to describe
Heider, F., & Simmel, M. (1944). An experimental study of apparent behavior.
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| The Sally-Anne test isn’t the only or the hardest test of Theory of Mind
Frith, U., & Happé, F. (1994). Autism: Beyond “theory of mind.”
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165
| Uta Frith gave a group of autistic children
Shah, A., & Frith, U. (1983). An islet of ability in autistic children: A research note.
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| Autism is associated with a deficit in focusing on high-level meaning
Frith, U., & Happé, F. (1994). Autism: Beyond “theory of mind.”
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| the two deficits do not always go hand in hand in autism
Ibid.; Spunt, R. P., Meyer, M. L., & Lieberman, M. D. (under review). Social by default: Brain activity at rest facilitates social cognition; cf. Baron-Cohen, S. (2009). Autism: The Empathizing-Systemizing (E-S) Theory.
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| Multiple studies have shown that training can lead to sizable gains
Hadwin, J., Baron-Cohen, S., Howlin, P., & Hill, K. (1997). Does teaching theory of mind have an effect on the ability to develop conversation in children with autism?
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| We know this because children who are born deaf
Peterson, C. C., & Siegal, M. (1999). Deafness, conversation and theory of mind.
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| During the second year, these children tend to ignore others
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| experimenters have asked children to imitate various behaviors and hand gestures
DeMyer, M. K., Alpern, G. D., Barton, S., DeMyer, W. E., Churchill, D. W., Hingtgen, J. N., … , & Kimberlin, C. (1972). Imitation in autistic, early schizophrenic, and non-psychotic subnormal children.
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| Children diagnosed with autism consistently perform worse
Williams, J. H., Whiten, A., & Singh, T. (2004). A systematic review of action imitation in autistic spectrum disorder.
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169
| Once the mirror system was clearly linked with imitation
Nishitani, N., Avikainen, S., & Hari, R. (2004). Abnormal imitation-related cortical activation sequences in Asperger’s syndrome.
Annals of Neurology, 55
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