INTERCONNECTING PERCEPTION AND INTENTIONAL UNDERSTANDING VIA MIRROR NEURONS

Abstract

Typically, when an observer witnesses an action being performed by an agent, their Mirror Neuron System initiates a motor simulation of that action. It has been argued that mirror neurons and the cortical areas of the action observation network (AON) enable our capacity to comprehend activities at these levels. The empirical evidence for this suggested role is scant but according to existing theories, the visual brain of primates is split into two functionally separate networks. The dorsal route calculates an object's position and any activities associated with it, while the ventral pathway computes an object's identity. The ventral route employs semantic retrieval and selection to forecast the likely intentions and objectives associated with observed behaviors. Encoding of the representation of the needed action for accomplishing the expected goal happens throughout this procedure. In this two-route paradigm, mirror neurons encode this concrete representation of the event, which serves as a precedent to forecast the sensory effects of this action through the dorsal AON pathway. Although still popular, the two visual pathways concept needs to be updated. This review gives an idea about mirror neurons and discusses their role in action observation network.