The tuning-fork model of human social cognition: A critique

The tuning-fork model of human social cognition, based on the discovery of mirror neurons (MNs) in the ventral premotor cortex of monkeys, involves the four following assumptions: (1) mirroring processes are processes of resonance or simulation. (2) They can be motor or non-motor. (3) Processes of motor mirroring (or action-mirroring), exemplified by the activity of MNs, constitute instances of third-person mindreading, whereby an observer represents the agent's intention. (4) Non-motor mirroring processes enable humans to represent others' emotions. After questioning all four assumptions, I point out that MNs in an observer's brain could not synchronically resonate with MNs in an agent's brain unless they discharged in a single brain in two distinct tasks at different times. Finally, I sketch a conceptualist alternative to the resonance model according to which a brain mechanism active in both the execution and the perception of e.g., the act of grasping is the neural basis of the concept of e.g., grasping.

[1]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  Both of Us Disgusted in My Insula The Common Neural Basis of Seeing and Feeling Disgust , 2003, Neuron.

[2]  J. Mazziotta,et al.  Grasping the Intentions of Others with One's Own Mirror Neuron System , 2005, PLoS biology.

[3]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  Neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the understanding and imitation of action , 2001, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[4]  J. Searle.  Intentionality: An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind , 1983 .

[5]  C. McGinn.  Mindsight: Image, Dream, Meaning , 2004 .

[6]  M. Brass,et al.  Investigating Action Understanding: Inferential Processes versus Action Simulation , 2007, Current Biology.

[7]  S. Hurley.  The shared circuits model (SCM): how control, mirroring, and simulation can enable imitation, deliberation, and mindreading. , 2008, The Behavioral and brain sciences.

[8]  Justin N Wood,et al.  The uniquely human capacity to throw evolved from a non-throwing primate: an evolutionary dissociation between action and perception , 2007, Biology Letters.

[9]  H. Putnam.  2. Brains and Behavior , 1980 .

[10]  A. Goldman,et al.  Mirror neurons and the simulation theory of mind-reading , 1998, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[11]  S. Guttenplan.  Mind and language , 1975 .

[12]  Elisabeth Patherie,et al.  The Content of Intentions , 2000 .

[13]  Rebecca Saxe,et al.  Tuning forks in the mind: Reply to Goldman and Sebanz , 2005, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[14]  P. Jacob,et al.  Why Visual Experience is Likely to Resist Being Enacted , 2006 .

[15]  K. Wynn,et al.  Attribution of Dispositional States by 12-Month-Olds , 2003, Psychological science.

[16]  A. Goldman,et al.  The Shared Circuits Model: How Control, Mirroring and Simulation Can Enable Imitation, Deliberation, and Mindreading , 2007 .

[17]  R. Saxe.  Against simulation: the argument from error , 2005, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[18]  A. Leslie.  Developmental parallels in understanding minds and bodies , 2005, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[19]  P. Gerrans.  Mirror neuron systems: The role of mirroring processes in social cognition , 2010 .

[20]  Gian Luca Romani,et al.  Neural systems underlying observation of humanly impossible movements: an FMRI study. , 2005, Cerebral cortex.

[21]  Stefano Facchini,et al.  Motor facilitation of the human cortico-spinal system during observation of bio-mechanically impossible movements , 2005, NeuroImage.

[22]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  Parietal Lobe: From Action Organization to Intention Understanding , 2005, Science.

[23]  D. Sperber,et al.  PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Research Article Attribution of Beliefs by 13-Month-Old Infants , 2022 .

[24]  D. Perrett,et al.  Opinion TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences Vol.8 No.11 November 2004 Demystifying social cognition: a Hebbian perspective , 2022 .

[25]  T. Singer,et al.  The empathic brain: how, when and why? , 2006, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[26]  A. Goldman.  Does one size fit all? Hurley on shared circuits , 2008 .

[27]  L. Chelazzi,et al.  My eyes want to look where your eyes are looking: Exploring the tendency to imitate another individual's gaze , 2002, Neuroreport.

[28]  L. Cosmides.  From : The Cognitive Neurosciences , 1995 .

[29]  P. Haggard,et al.  Sensorimotor foundations of higher cognition , 1993 .

[30]  R. Passingham,et al.  Action observation and acquired motor skills: an FMRI study with expert dancers. , 2005, Cerebral cortex.

[31]  Zoubin Ghahramani,et al.  Perspectives and problems in motor learning , 2001, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[32]  A. Goldman.  Mirroring, Mindreading, and Simulation , 2008 .

[33]  Alva Noë,et al.  Action in Perception , 2006, Representation and Mind.

[34]  György Gergely,et al.  One-year-old infants use teleological representations of actions productively , 2003, Cogn. Sci..

[35]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  Neural Circuits Involved in the Recognition of Actions Performed by Nonconspecifics: An fMRI Study , 2004, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[36]  D. Over,et al.  Studies in the Way of Words. , 1989 .

[37]  E. Bizzi,et al.  The Cognitive Neurosciences , 1996 .

[38]  Natalie Sebanz,et al.  Simulation, mirroring, and a different argument from error , 2005, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[39]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  I Know What You Are Doing A Neurophysiological Study , 2001, Neuron.

[40]  Justin N Wood,et al.  The Perception of Rational, Goal-Directed Action in Nonhuman Primates , 2007, Science.

[41]  A. Young,et al.  Impaired recognition and experience of disgust following brain injury , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.

[42]  A. Goldman.  Jacob on Mirroring, Simulating and Mindreading , 2008 .

[43]  Alvin I. Goldman,et al.  Précis of Simulating Minds: The Philosophy, Psychology, and Neuroscience of Mindreading , 2006 .

[44]  Hilary Putnam,et al.  Mind, Language and Reality: Brains and behavior , 1975 .

[45]  G. Csibra,et al.  Teleological reasoning in infancy: the naı̈ve theory of rational action , 2003, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[46]  Leonardo Fogassi,et al.  Mirror Neurons Responding to Observation of Actions Made with Tools in Monkey Ventral Premotor Cortex , 2005, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[47]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  Understanding motor events: a neurophysiological study , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[48]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  The mirror-neuron system. , 2004, Annual review of neuroscience.

[49]  V. Gallese.  The 'shared manifold' hypothesis: From mirror neurons to empathy. , 2001 .

[50]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  Mirror neurons responding to the observation of ingestive and communicative mouth actions in the monkey ventral premotor cortex , 2003, The European journal of neuroscience.

[51]  J. Fodor,et al.  The Language of Thought , 1980 .

[52]  A. Goldman,et al.  Simulationist models of face-based emotion recognition , 2005, Cognition.

[53]  D. Wolpert.  Computational approaches to motor control , 1997, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[54]  V. Gallese.  The manifold nature of interpersonal relations: the quest for a common mechanism. , 2003, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[55]  E. Borg.  If mirror neurons are the answer, what was the question? , 2007 .

[56]  Z. Nadasdy,et al.  Taking the intentional stance at 12 months of age , 1995, Cognition.

[57]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  Impairment of actions chains in autism and its possible role in intention understanding , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[58]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  A unifying view of the basis of social cognition , 2004, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[59]  Vittorio Gallese,et al.  31 Cortical Mechanisms Subserving Object Grasping, Action Understanding, and Imitation , 2004 .

[60]  Sunny Shin,et al.  Do 15-Month-Old Infants Understand False Beliefs ? , 2005 .

[61]  P. Jacob.  What Do Mirror Neurons Contribute to Human Social Cognition , 2008 .

[62]  A. Avramides.  Studies in the Way of Words , 1992 .

[63]  M. Gazzaniga,et al.  The new cognitive neurosciences , 2000 .

[64]  M. Jeannerod,et al.  The motor theory of social cognition: a critique , 2005, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[65]  G. Csibra.  Action mirroring and action understanding: an alternative account , 1993 .

[66]  György Gergely,et al.  Does the Mirror Neuron System and Its Impairment Explain Human Imitation and Autism , 2008 .

[67]  D Yves von Cramon,et al.  Sequences of Abstract Nonbiological Stimuli Share Ventral Premotor Cortex with Action Observation and Imagery , 2004, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[68]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  Mirror neuron: a neurological approach to empathy , 2005 .

[69]  Luca Turella,et al.  Mirror neurons in humans: Consisting or confounding evidence? , 2009, Brain and Language.

[70]  Zoubin Ghahramani,et al.  Computational principles of movement neuroscience , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.