image: Actions performed by others might hold different relevance for a witness, and thus lead to different behavioral responses, depending on the region of space in which the actions are executed. Caggiano and colleagues found in their experiments that, in monkeys, mirror neurons - a system previously thought to be involved only with understanding actions -- differentially respond to observed actions depending on whether the actions are executed in the monkey's personal space or outside of it. This finding suggests that mirror neurons not only contribute to understanding others' actions, but they might also be part of a larger system that encodes the relevance of observed actions in terms of possible interactions. This image relates to an article that appeared in the April 17, 2009, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. Vittorio Caggiano of the University of Tübingen and colleagues was titled, "Mirror Neurons Differentially Encode the Peripersonal and Extrapersonal Space of Monkeys." view more
Credit: Image courtesy of the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research