MIRRORING AND UNDERSTANDING ACTION

Abstract. Though the existence of a mirror system for action is widely accepted, its mechanism and function are still controversial. It was originally held that the primary function of the mirror mechanism is to enable an individual to understand the actions performed by others, by directly matching the sensory with the motor representations of those actions. Recently, however, Gergely Csibra (2007) has proposed that mirror activation cannot be construed in terms of a mechanism that directly matches observed and executed motor acts, but must be based on a purely visual reconstruction of action, so that the primary mirror function would not be to understand other’s actions, but to emulate them. The aim of this paper is to refute Csibra’s arguments, showing that they are mostly based on a partial reading of the functional properties of mirror neurons as well as on a biased construal of both action and action understanding