Keysers Christian, Gazzola Valeria
BCN Neuro-Imaging-Centre, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, A. Deusinglaan 2, 9713AW Groningen, The Netherlands.
Prog Brain Res. 2006;156:379-401. doi: 10.1016/S0079-6123(06)56021-2.
Humans can effortlessly understand a lot of what is going on in other peoples' minds. Understanding the neural basis of this capacity has proven quite difficult. Since the discovery of mirror neurons, a number of successful experiments have approached the question of how we understand the actions of others from the perspective of sharing their actions. Recently we have demonstrated that a similar logic may apply to understanding the emotions and sensations of others. Here, we therefore review evidence that a single mechanism (shared circuits) applies to actions, sensations and emotions: witnessing the actions, sensations and emotions of other individuals activates brain areas normally involved in performing the same actions and feeling the same sensations and emotions. We propose that these circuits, shared between the first (I do, I feel) and third person perspective (seeing her do, seeing her feel) translate the vision and sound of what other people do and feel into the language of the observers own actions and feelings. This translation could help understand the actions and feelings of others by providing intuitive insights into their inner life. We propose a mechanism for the development of shared circuits on the basis of Hebbian learning, and underline that shared circuits could integrate with more cognitive functions during social cognitions.
人类能够轻松理解他人脑海中正在发生的许多事情。事实证明，理解这种能力的神经基础非常困难。自从发现镜像神经元以来，许多成功的实验从共享他人动作的角度探讨了我们如何理解他人动作的问题。最近我们证明，类似的逻辑可能适用于理解他人的情感和感觉。因此，在这里我们回顾证据表明单一机制（共享回路）适用于动作、感觉和情感：目睹他人的动作、感觉和情感会激活通常参与执行相同动作、感受相同感觉和情感的脑区。我们提出，这些在第一人称视角（我做、我感觉）和第三人称视角（看到她做、看到她感觉）之间共享的回路，将他人所做和所感的视觉和声音转化为观察者自身动作和感受的语言。这种转化可以通过提供对他人内心生活的直观洞察来帮助理解他人的动作和感受。我们基于赫布学习提出了一种共享回路发展的机制，并强调共享回路在社会认知过程中可以与更多认知功能整合。
