A fundamental issue in cognitive neuroscience is how the brain is able to encode others'actions and intentions. In this perspective one of the most important advances of our knowledge on how these processes can take place in the cortex is the discovery of mirror neurons. The main conceptual breakthrough open by their discovery is that perceptual and motor processes share a common code. The proposed research will investigate, with non-invasive electroencephalography methods, the emergence of the MN system in infancy and young children. It will compare the EEG activity depicted by specific frequency bands in infants with that of children and adults in which the MNs has been widely studied. Acquisition of EEG will be combined with a careful behavioral assessment of subjects in order to test the hypothesis that MNs are at the basis of specific matching behaviors that are important landmarks in the development of perception action relations. We will as well, carry out experiments in non-human primates to identify these EEG rhythms in infant Rhesus Macaque and to link, for the first time, single cell recordings of mirror neurons to the ongoing EEG.

Public Health Relevance

The study of the MNs development is largely unexplored. Here we propose to investigate the emergence of this system in relation to important behavioral-cognitive skills by means of neurophysiological measurements. The findings will be central for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying action understanding and imitation, which are fundamental elements of social cognitive development.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Program Projects (P01)
Project #
5P01HD064653-05
Application #
8701315
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZHD1)
Project Start
2014-07-01
Project End
2015-06-30
Budget Start
2014-07-01
Budget End
2015-06-30
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Maryland College Park
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
College Park
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
20742
Krogh-Jespersen, Sheila; Kaldy, Zsuzsa; Valadez, Annalisa Groth et al. (2018) Goal prediction in 2-year-old children with and without autism spectrum disorder: An eye-tracking study. Autism Res 11:870-882
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Buzzell, George A; Troller-Renfree, Sonya V; Barker, Tyson V et al. (2017) A Neurobehavioral Mechanism Linking Behaviorally Inhibited Temperament and Later Adolescent Social Anxiety. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 56:1097-1105
Simpson, Elizabeth A; Jakobsen, Krisztina V; Damon, Fabrice et al. (2017) Face Detection and the Development of Own-Species Bias in Infant Macaques. Child Dev 88:103-113

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