Abstract
Do infants come to understand other people's actions through a mirror neuron system that maps an observed action onto motor representations of that action? We demonstrate that a specialized system for action perception guides proactive goal-directed eye movements in 12-month-old but not in 6-month-old infants, providing direct support for this view. The activation of this system requires observing an interaction between the hand of the agent and an object.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by grants to C.v.H. from the Tercentennial Fund of the Bank of Sweden (J2004-0511), McDonnell Foundation (21002089), and European Union (EU004370: robot-cub).
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Supplementary information
Supplementary Table 1
Descriptive statistics; gaze timing relative to moving target (PDF 48 kb)
Supplementary Table 2
Descriptive statistics; gaze timing relative to moving target as a function of action number (within trial) (PDF 49 kb)
Supplementary Table 3
Descriptive statistics; looking time ratio (goal AOI/goal+trajectory AOIs) (PDF 53 kb)
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Falck-Ytter, T., Gredebäck, G. & von Hofsten, C. Infants predict other people's action goals. Nat Neurosci 9, 878–879 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1729
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1729
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