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The alluring but misleading analogy between mirror neurons and the motor theory of speech

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2014

Lori L. Holt  and
Andrew J. Lotto
Lori L. Holt
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15208. loriholt@cmu.eduhttp://www.psy.cmu.edu/~holtlab
Andrew J. Lotto
Affiliation:
Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721. alotto@email.arizona.eduhttp://acns.webhost.uits.arizona.edu/
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Abstract

Speech is commonly claimed to relate to mirror neurons because of the alluring surface analogy of mirror neurons to the Motor Theory of speech perception, which posits that perception and production draw upon common motor-articulatory representations. We argue that the analogy fails and highlight examples of systems-level developmental approaches that have been more fruitful in revealing perception–production associations.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 204 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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