Mirror neurons and the phenomenology of intersubjectivity

The neurological discovery of mirror neurons is of eminent importance for the phenomenological theory of intersubjectivity. G. Rizzolatti and V. Gallese found in experiments with primates that a set of neurons in the premotor cortex represents the visually registered movements of another animal. The activity of these mirror neurons presents exactly the same pattern of activity as appears in the movement of one's own body. These findings may be extended to other cognitive and emotive functions in humans. I show how these neurological findings might be “translated” phenomenologically into our own experienced sensations, feelings and volitions.     

镜像神经元是认知科学的“圣杯”吗?

镜像神经元作为近二十年来神经科学领域内最重要的发现之一,相关的一系列研究掀起了一场"理解社会行为的革命"。然而,通过系统考察镜像神经元最初的操作性定义、基本功能及其实验证据,发现许多研究者对于镜像神经元的定义存在误解,人类脑中是否存在镜像神经元及其功能依然是当前学术界的争议焦点。迄今仍然缺乏令人信服的证据表明镜像神经元(或系统)就是动作理解、动作模仿、共情以及读心的直接神经机制。因此,将镜像神经元视为"认知科学的圣杯"的主张是一种落后的模块论意识形态,只能催生新的"神经神话"。     

Neurones miroir, résonance et cognition sociale

Mirror neurons were discovered in the 1990's by cognitive neuroscientists from Parma. How central are mirror neurons in primates, social cognition. Do mirror neurons enable an observer to match the agent's observed movements onto her own motor repertoire? Does this matching enable the observer to represent the agent's intention, as argued by Rizzolatti et al? A positive answer to these questions can't be provided unless one assumme that mirror neurons compute the goal of an action by means of a “forward model” of the perceived action. However, the experimental evidence rather suggests that mirror neurons compute the motor means for achieving the desired goal, in accordance with an “inverse model” of the perceived action.     

From <Emphasis Type="Italic">ego</Emphasis> to <Emphasis Type="Italic">alter ego</Emphasis>: Husserl,Merleau-Ponty and a layered approach to intersubjectivity

This article presents two different phenomenological paths leading from ego to alter ego: a Husserlian and a Merleau-Pontian way of thinking. These two phenomenological paths serve to disentangle the conceptual–philosophical underpinning of the mirror neurons system hypothesis, in which both ways of thinking are entwined. A Merleau-Pontian re-reading of the mirror neurons system theory is proposed, in which the characteristics of mirror neurons are effectively used in the explanation of action understanding and imitation. This proposal uncovers the remaining necessary presupposition of a minimalized version of the Husserlian concept of pairing and its recent and improved version in terms of the intermodal system. This leads to a layered approach to the constitution of intersubjectivity.     

Visual Art and the Rhythm of Experience

The concept of rhythm is frequently used by art historians, critics, and philosophers as a way of describing central features of visual art. Since rhythm is generally considered to be a temporal phenomenon associated with music, it is far from clear how visual art, composed of fixed lines, figures, and color, can be associated with rhythmicity. Linked to a temporal ordering or structure in music, the notion of rhythm in visual art leads to a claim that the aesthetic aspect of a painting does not consist in, or emerge from, its spatial structures, but rather its temporal ordering of the visual field. Recently this account of rhythm in visual art has been criticized by philosopher Jason Gaiger, who argues that visual art does not comprise movement and therefore cannot be associated with a temporal rhythm. Through a discussion of temporality and rhythm in Edmund Husserl, Erwin Straus, and Henri Maldiney, this article maintains that rhythmicity is a central aspect of experiences with visual art. It is shown that the phenomenological account of rhythm in the experience of visual art is fundamentally linked to a different notion of time.     

Imitation: is cognitive neuroscience solving the correspondence problem?

Imitation poses a unique problem: how does the imitator know what pattern of motor activation will make their action look like that of the model? Specialist theories suggest that this correspondence problem has a unique solution; there are functional and neurological mechanisms dedicated to controlling imitation. Generalist theories propose that the problem is solved by general mechanisms of associative learning and action control. Recent research in cognitive neuroscience, stimulated by the discovery of mirror neurons, supports generalist solutions. Imitation is based on the automatic activation of motor representations by movement observation. These externally triggered motor representations are then used to reproduce the observed behaviour. This imitative capacity depends on learned perceptual-motor links. Finally, mechanisms distinguishing self from other are implicated in the inhibition of imitative behaviour.     

The Dance of Attention: Toward an Aesthetic Dimension of Attention-Deficit

What role does the aesthetics of bodily movement play in the understanding of attention among children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)? This article animates a phenomenological approach to attention and embodiment with a special focus on the relation between aesthetic or expressive bodily movement and behavioral awareness in children diagnosed with ADHD. However, beyond this it is argued that the aesthetic aspect of movement calls for an expansion of the phenomenological perspective. In this context Gilles Deleuze’s notion of aesthetics as a “science of the sensible” is activated and discussed in relation to the phenomenological concept of perception. Empirically the article takes point of departure in a qualitative study conducted with a group of children with attention-deficit practicing the Afro-Brazilian marital art, capoeira. Combining ethnographic and phenomenological methods, it is demonstrated that capoeira can be considered a form of aesthetic movement that offers a transition of attention-deficit into a productive force of expression that changes the notions of sensation and movement in ADHD.     

Making sense of mirror neurons

The discovery of mirror neurons has been hailed as one of the most exciting developments in neuroscience in the past few decades. These neurons discharge in response to the observation of others’ actions. But how are we to understand the function of these neurons? In this paper I defend the idea that mirror neurons are best conceived as components of a sensory system that has the function to perceive action. In short, mirror neurons are part of a hitherto unrecognized “sixth sense”. In this spirit, research should move toward developing a psychophysics of mirror neurons.     

The Developmental Trajectory from Amodal Perception to Empathy and Communication: The Role of Mirror Neurons in This Process

In a recent paper entitled “Mirror Neurons. Procedural Learning and the Positive New Experience” (Wolf et al., 2000), data were presented about a special type of neuron, the mirror neuron, originally located by Rizzolatti and his colleagues (1995). These neurons were discussed as they related to a particular developmental view of psychoanalysis, developmental systems self psychology (Shane, Shane, and Gales. 1997).

In this paper, we focus on how this mirror neuron system might contribute to the development of communicative abilities in humans. First we summarize the research findings about mirror neurons and how they apply to humans. We then attempt to demonstrate how the mirror neuron system might be involved in a developmental sequence hypothesized by Kohut (1984), Stern (1985), and others to begin in infancy. We postulate that this trajectory starts with the onset of “amodal perception” (Stern, 1985) and then proceeds to affect resonance, joint attention, and ultimately to symbolization of language. In this paper, we attempt to integrate these concepts with a formulation of empathy and demonstrate what might go awry in developmental disorders when the normative sequence of development described above does not take place.     

Preserving integrity against colonization

Genuine reconciliation between first- and third-person methodologies and knowledge requires respect for both phenomenological and scientific epistemologies. Recent pragmatic, theoretical, and verbal attempts at reconciliation by cognitive scientists compromise phenomenological method and knowledge. The basic question is thus: how do we begin reconciling first- and third-person epistemologies? Because life is the unifying concept across phenomenological and cognitive disciplines, a concept consistently if differentially exemplified in and by the phenomenon of movement, conceptual complementarities anchored in the animate properly provide the foundation for reconciliation. Research by people in neuroscience and in dynamic systems theory substantiate this thesis, providing fundamental examples of conceptual complementarity between phenomenology and science.     

镜像神经元的意义

镜像神经元是一种感觉–运动神经元。它的典型特征是在动作观察和动作执行两个阶段皆被激活。多年来, 由于研究伦理的限制, 研究恒河猴时使用的单细胞电极植入方式无法应用于人类, 因而不能确定人类大脑皮层是否也存在着具有同样功能的神经细胞。但是通过脑成像技术, 神经科学家确定人类大脑皮层存在着具有相同或类似功能的脑区, 称为“镜像神经系统”。文章对镜像神经元及其人类镜像神经系统的意义进行了深入分析, 指出：(1)由于镜像机制把动作知觉和动作执行进行匹配, 观察者仅仅通过他人行为的知觉, 就激活了执行这一动作的神经环路, 产生了一种他人动作的具身模拟, 因而可以直接把握他人的行为意图; (2)镜像神经元所表现出来的那种动作知觉与动作执行的双重激活功能支持了身心一体说, 从方法论上证明了身心二元论的缺陷, 为身心的整体观提供了神经生物学的证据; (3)镜像神经机制把他人的动作与自己的运动系统相匹配, 以自身动作的神经环路对他人的动作做出回应, 促进了人际理解和沟通, 成为社会沟通的“神经桥梁”。     

Conventions and Rules in Literature

Views of what role convention plays in the creation and appreciation of art works gravitate towards two extremes. One view holds that works of art can be apprehended and appreciated as well as created with no reference to convention. The other claims that conventions fully determine how works of art are apprehended and are therefore necessary conditions for the creation of works of art as well as constitutive of appreciation. The former is a version of the Romantic view of art as something that appeals spontaneously to man's most profound emotions, to man's sentient nature, without making use of or needing mediating conventions. The conventionalist view denies that it is possible to respond spontaneously to art. All apprehension and appreciation of art are structured by conventions, and the reader/audience cannot go beyond these conventions because they constitute , the experience of the work of art. This paper explains the sense in which the constitutive view may be best understood.     

Video installation as a creative means of representing temporality in visual data

This paper describes the use of video installation as a creative means of engaging audiences in visual research. A detailed image-based overview of the project, 1247 Days on Whymark Avenue, is also presented. This interactive video installation offered viewers a level of phenomenological immersion in the compressed temporality and asynchronous dialogue captured by this visual research project. This film is part of a larger research project on the longitudinal photo-documentation of urban life (Hansen & Flynn 2015a). The project uses repeat photography to study street art and graffiti as visual dialogue.     

示能性:基于镜像神经元视角的理解

示能性(affordance)概念解释了人的行为与物体功能之间互动、互补的关系。但是,有关示能性生理基础却很少被提及。镜像神经元的发现为示能性生理基础提供了可能的解释。文章根据研究将示能性分为结构示能性和功能示能性,探讨了不同示能性和镜像神经元之间的关系,并提出不同神经通路中的镜像神经元是示能性生理基础的结论。背-背侧分流中的镜像神经元是结构示能性的神经基础,而腹-背侧分流中的镜像神经元是功能示能性的神经基础。     

A one- and two-phased model of aimed movement with eye-hand incompatibility

Aimed movement is ubiquitous and has been extensively investigated. However, little research exists when the hand movements are incompatible with eye movements such as when viewing through a mirror or when performing laparoscopic surgery. An experiment was designed to investigate how individuals perform under one-dimensional and two-dimensional inversion with direct viewing as a reference condition. Twenty-four right-handed university students participated in this experiment and completed all aimed movements with a full-factorial design of movement amplitude at three levels and index of difficulty at 10-levels in three visual conditions of direct, viewing through a mirror (1D inversion) and observing through a right-angled mirror (2D inversion). Learning is rather rapid with direct viewing and with 1D inversion. However, participants take a longer time to stabilize their performance in the 2D inversion condition. Fitts' law is robust under all visual conditions. The eye-hand incompatibility increases movement time with 2D inversion taking the longest movement time. Movement time (MT) was split into initiation time (IT), distance covering time (DCT) and acquisition time (AT) based on submovements. The distance covering part is the first submovement that is primarily ballistic and covers around 90% or more of total amplitude. Furthermore, AT allows the aimed movement to be split into two phases: ballistic and visual control. The results show that the transition from ballistic to visual control happens at lower Index of difficulty (ID) values as the level of incompatibility increases. Based on the experiment and prior research, it is appropriate to use the model MT = a + b ID + c√A as it can account for the two phases of ballistic and visual control.     

Art as the Silence of the World. An Attempt at a Phenomenological Interpretation

This paper provides an analysis of the paradoxical definition of art as the silence of the world, as presented in Maurice Blanchot’s The Space of Literature. The definition is analysed phenomenologically, by treating the world as the universal horizon of all experiences. The paper presents two possible interpretations of Blanchot’s statement. First, a possibility is considered that, according to Blanchot, in genuine artistic experience the mundane everyday life falls silent, and an autonomous fictional world opens up. The paper argues that while Blanchot does oppose art to everyday life, this interpretation is insufficient. Firstly, because on the basis of the phenomenological premise, all possible worlds fall within the universal world-horizon, and secondly, the function Blanchot attributes to art is considerably more radical, as when he speaks about the directedness of art outside of all possible worlds. While such an aim may seem impossible from the viewpoint of the phenomenological premise, the second part of the paper demonstrates that it can indeed be meaningfully interpreted on the basis of Martin Heidegger’s transcendent approach to the world. According to this interpretation, while the phenomenological premise prevents all discussion of places and experiences outside the world, a liminal experience can nevertheless be discussed. If this is true, it is not an entity within the world which opens up, but rather the world-horizon itself in the form of an anxious silence.     

Toward an integrative approach of cognitive neuroscientific and evolutionary psychological studies of art

This paper examines explanations for human artistic behavior in two reductionist research programs, cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology. Despite their different methodological outlooks, both approaches converge on an explanation of art production and appreciation as byproducts of normal perceptual and motivational cognitive skills that evolved in response to problems originally not related to art, such as the discrimination of salient visual stimuli and speech sounds. The explanatory power of this reductionist framework does not obviate the need for higher-level accounts of art from the humanities, such as aesthetics, art history or anthropology of art.