Functions and Development of the Mirror Neuron System

镜像神经元系统的功能和发展

• 批准号: 8139034
• 负责人: AMANDA L WOODWARD
• 金额: $ 107.24万
• 依托单位: UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-10 至 2015-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8139034
• 关键词: Functions; Development; Mirror; Neuron; System

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Two fundamental abilities are central to adaptive human functioning and human development: the ability to deploy actions strategically in service of goals and the ability to apprehend the goals of social partners in order to produce appropriate social responses. Recent neuroscientific findings indicate that these foundational capacities are intimately related: A neural network known as the mirror neuron system (MNS) responds both when we perform an action and when we observe someone else perform that action. These findings hold the potential to revolutionize scientific understanding of the ontogeny of goal-directed action and social-cognitive functioning. However, progress in realizing this potential has been held back by the lack of neural measures of MNS activity in infants, a lack of integrated measures of social-cognitive functions in infants, and the need to develop models of MNS dynamics during development. The Program Project proposed here addresses these needs: Project I will develop EEG methods for assessing MNS activity in human infants, children, and adults as well as infant and adult monkeys. These methods will provide a unified methodological core for the remaining projects. Projects II & III will investigate the social-cognitive functions of the MNS in human infants and infant and adult monkeys, integrating measures of social cognitive functioning with the neural measures developed in Project 1. Project IV will develop a neurocomputational model of the developing MNS, integrating data across all projects. Administrative Core A will provide budgetary and logistical support for each project, provide participant recruitment (Project I, II, IV), and support integrative and outreach activities. EEG/Computational Core B will provide facilities and expertise to support the deployment of the methods developed in Project I across the other projects. This large-scale collaboration emerges from ongoing collaborative work across these laboratories that has laid the groundwork and developed initial methods for taking the program to the next level. The products of this work will provide critical new insights into the development of foundational human capacities as well as innovative new tools, approaches and insights for broader developmental, comparative, and clinical research.

描述（由申请人提供）：两个基本能力对于自适应人类功能和人类发展是至关重要的：能够以战略性地部署行动以服务目标的能力以及逮捕社会伙伴的目标以产生适当的社会反应的能力。最近的神经科学发现表明，这些基础能力是密切相关的：一种称为镜像神经元系统（MN）的神经网络在我们执行动作时既反应又反应，并且当我们观察到其他人执行该动作时。这些发现具有彻底改变目标指导行动和社会认知功能的科学理解的潜力。但是，由于缺乏婴儿的MNS活性，缺乏对婴儿的社会认知功能的综合度量以及在发育过程中开发MNS动态模型的需求，因此实现这种潜力的进展已经阻碍了。此处提出的计划项目解决了这些需求：我将开发脑电图方法，以评估人类婴儿，儿童和成人以及婴儿和成人猴子的MNS活动。这些方法将为其余项目提供统一的方法论核心。项目II＆III将调查MN在人类和婴儿和成人猴子中的社会认知功能，将社会认知功能的度量与项目1的神经测量相结合。项目IV将开发出发育中MNS的神经计算模型，并在所有项目中整合数据。行政核心A将为每个项目提供预算和后勤支持，提供参与者招聘（项目I，II，IV），并支持综合和外展活动。脑电图/计算核心B将提供设施和专业知识，以支持其他项目I项目中开发的方法的部署。这种大规模的合作来自这些实验室的持续合作工作，这些实验室奠定了基础，并开发了将该计划提升到一个新的水平的初始方法。这项工作的产品将为基础人类能力的发展以及创新的新工具，方法和见解提供关键的新见解，以提供更广泛的发展，比较和临床研究。