The human mirror neuron system—A common neural basis for social cognition?

According to the theory of embodied simulation, mirror neurons (MN) in our brain's motor system are the neuronal basis of all social‐cognitive processes. The assumption of such a mirroring process in humans could be supported by results showing that within one person the same region is involved in different social cognition tasks. We conducted an fMRI‐study with 75 healthy participants who completed three tasks: imitation, empathy, and theory of mind. We analyzed the data using group conjunction analyses and individual shared voxel counts. Across tasks, across and within participants, we find common activation in inferior frontal gyrus, inferior parietal cortex, fusiform gyrus, posterior superior temporal sulcus, and amygdala. Our results provide evidence for a shared neural basis for different social‐cognitive processes, indicating that interpersonal understanding might occur by embodied simulation. This is the first study showing a common neural basis for the different social cognitive processes: Imitation, Empathy, and Theory of Mind. Across and within participants, we find common activation in regions of the human mirror neuron system across social‐cognitive tasks. Our results indicate a simulation mechanism in humans, independent of the specific social‐cognitive task, suggesting embodied simulation at the heart of social cognition.