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Science 29 April 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5722, pp. 644 - 645
DOI: 10.1126/science.1112174
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Perspectives

NEUROSCIENCE:
Understanding Intentions: Through the Looking Glass

Kiyoshi Nakahara and Yasushi Miyashita

A class of neurons in the brain called "mirror neurons" may be crucial for understanding motor actions. Mirror neurons are activated not only during the execution of a particular action, but also during observation of that action carried out by someone else. In their Perspective, Nakahara and Miyashita discuss a new study in monkeys (Fogassi et al.) suggesting that mirror neurons also are able to encode the intention of a particular action as well as the action itself and observation of the action.

The authors are in the Department of Physiology, University of Tokyo School of Medicine, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. E-mail: nakahara{at}m.u-tokyo.ac.jp; yasushi_miyashita{at}m.u-tokyo.ac.jp

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)