LANGUAGE WITHIN OUR GRASP

In monkeys, the rostral part of ventral premotor cortex (area F5) cont ains neurons that discharge, both when the monkey grasps or manipulate s objects and when it observes the experimenter making similar actions . These neurons (mirror neurons) appear to represent a system that mat ches observed events to similar, internally generated actions, and in this way forms a link between the observer and the actor. Transcranial magnetic stimulation and positron emission tomography (PET) experimen ts suggest that a mirror system for gesture recognition also exists in humans and includes Broca's area. We propose here that such an observ ation/execution matching system provides a necessary bridge from 'doin g' to 'communicating', as the link between actor and observer becomes a link between the sender and the receiver of each message.