Cover -- Half-title -- Series-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Contributors -- Acknowledgments -- An introduction to the imitative mind and brain -- Introduction -- Scope -- Contexts -- Issues -- How are actions perceived? -- How can similarity be effective between perception and action? -- Approaches -- Sensorimotor views -- Cognitive views -- Overview of the volume -- References -- Part I Developmental and evolutionary approaches to imitation -- 1 Elements of a developmental theory of imitation -- Information in an imitative act -- Mirror neurons and development -- Imitation and experience -- Facial imitation: innate observation-execution links -- AIM mechanism -- Imitation and identity: the uses of infant imitation -- Speech perception and production -- Mapping sound to sight -- Mapping sound to production:vocal imitation -- Speech as a supramodal representation -- Object imitation and memory -- Memory without language -- Roots of theory of mind and intersubjectivity -- Goals and intentions -- People versus things -- Grounding a theory of mind -- Concluding remarks on the importance of imitation in human development -- Imitation and cross-modal coordination -- Imitation and memory -- Imitation as a precursor to theory of mind -- Innate structure combined with developmental change -- Acknowledgements -- Note -- References -- 2 Imitation and imitation recognition: Functional use in preverbal infants and nonverbal children with autism -- Introduction -- Two options in developmental studies: search for precursors or search for adaptive behaviors -- Imitation and the developing child -- Preverbal children use imitation to communicate -- The imitative language and the developing mind -- The imitative language: a functional achievement of the "like-me mechanism"? -- Early detection of nonimitative and imitative contingency.

Specific responses signaling imitation recognition -- Imitation in low-functioning children with autism -- Implicit and explicit recognition of being imitated in low-functioning children with autism -- The imitative language: intentional primitives -- Final comments -- Imitation as a language: a developmental role for a transitory function? -- Note -- References -- 3 Self-awareness, other-awareness, and secondary representation -- Synchronic imitation and secondary representation -- Mirror self-recognition and secondary representation -- The main hypothesis -- Evidence for the hypothesis in the literature -- Two empirical tests of the synchrony hypothesis -- Recent related studies -- Conclusion -- References -- 4 Notes on individual differences and the assumed elusiveness of neonatal imitation -- Where to start -- Function -- Remaining issue: Individual differences -- Short-term stability -- Long-term stability -- Imitation and temperament -- Imitation and the early relationship -- Deferred imitation -- Putting it all together -- Acknowledgements -- References -- 5 Ego function of early imitation -- Mirrors as perfect imitators -- Action repetition and self-exploration -- Putative determinants of early self-objectification -- Functional pleasure of self-produced action -- Unique perceptual experience gained from self-produced action -- Postural immaturity as a constraint toward action repetition -- Contemplative stance arising from repeated actions -- Summary and conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 6 The imitator's representation of the imitated: Ape and child -- The imitation we are studying -- The methodological approach: Ethology and experimentation -- Imitating the shape and sequencing of actions -- Imitation of hierarchical structure -- Identifying imitation of hierarchical structure: Experimental rationale -- The Study.

Imitation relative to self -- Non-visual feedback: Chimpanzee Do-as-I-do ("DAID") experiments -- Visual feedback: difficulties in autistic children -- General discussion -- Types of Imitation -- Powerful methods -- The imitator's representation of the imitated -- The integration of imitative and nonimitative information -- Note -- Acknowledgements -- References -- 7 Seeing actions as hierarchically organized structures: Great ape manual skills -- Great ape manual skills -- Program-level imitation -- Understanding structure by watching fluid action -- Concluding thoughts -- Notes -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Part II Cognitive approaches to imitation, body scheme, and perception-action coding -- 8 Experimental approaches to imitation -- Framework -- Nineteenth century: Lotze and James on ideomotor action -- Twentieth century: Greenwald on ideomotor compatibility -- Experimental investigations -- Movement reproduction -- Movement selection -- Movement initiation -- Movement production -- Conclusions -- References -- 9 Imitation: Common mechanisms in the observation and execution of finger and mouth movements -- Introduction -- The transformation problem of imitation: How can we do what we see? -- Common neurocognitive mechanisms for perception and action -- Recent experimental findings of common perception-action mechanisms in imitation -- Evidence from stimulus-response compatibility paradigms -- Comparing symbolic, spatial, and imitative finger cues -- Matching observed and to-be-executed mouth movements -- Concluding remarks -- Summary -- Theoretical aspects of a direct matching system -- Limitations of a direct matching system -- Notes -- Acknowledgements -- References -- 10 Goal-directed imitation -- Perceiving and inferring goals in imitation -- Distinguishing goals from outcomes -- Goal-directed gestural imitation -- The hand-to-ear task.

The goal-directed view -- Testing the goal-directed view -- Testing alternative hypotheses -- Flexibility, goals, and imitation -- Objects in imitation and action -- Goal hierarchies and goal competition -- Goals as mental states -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 11 Visuomotor couplings in object-oriented and imitative actions -- Introduction -- Actions and parameters -- From object-guided to model-guided actions -- Visuomotor couplings in action perception and imitation -- Neurophysiology of action observation -- Neurophysiology of action imitation -- Neuropsychology of imitation -- Behavioral evidence -- Concluding remarks -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 12 On bodies and events -- Structure of categories -- Defining features or family resemblance? -- Typicality -- Basic level -- Part structure and the basic level -- Qualities of different kinds of categories -- Bodies and events -- Bodies -- Body-part verification times -- Events -- Implications for imitation -- Interweaving categories: objects, bodies, events, and scenes -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 13 What is the body schema? -- What is the body schema? -- Neurological evidence for body-specific representations -- Sensory contributions to body representations -- Are body representations different from other object representations? -- Contributions of body representations to perception and behavior -- Conclusions -- References -- Part III Neuroscience underpinnings of imitation and apraxia -- 14 From mirror neurons to imitation: Facts and speculations -- Introduction -- Functional properties of area F5 -- Motor properties -- Visual properties -- Mirror neurons -- Resonance mechanisms -- Low-level resonance mechanism and response facilitation -- High-level resonance mechanism, emulation, and "true imitation" -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- References.

15 Cell populations in the banks of the superior temporal sulcus of the macaque and imitation -- Introduction -- Response properties of STSa cells tuned to the analysis of actions: examples of viewer-centered coding -- Limb movements -- Examples of object-centered coding for actions -- Object-centered coding for the articulation of a part of the body -- Object-centered coding for whole-body articulations -- Goal-related coding for actions -- From the perception of actions to the production of actions -- References -- 16 Is there such a thing as functional equivalence between imagined, observed, and executed action? -- What do we mean by action? -- Behavioral evidence for perception of actions -- Neurophysiological evidence for perception of actions -- Behavioral evidence for mental simulation of actions -- Neurophysiological evidence for perception of actions -- Behavioral evidence for mental simulation of actions -- Neurophysiological evidence for mental simulation of actions -- Discussion -- Conclusion -- References -- 17 The role of imitation in body ownership and mental growth -- Attention -- Neuropsychology of imitation -- Self-imitation -- Development -- Action coding of percepts -- Infant imitation -- Imitation as uninhibited perception -- Body ownership -- Unilateral neglect -- Distortions of body sensation -- Emerging sense of body ownership -- Rhythms and social behavior -- Concluding remarks -- References -- 18 Imitation, apraxia, and hemisphere dominance -- Introduction -- Apraxia and motor execution -- Kinematic analysis of imitation -- Kinematics of prehension movements in LBD and RBD -- Visuo-imitative apraxia -- A direct route for imitation -- Imitation and conceptual knowledge about the human body -- Imitation of hand and finger postures -- Matching and imitation of hand and finger postures -- The human body as a mechanical device.

Conclusion.