Tag: action observation

  • Myth or reality: mirror neurons and music, part VII

    A few months ago I wrote several posts about the importance of mirror neurons in the study and performance of music.  Mirror neurons, as you recall, are the cells that fire both when we act and when we see someone else making the same action, and multiple studies have been conducted that specifically explore mirror neurons in musicians.…

  • Mirror neurons and music, part III: imitation learning

    Pianists seem to be used as research subjects more often than any other musicians – perhaps because there are so many of us, both amateur and professional. I once met a well-known singer who, upon finding out that I was a pianist, remarked that pianists “are a dime a dozen.”  Not the most gracious comment when…

  • Mirror neurons and music, part II: the discovery

    I know.  You’re waiting to hear about mirror neurons and music and we’ll get to that.  But the story of the discovery of mirror neurons is really too good to pass up because it was one of those serendipitous discoveries that has sometimes happened in the history of science.  Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin is probably the best-known,…