Is simulation a good way for communicating?
Marc Jeannerod Nov 20, 2004 11:23 UT I have two points of disagreement with Vittorio Gallese paper. 1. Is motor cognition a weak form of social cognition? My answer to this question is no. The central argument for the theory that motor cognition could be a gate to social cognition is that the simulation of a motor intention (that which accounts for a single observable movement, and which can be decoded by mirror neurons) could provide cues to understanding the more complex intention carrying an action with a social significance, of which the single movement is a part. The problem is that there is no univocal relationship between a motor intention and the more complex intention. On the one hand, the same motor intention can be embedded into several different complex intentions or actions. On the other hand, the same complex intention can take many different ways to achieve its goal (the concept of motor equivalence). Decoding a motor intention or the corresponding movement thus cannot g
