The role of temporal variance in motions for the emergence of mirror neurons systems

Abstract

The mirror neuron systems (MNS) allow us to project other's motions into our own brain's motor space. However, how the MNS develop remains not fully unraveled. Yet, making robots that acquire a mirroring property is crucial in order to allow them to efficiently cooperate with humans. Inspired by behavioral and computational studies on the MNS, we hypothesize that variances in motions would facilitate their emergence. Experiments showed that human-like motions, which means with variances in motions, lead to stronger connections between robot's motor commands and other's motions (i.e., MNS). It demonstrates the importance of variances in motions for the development of cognitive functions.