Morena Mari

Papers

Total Citations

250

H-Index

About

Morena Mari is a leading researcher in developmental cognitive neuroscience, with a focus on the mechanisms underlying action perception, imitation, and social cognition, particularly in autism spectrum disorder. Her groundbreaking work investigates how the human brain processes and mirrors the movements of others, bridging the gap between biological and artificial agents. In her highly influential 2007 study (168 citations), Mari demonstrated that children with autism exhibit visuomotor priming in response to robotic movement, challenging assumptions about their capacity for motor resonance. Her earlier 2002 paper (82 citations) provided foundational evidence that observing a human hand grasping an object triggers stronger motor priming effects than observing a robotic hand, revealing the specificity of our action-perception coupling. These contributions have profound implications for understanding the mirror neuron system and for designing interventions that use robotic systems to support social skill development in autism. Mari’s work is celebrated for its elegant experimental design and its impact on both theoretical models of imitation and practical applications in assistive technology.