Editing Mirror neuron (section)

===Language===
In humans, functional MRI studies have reported finding areas homologous to the monkey mirror neuron system in the inferior frontal cortex, close to Broca's area, one of the hypothesized language regions of the brain. This has led to suggestions that human language evolved from a gesture performance/understanding system implemented in mirror neurons. Mirror neurons have been said to have the potential to provide a mechanism for action-understanding, imitation-learning, and the simulation of other people's behaviour.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Skoyles JR | author-link1 = John Skoyles (scientist) | title = Gesture, language origins, and right handedness. | journal = Psycoloquy | date = 2000 | volume = 11 | issue = 24 | url = https://courses.washington.edu/lingclas/200/Lectures/Biol/Psycoloquy_2000_Gesture,_language_and_right_handedness.pdf }}</ref> This hypothesis is supported by some [[Cytoarchitectonics|cytoarchitectonic]] homologies between monkey premotor area F5 and human Broca's area.<ref name="pmid15988526">{{cite journal | vauthors = Petrides M, Cadoret G, Mackey S | title = Orofacial somatomotor responses in the macaque monkey homologue of Broca's area | journal = Nature | volume = 435 | issue = 7046 | pages = 1235–1238 | date = June 2005 | pmid = 15988526 | doi = 10.1038/nature03628 | bibcode = 2005Natur.435.1235P | s2cid = 4397762 }}</ref> Rates of [[vocabulary]] expansion link to the ability of [[children]] to vocally mirror non-words and so to acquire the new word pronunciations. Such [[speech repetition]] occurs automatically, fast<ref name="Porter">{{cite journal | vauthors = Porter RJ, Lubker JF | title = Rapid reproduction of vowel-vowel sequences: evidence for a fast and direct acoustic-motoric linkage in speech | journal = Journal of Speech and Hearing Research | volume = 23 | issue = 3 | pages = 593–602 | date = September 1980 | pmid = 7421161 | doi = 10.1044/jshr.2303.593 }}</ref> and separately in the brain to [[speech perception]].<ref name="McCarthy">{{cite journal | vauthors = McCarthy R, Warrington EK | title = A two-route model of speech production. Evidence from aphasia | journal = Brain | volume = 107 | issue = 2 | pages = 463–485 | date = June 1984 | pmid = 6722512 | doi = 10.1093/brain/107.2.463 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref name="McCarthy2">{{cite journal | vauthors = McCarthy RA, Warrington EK | title = Repeating without semantics: surface dysphasia? | journal = Neurocase | volume = 7 | issue = 1 | pages = 77–87 | year = 2001 | pmid = 11239078 | doi = 10.1093/neucas/7.1.77 | s2cid = 12988855 }}</ref> Moreover, such vocal imitation can occur without comprehension such as in [[speech shadowing]]<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Marslen-Wilson W | title = Linguistic structure and speech shadowing at very short latencies | journal = Nature | volume = 244 | issue = 5417 | pages = 522–523 | date = August 1973 | pmid = 4621131 | doi = 10.1038/244522a0 | s2cid = 4220775 | bibcode = 1973Natur.244..522M }}</ref> and [[echolalia]].<ref>
{{cite journal | vauthors = Fay WH, Coleman RO | title = A human sound transducer/reproducer: temporal capabilities of a profoundly echolalic child | journal = Brain and Language | volume = 4 | issue = 3 | pages = 396–402 | date = July 1977 | pmid = 907878 | doi = 10.1016/0093-934X(77)90034-7 | s2cid = 29492873 }}</ref>

Further evidence for this link comes from a recent study in which the brain activity of two participants was measured using fMRI while they were gesturing words to each other using hand gestures with a game of [[charades]] – a modality that some have suggested might represent the evolutionary precursor of human language. Analysis of the data using [[Granger Causality]] revealed that the mirror-neuron system of the observer indeed reflects the pattern of activity in the motor system of the sender, supporting the idea that the motor concept associated with the words is indeed transmitted from one brain to another using the mirror system<ref name="Schippers">{{cite journal | vauthors = Schippers MB, Roebroeck A, Renken R, Nanetti L, Keysers C | title = Mapping the information flow from one brain to another during gestural communication | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | volume = 107 | issue = 20 | pages = 9388–9393 | date = May 2010 | pmid = 20439736 | pmc = 2889063 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.1001791107 | doi-access = free | bibcode = 2010PNAS..107.9388S }}</ref>

The mirror neuron system seems to be inherently inadequate to play any role in [[syntax]], given that this definitory property of human languages which is implemented in hierarchical recursive structure is flattened into linear sequences of phonemes making the recursive structure not accessible to sensory detection<ref>{{cite book |url=http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11488 |title=The Boundaries of Babel. The Brain and the Enigma of Impossible Languages | vauthors = Moro A |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-262-13498-9 |pages=257}}</ref>