Editing Hebbian theory (section)

==Hebbian learning and mirror neurons==
Hebbian learning and spike-timing-dependent plasticity have been used in an influential theory of how [[mirror neuron]]s emerge.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Keysers C|author2=Perrett DI|title=Demystifying social cognition: a Hebbian perspective|journal=Trends in Cognitive Sciences|date=2004|volume=8|issue=11|pages=501–507|doi=10.1016/j.tics.2004.09.005|pmid=15491904|s2cid=8039741}}</ref><ref name=":0">Keysers, C. (2011). ''The Empathic Brain''.</ref> Mirror neurons are neurons that fire both when an individual performs an action and when the individual sees or hears another perform a similar action.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Gallese V |author2=Fadiga L |author3=Fogassi L |author4=Rizzolatti G |date=1996 |title=Action recognition in the premotor cortex |journal=Brain |volume=119 |issue=Pt 2 |pages=593–609 |doi=10.1093/brain/119.2.593 |pmid=8800951 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author1=Keysers C |author2=Kohler E |author3=Umilta MA |author4=Nanetti L |author5=Fogassi L |author6=Gallese V |date=2003 |title=Audiovisual mirror neurons and action recognition |journal=Exp Brain Res |volume=153 |issue=4 |pages=628–636 |citeseerx=10.1.1.387.3307 |doi=10.1007/s00221-003-1603-5 |pmid=12937876 |s2cid=7704309}}</ref> The discovery of these neurons has been very influential in explaining how individuals make sense of the actions of others, since when a person perceives the actions of others, motor programs in the person's brain which they would use to perform similar actions are activated, which add information to the perception and help to predict what the person will do next based on the perceiver's own motor program. One limitation of this idea of mirror neuron functions is explaining how individuals develop neurons that respond both while performing an action and while hearing or seeing another perform similar actions.

Neuroscientist [[Christian Keysers]] and psychologist [[David Perrett]] suggested that observing or hearing an individual perform an action activates brain regions as if performing the action oneself.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kohler |first1=Evelyne |last2=Keysers |first2=Christian |last3=Umiltà |first3=M. Alessandra |last4=Fogassi |first4=Leonardo |last5=Gallese |first5=Vittorio |last6=Rizzolatti |first6=Giacomo |date=2002-08-02 |title=Hearing Sounds, Understanding Actions: Action Representation in Mirror Neurons |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1070311 |journal=Science |volume=297 |issue=5582 |pages=846–848 |doi=10.1126/science.1070311|pmid=12161656 |bibcode=2002Sci...297..846K |url-access=subscription }}</ref> These re-afferent sensory signals trigger activity in neurons responding to the sight, sound, and feel of the action. Because the activity of these sensory neurons will consistently overlap in time with those of the motor neurons that caused the action, Hebbian learning predicts that the synapses connecting neurons responding to the sight, sound, and feel of an action and those of the neurons triggering the action should be potentiated. The same is true while people look at themselves in the mirror, hear themselves babble, or are imitated by others. After repeated occurrences of this re-afference, the synapses connecting the sensory and motor representations of an action are so strong that the motor neurons start firing to the sound or the vision of the action, and a mirror neuron is created.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hebbian learning and predictive mirror neurons for actions, sensations and emotions |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261956809 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20231206173100/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261956809_Hebbian_learning_and_predictive_mirror_neurons_for_actions_sensations_and_emotions |archive-date=2023-12-06 |access-date=2025-04-13 |website=ResearchGate |language=en}}</ref>

Numerous experiments provide evidence for the idea that Hebbian learning is crucial to the formation of mirror neurons. Evidence reveals that motor programs can be triggered by novel auditory or visual stimuli after repeated pairing of the stimulus with the execution of the motor program.<ref name=":1" /> For instance, people who have never played the piano do not activate brain regions involved in playing the piano when listening to piano music. Five hours of piano lessons, in which the participant is exposed to the sound of the piano each time they press a key is proven sufficient to trigger activity in motor regions of the brain upon listening to piano music when heard at a later time.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal|author1=Lahav A|author2=Saltzman E|author3=Schlaug G|title=Action representation of sound: audiomotor recognition network while listening to newly acquired actions|journal=J Neurosci|date=2007|volume=27|issue=2|pages=308–314|doi=10.1523/jneurosci.4822-06.2007|pmid=17215391|pmc=6672064}}</ref> Consistent with the fact that spike-timing-dependent plasticity occurs only if the presynaptic neuron's firing predicts the post-synaptic neuron's firing,<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Bauer EP|author2=LeDoux JE|author3=Nader K|title=Fear conditioning and LTP in the lateral amygdala are sensitive to the same stimulus contingencies|journal=Nat Neurosci|date=2001|volume=4|issue=7|pages=687–688|doi=10.1038/89465|pmid=11426221|s2cid=33130204}}</ref> the link between sensory stimuli and motor programs also only seem to be potentiated if the stimulus is contingent on the motor program.