Editing Mirror neuron (section)

=== Understanding intentions ===
Many studies link mirror neurons to understanding goals and intentions. Fogassi et al. (2005)<ref name="pmid15860620" /> recorded the activity of 41 mirror neurons in the inferior parietal lobe (IPL) of two rhesus macaques. The IPL has long been recognized as an association cortex that integrates sensory information. The monkeys watched an experimenter either grasp an apple and bring it to his mouth or grasp an object and place it in a cup.
* In total, 15 mirror neurons fired vigorously when the monkey observed the "grasp-to-eat" motion, but registered no activity while exposed to the "grasp-to-place" condition.
* For 4 other mirror neurons, the reverse held true: they activated in response to the experimenter eventually placing the apple in the cup but not to eating it.

Only the type of action, and not the kinematic force with which models manipulated objects, determined neuron activity. It was also significant that neurons fired before the monkey observed the human model starting the second motor act (bringing the object to the mouth or placing it in a cup). Therefore, IPL neurons "code the same act (grasping) in a different way according to the final goal of the action in which the act is embedded."<ref name="pmid15860620"/> They may furnish a neural basis for predicting another individual's subsequent actions and inferring intention.<ref name="pmid15860620"/>

Understanding intention can be broken down into various stages such as body perception and action identification. These stages correlate with various regions of the brain, for example for body parts/shapes match with the extrastriate and fusiform body areas of the brain. The action itself is identified and facilitated by the mirror neuron system.<ref> author = Huang, L, Du, F, Huang, W, Ren, H, Qiu, W, Zhang, J, & Wang, Y | title = Three-stage dynamic brain-cognitive model of understanding action intention displayed by human body movements | journal = Brain Topography | date = 2024 | doi = 10.1007/s10548-024-01061-3</ref> Action understanding falls into two different processing levels, the mirror neuron system and the mentalizing system. Expected actions are primarily processed by the mirror neuron system and unexpected actions are processed by a combination of the mirror neuron system and the mentalizing system.<ref> author = Mou, H Liu, L, Zhou, T< Yan, Z, & Wang< Y | title = Action expectancy modulates activity in the mirror neuron system and mentalizing system | journal = Neuroimage | year = 2024 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120876</ref>