Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
8.7 WHERE IN THE BRAIN?
The feedback loop in the brain is a clear example of a modern process,
almost fully executed by the modern brain. The stages from the first
idea to the final evaluation are organized in a structured way, one next
to the other, from the prefrontal cortex to halfway, to the parietal cor-
tex. There are also many small feedback loops per stage, each of which
gives feedback to the previous stage.
There is no fixed location of the mirror system. Actually, the brain has
several areas with mirror systems, each located at the spot of the original
function. The most important ones are located on the back of the parietal
cortex, in the evaluation area. But as you can see there are many more
areas, like the one on top of the frontal cortex involved in the planning of
motor behavior, helping us to act synchronously. The so-called putative
mirror neuron system (pMNS) consists of the premotor area at the top of
the frontal cortex, the somatosensory cortex, the anterior inferior parietal
lobule and the midtemporal gyrus (Schippers et al., 2010). The mirror sys-
tems in the prefrontal area help us to guess thoughts from others and to
plan the same things (Kokal, Gazzola, & Keysers, 2009).
