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The Journal of Neuroscience, August 12, 2009, 29(32):10153-10159; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2668-09.2009

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Evidence of Mirror Neurons in Human Inferior Frontal Gyrus

James M. Kilner,¹ Alice Neal,¹ Nikolaus Weiskopf,¹ Karl J. Friston,¹ and Chris D. Frith^1,2

¹The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, UCL, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom, and ²Niels Bohr Project "Interacting Minds," Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, University of Aarhus, 8000 Århus, Denmark

Correspondence should be addressed to James M. Kilner, The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, UCL, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK. Email: j.kilner{at}fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk

There is much current debate about the existence of mirror neurons in humans. To identify mirror neurons in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) of humans, we used a repetition suppression paradigm while measuring neural activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subjects either executed or observed a series of actions. Here we show that in the IFG, responses were suppressed both when an executed action was followed by the same rather than a different observed action and when an observed action was followed by the same rather than a different executed action. This pattern of responses is consistent with that predicted by mirror neurons and is evidence of mirror neurons in the human IFG.

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Received May 27, 2009; revised July 7, 2009; accepted July 8, 2009.

Correspondence should be addressed to James M. Kilner, The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, UCL, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK. Email: j.kilner{at}fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk

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