IMITATION CIRCUITS   [ back to What's New ]
Brain mapper Marco Iacoboni at UCLA announced on 5/18/00 that using functional MRI scanning he had isolated the human brain's "imitation circuits" in the left posterior frontal lobe (Broca's area where the commands for muscle movement of the mouth, lips and tongue are given for articulate speech) and the right parietal lobe (where sensory data are integrated with precise muscle movements of the body in space in response to perceptions). This makes sense, because imitation is at the root of learning any human language and learning motor skills like hitting a golf ball.