Monkey see, monkey do: How do we understand the actions of others?

Humans observe other individuals quite extensively in everyday life. Action observation informs us about the role of other people in our environment and allows us to make predictions which will guide our own behavioral output. But how does the brain process observed actions? To answer this question we will take advantage of the single cell recording method that provides information of high temporal resolution about the signals carried by neurons and is the most suitable technique to bring information on how high level functions are accomplished by the primate brain. The activity of single neurons will be recorded from the premotor areas F5 and F2 of trained macaque monkeys that will either perform themselves or observe the experimenter executing reaching-to-grasp movements.