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A second-person approach to other minds

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 11, page 449 (2010)Cite this article

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In a recent Review (The functional role of the parieto-frontal mirror circuit: interpretations and misinterpretations. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 11, 264–274 (2010))1, Rizzolatti and Sinigaglia examine the role of the parieto-frontal cortex in action observation and action execution in monkeys and humans. They suggest that its functional relevance for cognition results from a 'mirror mechanism' that allows individuals to understand the actions of another individual by giving the observer a 'first-person grasp' of the motor goals and intentions of the other.

Although the Review seems to be well balanced by considering many of the recent arguments put forward against this simulationist interpretation of the evidence and by recognizing the relevance of other mechanisms2, it fails to make reference to the enactive account of cognition, which stresses that cognition is achieved by an animal's active exploration of and coupling with its environment3. This seems to be most relevant, as an extension of this account to the social ___domain suggests that social cognition is fundamentally different when an individual is actively and directly interacting with others. In such cases, an individual adopts a 'second-person perspective' in which interaction with the other can be thought of as essential or even constitutive for social cognition, rather than merely observing others and relying on a 'first- (or third-) person grasp' of their mental states4,5,6.

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  1. Department of Psychiatry, Leonhard Schilbach is at the Functional Imaging Laboratory, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. [email protected],

    Leonhard Schilbach

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Schilbach, L. A second-person approach to other minds. Nat Rev Neurosci 11, 449 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2805-c1

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