EndocrinologyNeuropsychological Perspectives On The Mechanisms Of Imitation
For over a century neurologists and psychologists have investigated how the human brain processes and controls the imitation of gestures, and looked for differences depending on whether the gestures were meaningful, such as grabbing an object, or meaningless, on the goal of the action, and on the body part used.
Recent neuropsychological findings both in healthy subjects and brain-damaged patients have suggested various cognitive explanations, reviewed here.
The most influential are the so-called "dual-route models": they suggest a default or direct route, and a more complex one associated with meaning, and they are supported by accounts that relate the imitation deficit to putative degraded body representations.
Royal Society Journal