# Project II: Developmental functions of the Mirror Neuron System

> **NIH NIH P01** · UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK · 2020 · $247,498

## Abstract

Project II- Project Summary
The mirror neuron system (MNS) has been hypothesized to broadly influence social cognitive development,
but research has just begun to evaluate the nature and significance of these effects early in life. The proposed
work in Project II seeks to elucidate the learning mechanisms that support early motor learning and social
perception as well as the broader role that the MNS may play in supporting social-cognitive development.
These issues are addressed in three aims, each of which involves recruiting behavioral data as well as
electroencephalogram (EEG) measures of MNS function supported by Core B: Aim 1: Investigate the neural
correlates and behavioral consequences of action learning in infants. Our prior results suggest that the
MNS is plastic during early development, changing as a function of long-term motor experience, and that this
plasticity may involve both long-term and short-term learning effects. Aim 1 investigates the neural and
behavioral correlates of short- and long-term action training in order to shed light on how the processes
involved in the initial stages of action learning relate to those that emerge with longer-term expertise as well as
the behavioral functional significance of MNS activity at each timescale. Aim 2. Investigate the role of the
MNS in supporting infants’ social interactive competence. A foundational set of social abilities emerges in
the second year, including imitative learning, helping, and communicative skill, and these skills require rapid
responses to others’ goal-directed actions. Research with adults has shown that the MNS supports rapid
responses to others’ actions, raising the possibility that this may also occur during early development. To
investigate this possibility Aim 2 will investigate the effects of action priming on infants’ imitation, helping, and
communicative behavior, as well as the neural correlates of these social behaviors. Aim 3. Investigate
longitudinal relations between early MNS activity and later social abilities. As yet, the longer-term
developmental implications of MNS activity have not been studied in human infants. In Aim 3, we will follow
infants longitudinally from 12 to 30 months, assessing individual variation in early MNS activity as a predictor of
later-emerging social skills. Across these three aims, we will consider the role that the social context may play
in modulating the MNS and the functions it supports. Most research to date has focused on the effects of motor
experience. However, emerging evidence suggests that social experience may also be an important modulator
of the MNS. Social interventions, and measures of social interaction with caretakers, will be used to evaluate
the potential effects of social experience on the MNS and the social-cognitive functions it may support.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9997958
- **Project number:** 5P01HD064653-10
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK
- **Principal Investigator:** AMANDA L WOODWARD
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $247,498
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2010-09-10 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9997958

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9997958, Project II: Developmental functions of the Mirror Neuron System (5P01HD064653-10). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9997958. Licensed CC0.

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