Why do we yawn when we see someone else do it? The origin of our mimicry

Have you ever noticed that you sometimes mimic the speech or facial expressions of your conversational partner? Imitation is a ubiquitous human behavior that plays a key role in our social interactions. Understanding the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon could offer innovative therapeutic perspectives. A team of researchers from the University of Bologna has recently shed light on these mechanisms by studying how certain brain regions regulate this automatic imitation.


The researchers employed an advanced technique of non-invasive brain stimulation called "paired associative cortico-cortical stimulation" (ccPAS) to explore brain plasticity. This method allowed them to target precisely the neuronal connections between different regions of the motor cortex. Their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), reveals that the connectivity between specific brain regions, particularly the ventral premotor cortex (PMv) and the primary motor cortex (M1), plays a crucial role in the tendency to automatically imitate behaviors observed in others.

To conduct this study, the team recruited 80 healthy participants, divided into four distinct groups. Each group underwent a different stimulation protocol, followed by two behavioral tasks: a voluntary imitation task and an automatic imitation task. The results demonstrated that strengthening the connectivity between the PMv and the M1 increased the propensity for automatic imitation, while weakening it produced the opposite effect. Additionally, another brain region, the supplementary motor area (SMA), appears to play a role in cognitive control by modulating this imitation according to the context.

Sonia Turrini, co-author of the study, explains that these findings offer new perspectives for understanding how brain plasticity can be manipulated to influence imitative behavior. Alessio Avenanti, the principal researcher, adds that this could pave the way for therapeutic applications aimed at enhancing cognitive performance in patients with neurological disorders or social dysfunctions. By modulating automatic imitation, it could be possible to reduce interferences in situations requiring increased concentration.

This scientific advancement, by illuminating the specific neural circuits involved in imitation, marks an important step in understanding social interactions and opens promising prospects for the treatment of various cognitive and social disorders.