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Humans are unique in our ability to learn from one another. But did evolution hard-wire imitation into our genes or do we learn from others how to learn from others? A thread 
Some argue humans are 'homo imitans', with inherited brain systems to translate the actions of others into behaviours we can perform.
Scientists discovered 'mirror neurons' - cells in premotor & parietal cortex that fire both when the monkey performs an action & when it sees the same action performed by someone else. This 'common coding' mechanism could convert 'seen actions' into actions we can perform.
This discovery led to grand claims about the importance of mirror neurons (MNs) in human evolutionary history- including that they were 'the neurons that shaped civilisation'. But were MNs really shaped by natural selection to help us interact with others? https://www.ted.com/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_the_neurons_that_shaped_civilization?language=en
An influential theory defended by @CeliaHeyes & colleagues challenged the consensus that mirror neurons & imitation are 'hardwired' into our genes. They suggest that mirror mechanisms are built through learning & experience (See this @BBSJournal paper
) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/mirror-neurons-from-origin-to-function/A376CF4E7269CADFCD9D563A39ADEDC0
) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/mirror-neurons-from-origin-to-function/A376CF4E7269CADFCD9D563A39ADEDC0
On this view, we get mirror neurons because visual and motor units that "fire together wire together". Correlated experience forges sensorimotor matching mechanisms. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149763409001730
There is strong evidence that new kinds of learning can reconfigure mirror mechanisms. For example, this @CurrentBiology paper led by @drccatmur showed that counter-mirror experience could rewire how observed actions get mapped onto our motor system. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/comments/S0960-9822(07)01782-4
The learning mechanisms involved are very general. For example, @ClarePress & co used fMRI to demonstrate that learning can forge mirror-like representations for completely arbitrary stimuli. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/comments?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0051934
If mirror neurons are forged by general learning mechanisms it means they didn't evolve 'for' anything. This means new kinds of evidence are needed to actually work out what functional role the system plays in human cognition. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149763418304585?via%3Dihub
