Abstract

Many theorists have proposed that a spontaneous internal motor simulation occurs during the observation of intentional actions, and that this simulation supports action understanding. The simulation is thought to involve a coupling of sensory and motor systems along a dorsal pathway that connects visual and posterior auditory areas with the inferior parietal lobule and inferior frontal gyrus. Collectively this network has been referred to as the mirror neuron system (“or mirror system”). This chapter introduces the Spontaneous Internal Motor Simulation of Singing (SIMSS) hypothesis, which specifies the circumstances under which the observation of human song may trigger a spontaneous internal motor simulation.