[Mirror neurons--novel data on the neurobiology of intersubjectivity]

Social experiences are largely intersubjective in nature, offering an abundance of pre-reflective, simulative knowledge of others' subjective experiences. In the last decades, special mirror neurons have been found in the premotor area and in the posterior parietal cortex. They directly link perception to action: the perception of actions activates the relevant parts of the observer's motor system. Emotional expressions evoke resonance states inside the observer in a similar way. Besides underscoring the prereflective and implicit nature of intersubjectivity, this can provide an access to the neuronal basis of empathy and intuition. Moreover, a new integration of psychoanalysis and neuroscience seems to be possible, which shifts the psychoanalytic technique toward non-verbal and non-interpretative methods, and can explain psychoanalytic phenomena, such as introjection, projection, transference, counter-transference, and the very complex enactments.