Mirror neurons precede non-mirror neurons during action execution

Mirror neurons are thought to represent an individual's ability to understand the actions of others by discharging as one individual performs or observes another individual performing an action. Studies typically have focused on mirror neuron activity during action observation, examining activity during action execution primarily to validate mirror neuron involvement in the motor act. As a result, little is known about the precise role of mirror neurons during action execution. In this study, during execution of reach-grasp-manipulate movements, we found activity of mirror neurons generally preceded that of non-mirror neurons. Not only did the onset of task-related modulation occur earlier in mirror neurons, but state transitions detected by hidden Markov models also occurred earlier in mirror neuron populations. Our findings suggest that mirror neurons may be at the forefront of action execution.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Mirror neurons commonly are thought to provide a neural substrate for understanding the actions of others, but mirror neurons also are active during action execution, when additional, non-mirror neurons are active as well. Examining the timing of activity during execution of a naturalistic reach-grasp-manipulate task, we found that mirror neuron activity precedes that of non-mirror neurons at both the unit and the population level. Thus mirror neurons may be at the leading edge of action execution.