The role of mirror neurons in processing vocal emotions: evidence from psychophysiological data.

Recent evidence suggests that the mirror neuron system may serve as a common neural substrate for processing motor, linguistic, emotional, and other higher-level cognitive information. The current study employed psychophysiological methods to elucidate the role of this system in processing vocal emotions. Skin conductance and heart rate were measured for 25 undergraduate students while they were both listening to emotional vocalizations and also thinking (internal production) about them. The results revealed changes in skin conductance response and heart rate during both "listening" and "thinking" conditions. This suggests an active role of the mirror neuron system in processing vocal emotions.