How the brain understands intention: Different neural circuits ...
5. Conclusions
This paper has examined three basic aspects of understanding intention: intention recognition,
agent attribution, and aim-representation. On the basis of theoretical and neuroscientific evidence,we suggest that these aspects constitute fundamental structures in a complex functional and anatomical architecture.
The questions raised by experimental investigation can be traced only in part back to traditional philosophical issues (e.g., the distinction of prior intention from intention-in-action). Others, rather, are new and evolve out of the empirical investigation process. This is the case of agent-
attribution: as we have seen, the problem arises out of the discovery of a recognition level that is based on agent-free mechanisms. The data available at present allow us to hypothesise a solution in terms of intention-in-action. More specifically, shared neural representations—which are neutral with respect to both the modality and the agent—are disambiguated by the ‘‘Who system’’ operating on them.
With respect to previous evidence, the interest of new findings such as Walter et al. (2004) consist in the fact that they open the way to experimental investigation of aim- intention and social intention, showing that the anterior paracingulate cortex is activated in representing social aims,
independently from interaction type ( cooperative vs. competitive), time (present vs. future), and modality (participated vs. observed).
www.psych.unito.it/csc/pers/adenzato/pdf/C&C_2006.pdf |
