Mirror neurons (MNs) were first described in a seminal paper in 1992 as a class of monkey premotor cells discharging during both action execution and observation. Despite their debated origin and function, recent studies in several species, from birds to humans, revealed that beyond MNs properly so called, a variety of cell types distributed among multiple motor, sensory, and emotional brain areas form a ‘mirror mechanism’ more complex and flexible than originally thought, which has an evolutionarily conserved role in social interaction. Here, we trace the current limits and envisage the future trends of this discovery, showing that it inspired translational research and the development of new neurorehabilitation approaches, and constitutes a point of no return in social and affective neuroscience.

镜像神经元 (MN) 在 1992 年的一篇开创性论文中首次被描述为一类在动作执行和观察期间放电的猴子运动前细胞。尽管它们的起源和功能存在争议，但最近对从鸟类到人类的几个物种的研究表明，除了所谓的 MNs，分布在多个运动、感觉和情绪大脑区域中的各种细胞类型形成了一种更复杂的“镜像机制”并且比最初想象的灵活，在社会互动中具有进化上保守的作用。在这里，我们追溯了这一发现的当前限制并展望了未来的趋势，表明它激发了转化研究和新神经康复方法的发展，并构成了社会和情感神经科学的不归路。