A Comment

Concerning mirror neurons and their location etc, It is commensurate with what is commonly known as Broca's area and is in the ventral part of the premotor cortex area (labelled as F5 in the brain. They play a role in the communicative behaviours. Research so far supports an execution-observation matching system (mirror neuron system) involved in action recognition. The primary motor cortex also seems to be part of the mirror neuron system. Both nonhuman primates and humans learn many actions through observing and imitating the actions of others, and the mirror neuron system provides a mechanism through which observation can be translated into action.

Premotor cortex area along with supplementary motor cortex area are considered part of Secondary Motor Cortex. You may be aware that brain is classified in three areas:

Hind Brain

Mid brain, and

Fore brain.

Functionally, the fore brain contains : a) Epithelamus, Thalamus, Hypothelamus and Pituitary Gland

b) Limbic system, Basal Gangalia and Cerebral Cortex

The Cerebral Cortex can be divided into four lobes: Occipital lobes-controls vision; Parietal-controls skin senses,spatial functions; Temporal lobes-controls audition,language in left hemisphere,visual functions and Frontal lobes-controls motor functions,planning,speech in left hemisphere.

Cortex means outer covering. Cerebral Cortex is sometimes divided into sensory areas, motor areas and association areas. The cerebral cortex contains layers of cells bodies that run parallel to its surface. Some regions of the cortex (referred to as neo-cortex)contains six layers, designated 1-6 ,others contain fewer than six and still others have only a singlke layer. The thickness of each layer is related to the function of that particular region of the cerebral cortex.

Frontal lobe is the largest of the four lobes. The frontal lobe in the left hemisphere also contains Broca's area. This area is implicated in the programming and sequencing of motor movements for speech production.

One should however remember that brain is an integrated whole and any activity in the brain is a complex interplay of different parts of the brain. Cortical activity cannot be separated from the activity in other parts of the brain..the classification of reptilian, mammalian etc is also arbitrary and just an evolutionary perspective.Anatomically, all aspects of the brain comprise one whole. In any case Broca area which is commensurate with mirror neurons area is located in frontal lobe of cerebral neo-cortex and could be responsible for abstract thought and subtle thinking.