Exploring adaptive agency II: simulating the evolution of associative learning
Proceedings of the first international conference on simulation of adaptive behavior on From animals to animats
An introduction to genetic algorithms
An introduction to genetic algorithms
Artificial Life
Imitation in animals and artifacts
Imitation in animals and artifacts
The agent-based perspective on imitation
Imitation in animals and artifacts
Imitation in animals and artifacts
Vocal, social, and self-imitation by bottlenosed dolphins
Imitation in animals and artifacts
The mirror system, imitation, and the evolution of language
Imitation in animals and artifacts
Imitation in animals and artifacts
2006 Special issue: Mirror neurons and imitation: A computationally guided review
Neural Networks - 2006 Special issue: The brain mechanisms of imitation learning
An Adaptive Agent Model for Emotion Reading by Mirroring Body States and Hebbian Learning
PRIMA '09 Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Principles of Practice in Multi-Agent Systems
ICANN'07 Proceedings of the 17th international conference on Artificial neural networks
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Imitation is a highly complex cognitive process, involving vision, perception, representation, memory and motor control. The underlying mechanisms that give rise to imitative behavior have attracted a lot of attention in recent years and have been the subject of research in various disciplines, from neuroscience to animal behavior and human psychology. In particular, studies in monkeys and humans have discovered a neural mirror system that demonstrates an internal correlation between the representations of perceptual and motor functionalities. In contradistinction to previous engineering-based approaches, we focus on the evolutionary origins of imitation and present a novel framework for studying the evolution of imitative behavior. We successfully develop evolutionary adaptive agents that demonstrate imitative learning, facilitating a comprehensive study of the emerging underlying neural mechanisms. Interestingly, these agents are found to include a neural ''mirror'' device analogous to those identified in biological systems. Further analysis of these agents' networks reveals complex dynamics, combining innate perceptual-motor coupling with acquired context-action associations, to accomplish the required task. These findings may suggest a universal and fundamental link between the ability to replicate the actions of other (imitation) and the capacity to represent and match others' actions (mirroring).