Dr Caroline Catmur, a Lecturer in Psychology, has been awarded a Future Research Leaders grant by the Economic and Social Research Council. The aim of the Future Research Leaders Scheme is to support outstanding early career researchers to carry out excellent research and to develop all aspects of their research and knowledge exchange skills.

The award builds on Dr Catmur’s previous work on “mirror” neurons - cells in the brain that are active when we perform an action and also when we see someone else perform the same action - and imitation, a behaviour that is thought to rely on these neurons. Her research investigates both imitation behaviour and the responses of mirror neuron areas in the brain. The project has two aims. The first is to understand how we acquire the ability to imitate other people. This research could help design training methods for people who have trouble imitating (such as people with autism), or to improve imitation learning of skills, sports, or dance. The second aim is to investigate how we control imitative behaviour, and in particular how our ability to control imitation is affected by the social context when we are part of a group. This research has implications for understanding people's behaviour in group situations.