Listening Is for Acting

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Interpersonal communication researchers have not only tended to ignore the role that listening plays in face-to-face interaction, they have also viewed message production and message processing as distinct processes. The message production-message processing bipolarity is belied by recent research suggesting that mirror neurons subserving speech production are activated as people listen to speech and that the same brain areas that process gestural communication are activated in both senders and receivers of gestural communication. The prevalence of interaction routines and the unconscious activation of interaction goals also suggest that production and processing mechanisms are integrated.