Associative sequence learning (ASL) is a neuroscientific theory that attempts to explain how mirror neurons are able to match observed and performed actions, and how individuals (adults, children, animals) are able to imitate body movements.
A further defining characteristic of the ASL model is its claim that the development of sensorimotor links is mediated by the same mechanisms of associative learning that produce Pavlovian conditioning.
This is a crucial feature of the ASL model as it explains why actors do not acquire spurious sensorimotor associations.
Learning-based models which do not stipulate a sensitivity to contingency predict that the motor plan for ear-scratching ought to become associated with the visual representation of sneezing!
Heyes and colleagues have also shown that a number of imitative effects, thought to be mediated by the mirror system, may be reversed through periods of 'counter-mirror' sensorimotor training.
[11] Similar counter-mirror training has also been shown to reverse classic mirror system effects observed with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)[12] and functional imaging[13] paradigms.
When there is no contingency between sensory and motor representations; for example, when action execution is equally likely both in the presence and absence of the counter-mirror visual stimulus, little or no learning is observed.