List of figures; List of tables; List of contributors; Preface; Introduction; Part I. Intersubjective Attunement in Human Infancy and Impairment in Autism: 1. The concept and foundations of infant intersubjectivity Colwyn Trevarthen; 2. Infant intersubjectivity: broadening the dialogue to include imitation, identity and intention Andrew N. Meltzoff and M. Keith Moore; 3. Neonatal imitation in the intersubjective companion space Giannis Kugiumutzakis; 4. Imitation in neonates, in older infants and in children with autism: feedback to theory Mikael Heimann; 5. Infant learning by altercentric participation: the reverse of egocentric observation in autism Stein Bråten; Part II. Companionship and Emotional Responsiveness in Early Childhood: 6. Contributions of experimental and clinical perturbations of mother-infant communication to the understanding of infant intersubjectivity Lynne Murray; 7. Empathy and its origins in early development Ross A. Thompson; 8. Siblings, emotion and the development of understanding Judy Dunn; 9. The company children keep: suggestive evidence from cultural studies Carolyn Pope Edwards; Part III. Imitation, Emotion and Understanding in Primate Communication: 10. Ontogeny, communication and parent-offspring relationships Patrick Bateson; 11. Social-experiential contributions to imitation and emotion in chimpanzees Kim A. Bard; 12. Imitation: the contributions of priming and program-level copying Richard W. Byrne; 13. Do concepts of intersubjectivity apply to non-human primates? Juan Carlos Gomez; 14. Imitation and the reading of other minds: perspectives from the study of autism, normal children and non-human primates Andrew Whiten and Julie D. Brown; Part IV. Intersubjective Attunement and Emotion in Language Learning and Use: 15. The intersubjective foundations of thought R. Peter Hobson; 16. Language, culture and intersubjectivity: the creation of shared perception Patricia K. Kuhl; 17. Intersubjectivity in early language learning and use Nameera Akhtar and Michael Tomasello; 18. Fictional absorption: emotional response to make-believe Paul L. Harris; 19. Intersubjective attunement and linguistically mediated meaning in discourse Ragnar Rommetveit; 20. Intersubjective communion and understanding: development and perturbation Stein Bråten; References; Indexes.