Subject	Behavioral neuroscience
Specific subject area	Mirror system Reaching behavior Observation
Type of data	Table, figure
How data were acquired	Data were collected using a reaching behavior task. The apparatus, which included a reaching room and an observation room, was made of a transparent acrylic, with a feeding table between the two sides. In the reaching room, a slit (10 mm) was created near the feeding table to allow the mice to reach for and grasp a piece of pasta, which served as a food reward. We placed two video cameras, one above and another in front of the apparatus, and recorded the animal behaviors (60 fps).
Data format	Raw and analyzed
Parameters for data collection	Data were collected from 32 C57BL/N male mice in Experiment 1 and 50 C57BL/N male mice in Experiment 2. We recorded the behavior of the mice while they observed the reaching behavior in conspecifics under different conditions, manually categorized the behavior, measured the speed by stopwatch, and measured the approach time by stopwatch.
Description of data collection	The behavioral data were collected in the same room. We placed two video cameras, one above and another in front of the apparatus, and recorded the animal behaviors (60 fps) during the learning of the reaching behavior and test session.
Data source location	Institute for Animal Experimentation Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine. City/Town/Region: Sendai-shi, Miyagi Country: Japan
Data accessibility	Data is accessible from this article and the following data repositories. Experimental videos of Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, which were used for our manual judgment, have been uploaded to the data repository site. Repository name: Zenodo Direct URL to data of Experiment 1 in test session: https://zenodo.org/record/4286071#.X9WYstj7Q2w And Experiment 2 in test session: https://zenodo.org/record/4287815#.X9WaMNj7Q2w
Related research article	Ukezono, M., and Takano, Y. (2021). An experimental task to examine the mirror neuron system in mice: Laboratory mice understand the movement intentions of other individuals through their own experience, Behavioral Brain Research. 398, 112970. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2020.112970