Observing shadow motions: Resonant activity within the observer's motor system?

NEUROSCIENCE LETTERS

卷:461

Article

Alaerts, Kaat¹  Van Aggelpoel, Tinne¹  Swinnen, Stephan P.¹  Wenderoth, Nicole¹ 

[1] Katholieke Univ Leuven, Dept Biomed Kinesiol, Motor Control Lab,Grp Biomed Sci, Res Ctr Movement Control & Neuroplast, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium

关键词: Mirror system;    Action observation;    Cortical excitability;    Transcranial magnetic stimulation;    Biological motion;    Shadow animation;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.neulet.2009.06.055

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Several studies have demonstrated that the human motor cortex is activated by the mere observation of actions performed by others. In the present study, we explored whether the perception of impoverished motion stimuli', such as shadow animations, is sufficient to activate motor areas. To do so, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied over the hand area of the primary motor cortex (M1) while subjects observed shadow animations depicting finger motions. Data showed that resonant motor responses in M1 were only found when a biological effector was recognized from the observed shadow animation. Interestingly, M1 responses were similar for observing shadow or real motions. Therefore, the loss of 'pictorial' movement features in a shadow animation appeared to have no effect on motor resonance in M1. In summary, these findings suggest that the 'recognition' of biological motion from sparse visual input is both necessary and sufficient to recruit motor areas. This supports the hypothesis that the motor system is involved in recognizing the actions per-formed by others. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free