TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigating the human mirror neuron system by means of cortical synchronization during the imitation of biological movements
AU - Kessler, Klaus
AU - Biermann-Ruben, Katja
AU - Jonas, Melanie
AU - Roman Siebner, Hartwig
AU - Bäumer, Tobias
AU - Münchau, Alexander
AU - Schnitzler, Alfons
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by the Volkswagenstiftung (project grant I/78553). We thank Dr. Joachim Gross, Dr. Bettina Pollok and Dr. Markus Butz for helpful discussion and Erika Raedisch for the acquirement of anatomical MR images. We would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.
PY - 2006/10/15
Y1 - 2006/10/15
N2 - The human mirror neuron system (MNS) has recently been a major topic of research in cognitive neuroscience. As a very basic reflection of the MNS, human observers are faster at imitating a biological as compared with a non-biological movement. However, it is unclear which cortical areas and their interactions (synchronization) are responsible for this behavioural advantage. We investigated the time course of long-range synchronization within cortical networks during an imitation task in 10 healthy participants by means of whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG). Extending previous work, we conclude that left ventrolateral premotor, bilateral temporal and parietal areas mediate the observed behavioural advantage of biological movements in close interaction with the basal ganglia and other motor areas (cerebellum, sensorimotor cortex). Besides left ventrolateral premotor cortex, we identified the right temporal pole and the posterior parietal cortex as important junctions for the integration of information from different sources in imitation tasks that are controlled for movement (biological vs. non-biological) and that involve a certain amount of spatial orienting of attention. Finally, we also found the basal ganglia to participate at an early stage in the processing of biological movement, possibly by selecting suitable motor programs that match the stimulus.
AB - The human mirror neuron system (MNS) has recently been a major topic of research in cognitive neuroscience. As a very basic reflection of the MNS, human observers are faster at imitating a biological as compared with a non-biological movement. However, it is unclear which cortical areas and their interactions (synchronization) are responsible for this behavioural advantage. We investigated the time course of long-range synchronization within cortical networks during an imitation task in 10 healthy participants by means of whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG). Extending previous work, we conclude that left ventrolateral premotor, bilateral temporal and parietal areas mediate the observed behavioural advantage of biological movements in close interaction with the basal ganglia and other motor areas (cerebellum, sensorimotor cortex). Besides left ventrolateral premotor cortex, we identified the right temporal pole and the posterior parietal cortex as important junctions for the integration of information from different sources in imitation tasks that are controlled for movement (biological vs. non-biological) and that involve a certain amount of spatial orienting of attention. Finally, we also found the basal ganglia to participate at an early stage in the processing of biological movement, possibly by selecting suitable motor programs that match the stimulus.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33748780371&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.06.014
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.06.014
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 16876435
AN - SCOPUS:33748780371
SN - 1053-8119
VL - 33
SP - 227
EP - 238
JO - NeuroImage
JF - NeuroImage
IS - 1
ER -
