Gazzola Valeria, Aziz-Zadeh Lisa, Keysers Christian
School of Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences, NeuroImaging Center, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen 9713AW, The Netherlands.
Curr Biol. 2006 Sep 19;16(18):1824-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2006.07.072.
How do we understand the actions of other individuals if we can only hear them? Auditory mirror neurons respond both while monkeys perform hand or mouth actions and while they listen to sounds of similar actions . This system might be critical for auditory action understanding and language evolution . Preliminary evidence suggests that a similar system may exist in humans . Using fMRI, we searched for brain areas that respond both during motor execution and when individuals listened to the sound of an action made by the same effector. We show that a left hemispheric temporo-parieto-premotor circuit is activated in both cases, providing evidence for a human auditory mirror system. In the left premotor cortex, a somatotopic pattern of activation was also observed: A dorsal cluster was more involved during listening and execution of hand actions, and a ventral cluster was more involved during listening and execution of mouth actions. Most of this system appears to be multimodal because it also responds to the sight of similar actions. Finally, individuals who scored higher on an empathy scale activated this system more strongly, adding evidence for a possible link between the motor mirror system and empathy.
如果我们只能听到他人的声音，我们如何理解他们的行为呢？听觉镜像神经元在猴子执行手部或口部动作时以及在它们听到类似动作的声音时都会做出反应。这个系统可能对听觉动作理解和语言进化至关重要。初步证据表明人类可能存在类似的系统。我们使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来寻找在运动执行过程中以及个体听到由同一效应器做出的动作声音时都会做出反应的脑区。我们发现，在这两种情况下，左半球颞顶叶-运动前区回路都会被激活，这为人类听觉镜像系统提供了证据。在左运动前皮层，还观察到了一种躯体定位激活模式：一个背侧簇在手部动作的听觉和执行过程中参与度更高，而一个腹侧簇在口部动作的听觉和执行过程中参与度更高。这个系统的大部分似乎是多模态的，因为它对类似动作的视觉呈现也会做出反应。最后，在移情量表上得分较高的个体对这个系统的激活更强，这进一步证明了运动镜像系统与移情之间可能存在联系。
