Buccino Giovanni, Baumgaertner Annette, Colle Livia, Buechel Christian, Rizzolatti Giacomo, Binkofski Ferdinand
Department of Neuroscience, Section of Physiology, University of Parma, Via Volturno 31, 43100 Parma, Italy.
Neuroimage. 2007;36 Suppl 2:T119-27. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.03.036. Epub 2007 Mar 31.
We can often understand when actions done by others do or do not reflect their intentions. To investigate the neural basis of this capacity we carried out an fMRI study in which volunteers were presented with video-clips showing actions that did reflect the intention of the agent (intended actions) and actions that did not (non-intended actions). Observation of both types of actions activated a common set of areas including the inferior parietal lobule, the lateral premotor cortex and mesial premotor areas. The contrast non-intended vs. intended actions showed activation in the right temporo-parietal junction, left supramarginal gyrus, and mesial prefrontal cortex. The converse contrast did not show any activation. We conclude that our capacity to understand non intended actions is based on the activation of areas signaling unexpected events in spatial and temporal domains, in addition to the activity of the mirror neuron system. The concomitant activation of mesial prefrontal areas, known to be involved in self-referential processing, might reflect how deeply participants are involved in the observed scenes.
我们常常能够理解他人的行为是否反映了他们的意图。为了探究这种能力的神经基础，我们进行了一项功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究，在该研究中，向志愿者展示视频片段，这些视频片段展示了反映行为主体意图的动作（有意动作）和不反映意图的动作（无意动作）。观察这两种类型的动作均激活了一组共同的区域，包括顶下小叶、外侧运动前皮层和内侧运动前区。无意动作与有意动作的对比显示，右侧颞顶联合区、左侧缘上回和内侧前额叶皮层有激活。相反的对比未显示任何激活。我们得出结论，我们理解无意动作的能力不仅基于镜像神经元系统的活动，还基于在空间和时间域中发出意外事件信号的区域的激活。已知参与自我参照加工的内侧前额叶区域的伴随激活，可能反映了参与者对观察场景的参与程度。
