University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2011 Jan;23(1):63-74. doi: 10.1162/jocn.2010.21446.
Humans commonly understand the unobservable mental states of others by observing their actions. Embodied simulation theories suggest that this ability may be based in areas of the fronto-parietal mirror neuron system, yet neuroimaging studies that explicitly investigate the human ability to draw mental state inferences point to the involvement of a “mentalizing" system consisting of regions that do not overlap with the mirror neuron system. For the present study, we developed a novel action identification paradigm that allowed us to explicitly investigate the neural bases of mentalizing observed actions. Across repeated viewings of a set of ecologically valid video clips of ordinary human actions, we manipulated the extent to which participants identified the unobservable mental states of the actor (mentalizing) or the observable mechanics of their behavior (mechanizing). Although areas of the mirror neuron system did show an enhanced response during action identification, its activity was not significantly modulated by the extent to which the observers identified mental states. Instead, several regions of the mentalizing system, including dorsal and ventral aspects of medial pFC, posterior cingulate cortex, and temporal poles, were associated with mentalizing actions, whereas a single region in left lateral occipito-temporal cortex was associated with mechanizing actions. These data suggest that embodied simulation is insufficient to account for the sophisticated mentalizing that human beings are capable of while observing another and that a different system along the cortical midline and in anterior temporal cortex is involved in mentalizing an observed action.
人类通常通过观察他人的行为来理解无法观察到的心理状态。具身模拟理论表明，这种能力可能基于额顶叶镜像神经元系统的区域，但明确研究人类进行心理状态推断能力的神经影像学研究表明，涉及一个由与镜像神经元系统不重叠的区域组成的“心理化”系统。在本研究中，我们开发了一种新颖的动作识别范式，使我们能够明确研究观察到的动作的心理化的神经基础。在重复观看一组具有生态效度的人类日常动作视频片段的过程中，我们操纵了参与者识别行为者不可观察的心理状态（心理化）或可观察的行为机制（机制化）的程度。尽管镜像神经元系统的某些区域在动作识别过程中表现出增强的反应，但它们的活动并没有被观察者识别心理状态的程度显著调节。相反，心理化系统的几个区域，包括内侧前额叶的背侧和腹侧部分、后扣带回和颞极，与心理化动作有关，而左侧外侧枕颞叶皮层的单个区域与机制化动作有关。这些数据表明，具身模拟不足以解释人类在观察他人时所具备的复杂的心理化能力，而涉及到沿皮质中线和前颞叶的不同系统。
