Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University and the Alfred, Australia.
Neurosci Lett. 2011 Feb 1;489(1):57-61. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2010.11.067. Epub 2010 Dec 4.
The effects of action observation on cortical processes have typically been interpreted in the context of so-called "mirror systems" (i.e., brain regions active during both the experience and observation of behaviour, emotion, or sensation), and viewed as subserving social cognition via a self-other matching mechanism. If such cortical processes do indeed facilitate social understanding, then cortical activity during action observation might be further enhanced when observing behaviour embedded within a social, interactive context. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was administered to 27 healthy adults, and corticospinal excitability (CSE), which is a putative measure of the mirror system, was examined during the observation of (1) meaningless behaviour, (2) goal-directed behaviour, and (3) social behaviour. Although CSE was enhanced during the observation of both goal-directed and social behaviour, there was no difference between the two. These findings suggest that while the putative human mirror system is responsive to goal-directed behaviour, it may not be more responsive to behaviour that occurs within a social context.
动作观察对皮质过程的影响通常被解释为所谓的“镜像系统”（即大脑区域在体验和观察行为、情感或感觉时都活跃）的背景下，并被视为通过自我-他人匹配机制促进社会认知。如果这些皮质过程确实有助于社会理解，那么当观察嵌入社会互动背景中的行为时，动作观察期间的皮质活动可能会进一步增强。研究人员对 27 名健康成年人进行了经颅磁刺激（TMS），并在观察（1）无意义行为、（2）目标导向行为和（3）社会行为期间检查了皮质脊髓兴奋性（CSE），这是镜像系统的一个假定测量指标。尽管 CSE 在观察目标导向和社会行为时都增强了，但两者之间没有差异。这些发现表明，虽然假定的人类镜像系统对目标导向行为有反应，但它可能对发生在社会背景中的行为反应不那么强烈。
