School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, UK.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2012 Feb;7(2):242-51. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsq102. Epub 2010 Dec 22.
When you see someone reach into a cookie jar, their goal remains obvious even if you know that the last cookie has already been eaten. Thus, it is possible to infer the goal of an action even if you know that the goal cannot be achieved. Previous research has identified distinct brain networks for processing information about object locations, actions and mental-state inferences. However, the relationship between brain networks for action understanding in social contexts remains unclear. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, this study assesses the role of these networks in understanding another person searching for hidden objects. Participants watched movie clips depicting a toy animal hiding and an actor, who was ignorant of the hiding place, searching in the filled or empty location. When the toy animal hid in the same location repeatedly, the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response was suppressed in occipital, posterior temporal and posterior parietal brain regions, consistent with processing object properties and spatial attention. When the actor searched in the same location repeatedly, the BOLD signal was suppressed in the inferior frontal gyrus, consistent with the observation of hand actions. In contrast, searches towards the filled location compared to the empty location were associated with a greater response in the medial prefrontal cortex and right temporal pole, which are both associated with mental state inference. These findings show that when observing another person search for a hidden object, brain networks for processing information about object properties, actions and mental state inferences work together in a complementary fashion. This supports the hypothesis that brain regions within and beyond the putative human mirror neuron system are involved in action comprehension within social contexts.
当你看到有人伸手去拿饼干罐时，即使你知道最后一块饼干已经被吃掉了，他们的目标仍然显而易见。因此，即使你知道目标无法实现，也有可能推断出一个动作的目标。先前的研究已经确定了用于处理关于物体位置、动作和心理状态推断的信息的不同大脑网络。然而，在社会背景下理解行动的大脑网络之间的关系尚不清楚。本研究使用功能磁共振成像，评估了这些网络在理解另一个人搜索隐藏物体中的作用。参与者观看了电影片段，描绘了一只玩具动物藏身和一个不知道藏身之处的演员在填充或空位置搜索。当玩具动物在同一位置重复藏身时，枕叶、后颞叶和后顶叶脑区的血氧水平依赖（BOLD）反应受到抑制，与处理物体属性和空间注意力一致。当演员在同一位置重复搜索时，BOLD 信号在额下回受到抑制，与观察手部动作一致。相比之下，与空位置相比，搜索填充位置与内侧前额叶皮层和右侧颞极的反应更大，这两个区域都与心理状态推断有关。这些发现表明，当观察另一个人搜索隐藏物体时，用于处理关于物体属性、动作和心理状态推断的信息的大脑网络以互补的方式协同工作。这支持了这样一种假设，即在假定的人类镜像神经元系统内和之外的大脑区域都参与了社会背景下的动作理解。
