Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research, Germany.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2012 Jul;24(7):1548-59. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_00232. Epub 2012 Mar 27.
To recognize an action, an observer exploits information about the applied manipulation, the involved objects, and the context where the action occurs. Context, object, and manipulation information are hence expected to be tightly coupled in a triadic relationship (the COM triad hereafter). The current fMRI study investigated the hemodynamic signatures of reciprocal modulation in the COM triad. Participants watched short video clips of pantomime actions, that is, actions performed with inappropriate objects, taking place at compatible or incompatible contexts. The usage of pantomime actions enabled the disentanglement of the neural substrates of context-manipulation (CM) and context-object (CO) associations. There were trials in which (1) both manipulation and objects, (2) only manipulation, (3) only objects, or (4) neither manipulation nor objects were compatible with the context. CM compatibility effects were found in an action-related network comprising ventral premotor cortex, SMA, left anterior intraparietal sulcus, and bilateral occipito-temporal cortex. Conversely, CO compatibility effects were found bilaterally in lateral occipital complex. These effects interacted in subregions of the lateral occipital complex. An overlap of CM and CO effects was observed in the occipito-temporal cortex and the dorsal attention network, that is, superior frontal sulcus/dorsal premotor cortex and superior parietal lobe. Results indicate that contextual information is integrated into the analysis of actions. Manipulation and object information is linked by contextual associations as a function of co-occurrence in specific contexts. Activation of either CM or CO associations shifts attention to either action- or object-related relevant information.
为了识别一个动作，观察者会利用有关施加的操作、涉及的对象以及动作发生的上下文的信息。因此，上下文、对象和操作信息预计将以三元关系（以下简称 COM 三元组）紧密结合。当前的 fMRI 研究调查了 COM 三元组中相互调制的血流动力学特征。参与者观看了简短的哑剧动作视频剪辑，即使用不适当的对象进行的动作，发生在兼容或不兼容的上下文中。使用哑剧动作使得可以分离出上下文操作（CM）和上下文对象（CO）关联的神经基础。有几种情况：（1）操作和对象都兼容，（2）只有操作兼容，（3）只有对象兼容，或（4）操作和对象都不兼容上下文。在包含腹侧运动前皮质、SMA、左前内顶叶沟和双侧枕颞皮质的与动作相关的网络中发现了 CM 兼容性效应。相反，CO 兼容性效应在双侧外侧枕叶复合体中发现。这些效应在外侧枕叶复合体的亚区中相互作用。在枕颞皮质和背侧注意力网络（即额上沟/背侧运动前皮质和顶叶上回）中观察到 CM 和 CO 效应的重叠，即 Superior frontal sulcus/dorsal premotor cortex 和 superior parietal lobe。结果表明，上下文信息被整合到动作分析中。操作和对象信息通过在特定上下文中的共同出现来与上下文关联相关联。激活 CM 或 CO 关联会将注意力转移到与动作或对象相关的相关信息上。
