Schiffer Anne-Marike, Krause Kim H, Schubotz Ricarda I
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2014 Apr;35(4):1615-29. doi: 10.1002/hbm.22277. Epub 2013 May 14.
Not only committing errors, but also observing errors has been shown to activate the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, particularly BA 8 and adjacent rostral cingulate zone (RCZ). Currently, there is a debate on whether this activity reflects a response to the incorrectness of the committed action or to its unexpectedness. This article reports two studies investigating whether activity in BA 8/RCZ is due to the unexpectedness of observed errors or the incorrectness of the specific observed action. Both studies employed an action observation paradigm reliant on the observation of an actor tying sailing knots. The reported behavioral experiment delivered evidence that the paradigm successfully induced the expectation of incorrect actions as well as the expectation of correct actions. The functional magnetic resonance imaging study revealed that unexpectedly correct as well as unexpectedly incorrect actions activate the BA 8/RCZ. The same result was confirmed for a coordinate in the vicinity that has been previously reported to be activated in separate studies either by the error observation or by the unexpectedness of committed errors, and has been associated with the error-related negativity. The present results suggest that unexpectedness has an impact on the medial prefrontal correlate of observed errors.
研究表明，不仅在犯错时，而且在观察错误时，背内侧前额叶皮层都会被激活，尤其是8区以及相邻的喙扣带区（RCZ）。目前，对于这种活动是反映了对所执行动作错误性的反应还是对其意外性的反应存在争议。本文报告了两项研究，旨在探究8区/RCZ的活动是由于观察到的错误的意外性还是特定观察动作的错误性。两项研究均采用了一种动作观察范式，该范式依赖于观察一个人系航海结的动作。所报告的行为实验提供了证据，表明该范式成功地诱发了对错误动作的预期以及对正确动作的预期。功能磁共振成像研究表明，意外正确以及意外错误的动作都会激活8区/RCZ。对于先前在单独研究中被报告为要么通过错误观察要么通过所犯错误的意外性而被激活的附近一个坐标，也证实了相同的结果，并且该坐标与错误相关负波有关。目前的结果表明，意外性会影响观察到的错误在内侧前额叶的相关反应。
