Dipartimento di Psicologia, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna Bologna, Italy ; Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Campus di Cesena Cesena, Italy ; Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Fondazione Santa Lucia Roma, Italy.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2013 May 14;7:185. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00185. eCollection 2013.
Neurophysiological and imaging studies have shown that seeing the actions of other individuals brings about the vicarious activation of motor regions involved in performing the same actions. While this suggests a simulative mechanism mediating the perception of others' actions, one cannot use such evidence to make inferences about the functional significance of vicarious activations. Indeed, a central aim in social neuroscience is to comprehend how vicarious activations allow the understanding of other people's behavior, and this requires to use stimulation or lesion methods to establish causal links from brain activity to cognitive functions. In the present work, we review studies investigating the effects of transient manipulations of brain activity or stable lesions in the motor system on individuals' ability to perceive and understand the actions of others. We conclude there is now compelling evidence that neural activity in the motor system is critical for such cognitive ability. More research using causal methods, however, is needed in order to disclose the limits and the conditions under which vicarious activations are required to perceive and understand actions of others as well as their emotions and somatic feelings.
神经生理学和影像学研究表明，观察他人的行为会引起与执行相同动作相关的运动区域的替代性激活。虽然这表明了一种模拟机制介导了对他人行为的感知，但人们不能仅凭这些证据就对替代性激活的功能意义做出推断。事实上，社会神经科学的一个主要目标是理解替代性激活如何使人们能够理解他人的行为，而这需要使用刺激或损伤方法来建立从大脑活动到认知功能的因果联系。在本工作中，我们回顾了研究短暂性脑活动干预或运动系统稳定损伤对个体感知和理解他人行为能力的影响的研究。我们得出结论，现在有强有力的证据表明，运动系统中的神经活动对于这种认知能力至关重要。然而，为了揭示替代性激活在感知和理解他人行为以及他们的情绪和躯体感觉方面所需的限制和条件，还需要使用因果方法进行更多的研究。
