Psychology Department, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada.
Neurosci Res. 2013 Sep-Oct;77(1-2):58-63. doi: 10.1016/j.neures.2013.08.003. Epub 2013 Aug 19.
It has been suggested that physical similarity with an observed model facilitates action-perception and understanding. Indeed, a number of studies have shown that observing actors of one's own race facilitate motor, sensory and pain resonance, possibly mediated by the human mirror-neuron system (hMNS). However, most of these studies have used stimuli that included emotional or cultural components, hence obscuring the precise contribution of physical similarity to resonance phenomena per se. The goal of the present study was to assess the effect of physical similarity (skin color) on motor resonance using stimuli that have no emotional and cultural components. We used both behavioral (imitation) and electrophysiological measures (mu-rhythm) to assess the effects of skin color on the hMNS during the observation of simple finger movements. Our results show that, in line with previous results, observation of biological movements resulted in faster reaction times and greater mu-rhythm suppression compared to non-biological movements. However, physical similarity did not affect imitation speed or mu-rhythm desynchronization. These results suggest that physical similarity with an observed action in terms of skin color does not modulate hMNS activity, and that the enhanced resonance effects reported in the previous studies are likely attributable to cultural and emotional aspects.
有人认为，与观察到的模型在身体上相似有助于动作感知和理解。事实上，许多研究表明，观察到与自己种族相同的演员可以促进运动、感觉和疼痛共鸣，这可能是由人类镜像神经元系统（hMNS）介导的。然而，这些研究大多使用了包含情感或文化成分的刺激物，从而掩盖了身体相似性对共鸣现象本身的精确贡献。本研究的目的是使用没有情感和文化成分的刺激物来评估身体相似性（肤色）对运动共鸣的影响。我们使用行为（模仿）和电生理测量（mu 节律）来评估肤色对观察简单手指运动时 hMNS 的影响。我们的结果表明，与先前的结果一致，与非生物运动相比，观察生物运动导致反应时间更快，mu 节律抑制更大。然而，身体相似性并不影响模仿速度或 mu 节律去同步化。这些结果表明，肤色上与观察到的动作相似并不会调节 hMNS 活动，而以前研究中报告的增强共鸣效应可能归因于文化和情感方面。
