Cannon Erin N, Simpson Elizabeth A, Fox Nathan A, Vanderwert Ross E, Woodward Amanda L, Ferrari Pier F
Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, USA.
Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Italy.
Dev Sci. 2016 Jan;19(1):50-62. doi: 10.1111/desc.12295. Epub 2015 Mar 5.
Recent reports of similar patterns of brain electrical activity (electroencephalogram: EEG) during action execution and observation, recorded from scalp locations over motor-related regions in infants and adults, have raised the possibility that two foundational abilities--controlling one's own intentional actions and perceiving others' actions--may be integrally related during ontogeny. However, to our knowledge, there are no published reports of the relations between developments in motor skill (i.e. recording actual motor skill performance) and EEG during both action execution and action observation. In the present study we collected EEG from 21 9-month-olds who were given opportunities to reach for toys and who also observed an experimenter reach for toys. Event-related desynchronization (ERD) was computed from the EEG during the reaching events. We assessed infants' reaching-grasping competence, including reach latency, errors, preshaping of the hand, and bimanual reaches, and found that desynchronization recorded in scalp electrodes over motor-related regions during action observation was associated with action competence during execution. Infants who were more competent reachers, compared to less competent reachers, exhibited greater ERD while observing reaching-grasping. These results provide initial evidence for an early emerging neural system integrating one's own actions with the perception of others' actions.
近期报告指出，在婴儿和成人与运动相关区域的头皮位置记录到，在动作执行和观察过程中脑电活动（脑电图：EEG）存在相似模式，这引发了一种可能性，即两种基本能力——控制自己的有意动作和感知他人的动作——在个体发育过程中可能存在内在联系。然而，据我们所知，尚无已发表的报告阐述运动技能发展（即记录实际运动技能表现）与动作执行及动作观察期间脑电图之间的关系。在本研究中，我们收集了21名9个月大婴儿的脑电图，这些婴儿有机会伸手去拿玩具，并且还观察了一名实验者伸手去拿玩具的过程。在伸手动作期间，从脑电图中计算出事件相关去同步化（ERD）。我们评估了婴儿的伸手抓握能力，包括伸手潜伏期、错误、手部预塑形和双手同时伸手，并发现动作观察期间在与运动相关区域的头皮电极上记录到的去同步化与执行期间的动作能力相关。与能力较弱的伸手者相比，能力较强的伸手者在观察伸手抓握时表现出更大的ERD。这些结果为一个早期出现的将自己的动作与对他人动作的感知整合在一起的神经系统提供了初步证据。
