Ando Agata, Salatino Adriana, Giromini Luciano, Ricci Raffaella, Pignolo Claudia, Cristofanelli Stefania, Ferro Laura, Viglione Donald J, Zennaro Alessandro
Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Brain Res. 2015 Dec 10;1629:135-42. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.10.025. Epub 2015 Oct 21.
According to the "embodied simulation theory," exposure to certain visual stimuli would automatically trigger action simulation in the mind of the observer, thereby originating a "feeling of movement" modulated by the mirror neuron system (MNS). Grounded on this conceptualization, some of us recently suggested that when exposed to the Rorschach inkblots, in order to see a human movement (e.g., "a person running") in those ambiguous stimuli, the observer would need to experience a "feeling of movement" via embodied simulation. The current study used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to further test this hypothesis. Specifically, we investigated whether temporarily interfering with the activity of the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG; a putative MNS area) using rTMS would decrease the propensity to see human movement (M) in the Rorschach inkblots. Thirty-six participants were exposed to the Rorschach stimuli twice, i.e., during a baseline (without rTMS) and soon after inhibitory rTMS. As for the rTMS condition, half of the sample was stimulated over the LIFG (experimental group) and the other half over the Vertex (control group). In line with our hypothesis, the application of rTMS over LIFG, but not over Vertex, yielded a statistically significant reduction in the attribution of M to the ambiguous stimuli, with large effect size. These findings may be interpreted as being consistent with the hypothesis that there is a link between the MNS and the "feeling of movement" people may experience, when observing ambiguous stimuli such as the Rorschach cards.
根据“具身模拟理论”，接触某些视觉刺激会自动触发观察者脑海中的动作模拟，从而产生一种由镜像神经元系统（MNS）调节的“运动感觉”。基于这一概念，我们中的一些人最近提出，当接触罗夏墨迹测验的墨迹图时，为了在这些模糊的刺激中看到人类动作（例如，“一个人在奔跑”），观察者需要通过具身模拟体验一种“运动感觉”。本研究使用重复经颅磁刺激（rTMS）来进一步检验这一假设。具体而言，我们研究了使用rTMS暂时干扰左下额叶回（LIFG；一个假定的MNS区域）的活动是否会降低在罗夏墨迹图中看到人类动作（M）的倾向。36名参与者两次接触罗夏刺激，即在基线期（无rTMS）和抑制性rTMS后不久。对于rTMS条件，一半的样本在LIFG上进行刺激（实验组），另一半在头顶进行刺激（对照组）。与我们的假设一致，在LIFG上而非头顶上应用rTMS，导致将M归因于模糊刺激的情况在统计学上显著减少，且效应量很大。这些发现可以解释为与以下假设一致，即MNS与人们在观察罗夏卡片等模糊刺激时可能体验到的“运动感觉”之间存在联系。
