Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma, Via Volturno 39, 43125 Parma, Italy.
CNR Institute of Neuroscience, Via Volturno 39, Parma, Italy.
Cereb Cortex. 2017 Aug 1;27(8):4229-4243. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhx124.
A description of the spatiotemporal dynamics of human cortical activity during cognitive tasks is a fundamental goal of neuroscience. In the present study, we employed stereo-EEG in order to assess the neural activity during tool-action observation. We recorded from 49 epileptic patients (5502 leads) implanted with intracerebral electrodes, while they observed tool and hand actions. We deconstructed actions into 3 events-video onset, action onset, and tool-object contact-and assessed how different brain regions respond to these events. Video onset, with actions not yet visible, recruited only visual areas. Aligning the responses at action onset, yielded activity in the parietal-frontal manipulation circuit and, selectively for tool actions, in the left anterior supramarginal gyrus (aSMG). Finally, by aligning to the tool-object contact that signals the achievement of the main goal of the observed action, activations were found in SII and dorsal premotor cortex. In conclusion, our data show that during tool-action observation, in addition to the general action observation network there is a selective activation of aSMG, which exhibits internally different patterns of responsiveness. In addition, neural responses selective for the contact between the tool and the object were also observed.
描述人类在认知任务期间大脑皮质活动的时空动态是神经科学的一个基本目标。在本研究中，我们采用立体脑电图来评估工具操作观察期间的神经活动。我们对 49 名接受颅内电极植入的癫痫患者（5502 个导联）进行了记录，这些患者在观察工具和手部动作时接受了记录。我们将动作分解为 3 个事件——视频开始、动作开始和工具-物体接触——并评估了不同脑区对这些事件的反应。视频开始时，动作还不可见，只激活了视觉区域。在动作开始时对齐响应，会产生顶叶-额叶操作回路的活动，并且，对于工具动作，还会选择性地产生左前上缘回（aSMG）的活动。最后，通过与工具-物体接触对齐，该接触信号代表观察到的动作的主要目标的实现，在 SII 和背侧运动前皮质中会发现激活。总之，我们的数据表明，在观察工具操作时，除了一般的动作观察网络之外，还会选择性地激活 aSMG，其表现出内部不同的反应模式。此外，还观察到了对工具和物体之间接触的神经反应的选择性。
