Graduate School of Integrated Frontier Sciences, Kyushu University, 4-9-1 Shiobaru, Minami-ku, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka, 8158540, Japan.
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Kojimachi Business Center Building, 5-3-1 Kojimachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
J Physiol Anthropol. 2019 Jan 3;38(1):1. doi: 10.1186/s40101-018-0192-8.
It is known that the activities of the mirror system are related to imitation and understanding of the intention of an action. It has been reported that the activity of the mirror system is higher for observations for imitating and understanding the intention of an action than for simple observations. However, observations that facilitate the mirror system's activities, if they are observations intending to imitate an action or observations for understanding the intention of an action, have not been clarified to date.
The types of observations of actions that highly facilitate mirror system activities were investigated. Participants were right-handed university students (N = 23). They observed videos showing hand actions following three types of instructions: (1) to observe the videos intending to understand the intention of the action (action understanding, AU), to observe the videos intending to imitate the hand action (imaginarily imitation, II), and to observe the videos without any intention (observation, OB). Brain waves during observation were measured, and the suppression rate of 8-10 Hz (lower mu/α) and 10-12 Hz (upper mu/α) in the central and occipital regions of the brain was calculated. The rate of suppression was compared among the conditions using a repeated measures analysis of variance for each region.
There was a main effect of the condition in the central region in 10-12 Hz. The degree of suppression in the AU condition was significantly larger than SO condition (p < 0.05) and II condition (p < 0.1). However, there were no differences among conditions in 8-10 Hz, the occipital region, or in either frequency band.
These results suggest that activities of the mirror system are enhanced when observing an action with the purpose of understanding the intention of the action. Differences in the mirror system activities according to the changes of inner states might be better reflected in high-frequency mu waves.
已知镜像系统的活动与模仿和理解动作意图有关。据报道，镜像系统的活动对于观察模仿和理解动作意图的活动比简单观察更高。然而，到目前为止，还没有阐明哪些观察活动可以促进镜像系统的活动。
研究了高度促进镜像系统活动的动作观察类型。参与者为右利手大学生（N=23）。他们观察了三种类型指令下的手部动作视频：（1）观察意图理解动作意图的视频（动作理解，AU）、观察意图模仿手部动作的视频（想象模仿，II）和观察无意图的视频（观察，OB）。观察时测量脑电波，并计算大脑中央和枕区 8-10 Hz（下 mu/α）和 10-12 Hz（上 mu/α）的抑制率。对每个区域的条件使用重复测量方差分析比较抑制率。
在中央区域的 10-12 Hz 中有一个条件的主要效应。AU 条件下的抑制程度显著大于 SO 条件（p<0.05）和 II 条件（p<0.1）。然而，在 8-10 Hz、枕区或任何频带中，条件之间均无差异。
这些结果表明，当观察意图理解动作意图的动作时，镜像系统的活动会增强。根据内在状态变化的镜像系统活动的差异可能在高频 mu 波中得到更好的反映。
