University of Kent, United Kingdom.
University of Kent, United Kingdom.
Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2019 Aug;38:100659. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100659. Epub 2019 May 17.
The observation of actions performed by another person activates parts of the brain as if the observer were performing that action, referred to as the 'mirror system'. Very little is currently known about the developmental trajectory of the mirror system and related social cognitive processes. This experimental study sought to explore the modulation of the sensorimotor mu rhythm during action observation using EEG measures, and how these may relate to social cognitive abilities across the lifespan, from late childhood through to old age. Three-hundred and one participants aged 10- to 86-years-old completed an action observation EEG task and three additional explicit measures of social cognition. As predicted, findings show enhanced sensorimotor alpha and beta desynchronization during hand action observation as compared to static hand observation. Overall, our findings indicate that the reactivity of the sensorimotor mu rhythm to the observation of others' actions increases throughout the lifespan, independently from social cognitive processes.
对他人行为的观察会激活大脑的某些区域，就好像观察者自己在执行这些动作一样，这被称为“镜像系统”。目前，人们对镜像系统及其相关社会认知过程的发展轨迹知之甚少。这项实验研究旨在使用 EEG 测量方法探索动作观察过程中运动感觉 mu 节律的调制，以及这些如何与从儿童晚期到老年的整个生命周期中的社会认知能力相关。301 名 10 至 86 岁的参与者完成了一项动作观察 EEG 任务和另外三项明确的社会认知测试。正如预测的那样，研究结果表明，与静态手部观察相比，手部动作观察时运动感觉 alpha 和 beta 去同步化增强。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，对他人动作观察的运动感觉 mu 节律的反应性在整个生命周期中都会增强，与社会认知过程无关。
