Department of Psychology, Neuro-MI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milano - Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy.
Brain Topogr. 2020 Mar;33(2):238-254. doi: 10.1007/s10548-020-00760-x. Epub 2020 Feb 28.
The ability to mentally simulate an action by recalling the body sensations relative to the real execution is referred to as kinesthetic motor imagery (MI). Frontal and parietal motor-related brain regions are generally engaged during MI. The present study aimed to investigate the time course and neural correlates of complex action imagery and possible effects of expertise on the underlying action representation processes. Professional ballet dancers and controls were presented with effortful and effortless ballet steps and instructed to mentally reproduce each movement during EEG recording. Time-locked MI was associated with an Anterior Negativity (AN) component (400-550 ms) that was larger in dancers relative to controls. The AN was differentially modulated by the motor content (effort) as a function of ballet expertise. It was more negative in response to effortful (than effortless) movements in control participants only. This effect also had a frontal distribution in controls and a centro-parietal distribution in dancers, as shown by the topographic maps of the scalp voltage. The source reconstruction (swLORETA) of the recorded potentials in the AN time-window showed enhanced engagement of prefrontal regions in controls (BA 10/47) relative to dancers, and occipitotemporal (BA 20) and bilateral sensorimotor areas in dancers (BA6/40) compared with controls. This evidence seems to suggest that kinesthetic MI of complex action relied on visuomotor simulation processes in participants with acquired dance expertise. Simultaneously, increased cognitive demands occurred in participants lacking in motor knowledge with the specific action. Hence, professional dance training may lead to refined action representation processes.
通过回忆与实际执行相关的身体感觉来模拟动作的能力被称为动觉运动想象（MI）。在 MI 过程中，通常会涉及到额叶和顶叶的运动相关脑区。本研究旨在探讨复杂动作想象的时间进程和神经关联，以及专业知识对潜在动作表示过程的可能影响。专业芭蕾舞演员和对照组被呈现费力和轻松的芭蕾舞步，并在 EEG 记录期间指示他们在心理上再现每个动作。与时间锁定的 MI 相关的是前负向（AN）成分（400-550 ms），在舞蹈演员中相对于对照组更大。AN 被运动内容（用力）以芭蕾舞专业知识为函数进行差异调节。仅在对照组中，对费力（而非轻松）运动的反应更为负向。这种效应在对照组中具有额部分布，在舞蹈演员中具有中顶分布，如头皮电压的地形图所示。在 AN 时间窗口中记录的电位的源重建（swLORETA）显示，与舞蹈演员相比，对照组（BA10/47）的前额叶区域参与度增强，而舞蹈演员的枕颞（BA20）和双侧感觉运动区域（BA6/40）则增强。这一证据似乎表明，在具有后天舞蹈专业知识的参与者中，复杂动作的动觉 MI 依赖于视动模拟过程。同时，在缺乏运动知识的参与者中，特定动作会增加认知需求。因此，专业舞蹈训练可能会导致动作表示过程的精细化。
