Su Wan-Chun, Culotta McKenzie L, Hoffman Michael D, Trost Susanna L, Pelphrey Kevin A, Tsuzuki Daisuke, Bhat Anjana N
Department of Physical Therapy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, United States.
Biomechanics & Movement Science Program, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, United States.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2020 Mar 3;14:57. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.00057. eCollection 2020.
Interpersonal synchrony (IPS) is an important everyday behavior influencing social cognitive development; however, few studies have investigated the developmental differences and underlying neural mechanisms of IPS. functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a novel neuroimaging tool that allows the study of cortical activation in the presence of natural movements. Using fNIRS, we compared cortical activation patterns between children and adults during action observation, execution, and IPS. Seventeen school-age children and 15 adults completed a reach to cleanup task while we obtained cortical activation data from bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), superior temporal sulcus (STS), and inferior parietal lobes (IPL). Children showed lower spatial and temporal accuracy during IPS compared to adults (i.e., spatial synchrony scores (Mean ± SE) in children: 2.67 ± 0.08 and adults: 2.85 ± 0.06; temporal synchrony scores (Mean ± SE) in children: 2.74 ± 0.06 and adults: 2.88 ± 0.05). For both groups, the STS regions were more activated during action observation, while the IFG and STS were more activated during action execution and IPS. The IPS condition involved more right-sided activation compared to action execution suggesting that IPS is a higher-order process involving more bilateral cortical activation. In addition, adults showed more left lateralization compared to the children during movement conditions (execution and IPS); which indicated greater inhibition of ipsilateral cortices in the adults compared to children. These findings provide a neuroimaging framework to study imitation and IPS impairments in special populations such as children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
人际同步（IPS）是一种影响社会认知发展的重要日常行为；然而，很少有研究调查IPS的发展差异和潜在神经机制。功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）是一种新型神经成像工具，可在自然运动情况下研究皮层激活。使用fNIRS，我们比较了儿童和成人在动作观察、执行和IPS过程中的皮层激活模式。17名学龄儿童和15名成人完成了伸手清理任务，同时我们从双侧额下回（IFG）、颞上沟（STS）和顶下小叶（IPL）获取了皮层激活数据。与成人相比，儿童在IPS过程中的空间和时间准确性较低（即儿童的空间同步得分（平均值±标准误）：2.67±0.08，成人：2.85±0.06；儿童的时间同步得分（平均值±标准误）：2.74±0.06，成人：2.88±0.05）。对于两组，在动作观察期间STS区域激活更强而在动作执行和IPS期间IFG和STS激活更强。与动作执行相比，IPS条件下右侧激活更多，这表明IPS是一个涉及更多双侧皮层激活的高阶过程。此外，在运动条件（执行和IPS）下，成人比儿童表现出更多的左侧化；这表明与儿童相比，成人对同侧皮层的抑制更强。这些发现为研究特殊人群如自闭症谱系障碍儿童的模仿和IPS损伤提供了一个神经成像框架。
