Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Trends Cogn Sci. 2021 Jun;25(6):493-505. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.02.012. Epub 2021 Mar 19.
Others' observed actions cause continuously changing retinal images, making it challenging to build neural representations of action identity. The monkey anterior intraparietal area (AIP) and its putative human homologue (phAIP) host neurons selective for observed manipulative actions (OMAs). The neuronal activity of both AIP and phAIP allows a stable readout of OMA identity across visual formats, but human neurons exhibit greater invariance and generalize from observed actions to action verbs. These properties stem from the convergence in AIP of superior temporal signals concerning: (i) observed body movements; and (ii) the changes in the body-object relationship. We propose that evolutionarily preserved mechanisms underlie the specification of observed-actions identity and the selection of motor responses afforded by them, thereby promoting social behavior.
他人的观察行为会导致不断变化的视网膜图像，因此很难构建行为身份的神经表示。猴子的前顶内沟区（AIP）及其假定的人类同源物（phAIP）中存在对观察到的操作行为（OMAs）具有选择性的神经元。AIP 和 phAIP 的神经元活动允许在不同的视觉格式中稳定地读取 OMA 身份，但人类神经元表现出更大的不变性，并能够从观察到的动作推广到动作动词。这些特性源于 AIP 中关于以下两个方面的高级颞叶信号的汇聚：（i）观察到的身体运动；和（ii）身体-物体关系的变化。我们提出，进化上保存的机制是观察到的动作身份的指定和它们所提供的运动反应的选择的基础，从而促进了社会行为。
