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Abstract
Brain activity in the action observation network (AON) is lateralized during action execution, with greater activation in the contralateral hemisphere to the side of the body used to perform the task. However, it is unknown whether the AON is also lateralized when watching another person perform an action. In this study, we use fNIRS to measure brain activity over the left and right cortex while participants completed actions with their left and right hands and watched an actor complete action with their left and right hands. We show that while activation is lateralized when the participants themselves are moving, brain lateralization is not affected by the side of the body when the participant is observing another person’s action. In addition, we demonstrate that individual differences in hand preference and dexterity between the right and left hands are related to brain lateralization patterns.
Highlights
The action observation network (AON) is comprised of brain regions that are active when watching another person execute an action (Lepage and Théoret, 2006; Cross et al, 2009; Condy et al, 2021)
We showed that lateralization of activity in the action observation network varies for self-initiated actions and for observed actions
Using your right vs. left hand led to increased leftward lateralization of brain activity in the self-condition, whereas lateralization of brain activity did not vary when observing the other use their right vs. left hands
Summary
The action observation network (AON) is comprised of brain regions that are active when watching another person execute an action (Lepage and Théoret, 2006; Cross et al, 2009; Condy et al, 2021). There have been several fNIRS studies of the AON, most measured activation only in the contralateral hemisphere (Condy et al, 2021) and could not be used for the investigation of lateralization patterns Those fNIRS studies that did measure activation across both hemispheres either did not have action and observation conditions across both the left and right hand (Bhat et al, 2017; Crivelli et al, 2018), did not use a live person as the ‘‘actor’’ (Holper et al, 2010), focused on atypical populations (Kajiume et al, 2013), or used a non-lateralized action (i.e., walking; Zhang et al, 2019). We hypothesized that: (1) for the self-action condition, participants would show stronger activation in the contralateral vs ipsilateral cortex for use of both the left and right hands; (2) laterality of brain activations for observing the actor using their left vs right hands would vary. Our alternative hypothesis was that activation while observing an actor move would either: (1) activate both left and right motor cortices (indicating non-lateralization of the AON for this specific task) or (2) activate the brain as if the dominant hand were being used, independent of whether the actor was using their right or left hand (indicating a handedness or experience-driven lateralization of the AON)
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