Causal role of ventral premotor cortex during observation of transitive actions

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Causal role of ventral premotor cortex during observation of transitive actions Guy Rens1* and Marco Davare1, 2 1 KU Leuven, Department of Kinesiology, Belgium 2 University College London, Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, United Kingdom In monkeys, neurons in F5 become active both when the monkey performs an action and when the monkey observes a similar action performed by the experimenter (mirror neurons). Using double coil transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in healthy subjects (n=16), we investigated whether short-latency interactions between the ventral premotor cortex (PMv, the homologue of F5 in monkeys) and the primary motor cortex (M1) are modulated by the observation of different types of actions. We further compared PMv-M1 interactions during observation and execution of the same actions. Finally we investigated the causal contribution of PMv to the increase in corticospinal excitability (motor resonance) occurring during action observation. PMv-M1 interactions were tested before and after a train of continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) to PMv during four experimental conditions: (1) object presentation (pen or disc), (2) observation of a transitive action towards an object (goal-directed), (3) observation of an intransitive action and (4) execution of the same actions. We found that both transitive and intransitive action observation modulated PMv-M1 interactions in a grasp-specific fashion (all p<0.011). For example, when observing the grasp of a pen, delivering a conditioning pulse over PMv 6 ms before a test pulse over M1 led to larger motor evoked potentials in muscles specifically required for the grasp. Following PMv cTBS, these grasp-specific PMv-M1 interactions were abolished (all p<0.001); in contrast, grasp-specific M1 resonance was still maintained for intransitive, but not transitive action observation (p=0.003). These results suggest that PMv has a causal role in mediating goal-directed information to M1 during observation of transitive actions. We suggest that other areas of the mirror neuron system enable motor resonance in M1 during intransitive actions. Our results shed new light on complex interactions between the different components of the action observation system. Keywords: TMS, ventral premotor cortex (PMv), action observation, theta burst stimulation, mirror neuron system, motor resonance, goal-directed actions Conference: 12th National Congress of the Belgian Society for Neuroscience, Gent, Belgium, 22 May - 22 May, 2017. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Cognition and Behavior Citation: Rens G and Davare M (2019). Causal role of ventral premotor cortex during observation of transitive actions. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: 12th National Congress of the Belgian Society for Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2017.94.00007 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 02 May 2017; Published Online: 25 Jan 2019. * Correspondence: Mr. Guy Rens, KU Leuven, Department of Kinesiology, Heverlee, België, 3001, Belgium, rensguy1@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Guy Rens Marco Davare Google Guy Rens Marco Davare Google Scholar Guy Rens Marco Davare PubMed Guy Rens Marco Davare Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.