Abstract
Introduction: Humans engage in Interpersonal Synchrony (IPS) as they synchronize their own actions with that of a social partner over time. When humans engage in imitation/IPS behaviors, multiple regions in the frontal, temporal, and parietal cortices are activated including the putative Mirror Neuron Systems (Iacoboni, 2005; Buxbaum et al., 2014). In the present study, we compared fNIRS-based cortical activation patterns across three conditions of action observation (“Watch” partner), action execution (“Do” on your own), and IPS (move “Together”).Methods: Fifteen typically developing adults completed a reach and cleanup task with the right arm while cortical activation was examined using a 24-channel, Hitachi fNIRS system. Each adult completed 8 trials across three conditions (Watch, Do, and Together). For each fNIRS channel, we obtained oxy hemoglobin (HbO2) and deoxy hemoglobin (HHb) profiles. Spatial registration methods were applied to localize the cortical regions underneath each channel and to define six regions of interest (ROIs), right and left supero-anterior (SA or pre/post-central gyri), infero-posterior (IP or angular/supramarginal gyri), and infero-anterior (IA or superior/middle temporal gyri) regions.Results: In terms of task-related differences, the majority of the ROIs were more active during Do and Together compared to Watch. Only the right/ipsilateral fronto-parietal and inferior parietal cortices had greater activation during Together compared to Do.Conclusions: The similarities in cortical activation between action execution and IPS suggest that neural control of IPS is more similar to its execution than observational aspects. To be clear, the more complex the actions performed, the more difficult the IPS behaviors. Secondly, IPS behaviors required slightly more right-sided activation (vs. execution/observation) suggesting that IPS is a higher-order process involving more bilateral activation compared to its sub-components. These findings provide a neuroimaging framework to study imitation and IPS impairments in special populations such as infants at risk for and children with ASD.
Highlights
Humans engage in Interpersonal Synchrony (IPS) as they synchronize their own actions with that of a social partner over time
The present study aimed to examine differences in activation patterns in the putative MNS regions during action observation, action execution, and IPS conditions of a fundamental reach and cleanup task in a group of healthy adults
We found that various putative MNS regions were active; the superior temporal cortices were active during action observation and the fronto-parietal and superior temporal cortices were more active during action execution and IPS
Summary
Humans engage in Interpersonal Synchrony (IPS) as they synchronize their own actions with that of a social partner over time. When actions are similar, engaging in IPS is relatively complex as it involves continuous rhythmic actions with moment-to-moment synchronization over time, (e.g., marching in a band) compared to imitation that involves reproducing a motor pattern for a finite number of actions (e.g., reproducing a marching sequence, say, “March like this— 1, 2, 3, 4”) (Marsh et al, 2009; Vicaria and Dickens, 2016). There are clear commonalities and distinctions between imitation and IPS behaviors with imitation acts requiring correspondence during discrete actions and IPS behaviors demanding sustained synchrony over time
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