Abstract
The human mirror neuron system (MNS) is hypothesized to be crucial to social cognition. Given that key MNS-input regions such as the superior temporal sulcus are involved in biological motion processing, and mirror neuron activity in monkeys has been shown to vary with visual attention, aberrant MNS function may be partly attributable to atypical visual input. To examine the relationship between gaze pattern and interpersonal motor resonance (IMR; an index of putative MNS activity), healthy right-handed participants aged 18–40 (n = 26) viewed videos of transitive grasping actions or static hands, whilst the left primary motor cortex received transcranial magnetic stimulation. Motor-evoked potentials recorded in contralateral hand muscles were used to determine IMR. Participants also underwent eyetracking analysis to assess gaze patterns whilst viewing the same videos. No relationship was observed between predictive gaze and IMR. However, IMR was positively associated with fixation counts in areas of biological motion in the videos, and negatively associated with object areas. These findings are discussed with reference to visual influences on the MNS, and the possibility that MNS atypicalities might be influenced by visual processes such as aberrant gaze pattern.
Highlights
Discovered serendipitously whilst recording single motor neurons in macaques, mirror neurons are cells that fire both when an action is performed, and when that same action is observed (Di Pellegrino et al, 1992)
In the present study transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and eyetracking technologies were used to examine the relationship between interpersonal motor resonance (IMR) and gaze pattern during the observation of grasping actions
No relationship was found between predictive gaze (PG) and Mean motor evoked potential (MEP)
Summary
Discovered serendipitously whilst recording single motor neurons in macaques, mirror neurons are cells that fire both when an action is performed, and when that same action is observed (Di Pellegrino et al, 1992). Homologous neurons and mechanisms have been inferred in humans via a range of techniques, with the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) typically implicated These structures, along with the superior temporal sulcus (STS), are together referred to as the parietofrontal mirror neuron system (MNS; Iacoboni and Mazziotta, 2007). Some assert that the MNS is responsible for, or implicated in, social cognitive processes such as action/goal/intention understanding (Gallese et al, 2013), imitation (Williams et al, 2001), empathy (Iacoboni and Mazziotta, 2007), and theory of mind (Perkins et al, 2010) Others have challenged these claims (Dinstein et al, 2008; Hickok, 2009). This posits that if MNS function is impaired, this might lead to a decreased ability to understand and/or imitate what we observe, which would in turn contribute to the social and mentalising deficits characteristic of ASD
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