Abstract
BackgroundPsychologically, females are usually thought to be superior in interpersonal sensitivity than males. The human mirror-neuron system is considered to provide the basic mechanism for social cognition. However, whether the human mirror-neuron system exhibits gender differences is not yet clear.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe measured the electroencephalographic mu rhythm, as a reliable indicator of the human mirror-neuron system activity, when female (N = 20) and male (N = 20) participants watched either hand actions or a moving dot. The display of the hand actions included androgynous, male, and female characteristics. The results demonstrate that females displayed significantly stronger mu suppression than males when watching hand actions. Instead, mu suppression was similar across genders when participants observed the moving dot and between the perceived sex differences (same-sex vs. opposite-sex). In addition, the mu suppressions during the observation of hand actions positively correlated with the personal distress subscale of the interpersonal reactivity index and negatively correlated with the systemizing quotient.Conclusions/SignificanceThe present findings indirectly lend support to the extreme male brain theory put forward by Baron-Cohen (2005), and may cast some light on the mirror-neuron dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders. The mu rhythm in the human mirror-neuron system can be a potential biomarker of empathic mimicry.
Highlights
Electrophysiological recordings in monkeys have identified a special class of neurons with visuomotor properties that are activated both by the execution and the observation of object-related actions
Neurophysiological recordings, including electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) as well as functional MRI experiments, demonstrate that the motor cortex becomes activated during the observation of actions and bodily movements performed by other individuals in the absence of any overt motor activity in the observer [6,7,8,9,10]
The mu suppression elicited by watching hand actions is considered to reflect the selective recruitment of the mirror-neuron system (MNS) [10,13,14,18,19]
Summary
Electrophysiological recordings in monkeys have identified a special class of neurons with visuomotor properties (i.e., mirror neurons) that are activated both by the execution and the observation of object-related actions. These neurons are located in the ventral premotor cortex as well as the rostral part of the convexity of the posterior parietal cortex [1,2,3,4]. There is convergent information that indicates that mu rhythm can be a window to explore the human MNS activity [11,12,13,14,15]. Whether the human mirror-neuron system exhibits gender differences is not yet clear
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