In Briefs

Abstract

What is the difference between your brain and the brain of a prima ballerina? Researchers at the University of Oxford used fMRI to scan the brain of Deborah Bull, a dancer with the Royal College of Ballet. The scan showed that when she watched a dance video or even imagined dancing, Bull's premotor cortex was activated, including a region shown to contain ‘mirror neurons’ in primates. Donna Lloyd, who carried out the study, told TICS, ‘this region has been shown to activate in primates when watching other primates performing actions, like picking up a piece of fruit. It can therefore use vision to guide movement. Although less is known about its role in humans, it is part of the language system and one theory is that it was used by our ancestors to interpret gestures, before the emergence of language.’ Lloyd also looked at the response of her own brain; watching the dance video produced a lesser and more diffuse response in Lloyd's premotor cortex than in Bull's. These results, which are to be featured on a forthcoming BBC2 programme (The Dancer's Body), demonstrate that brain responses to the actions of others are highly dependent on the experience and expertise of the observer. HJB