Abstract
Action observation, simulation and execution share neural mechanisms that allow for a common motor representation. It is known that when these overlapping mechanisms are simultaneously activated by action observation and execution, motor performance is influenced by observation and vice versa. To understand the neural dynamics underlying this influence and to measure how variations in brain activity impact the precise kinematics of motor behavior, we coupled kinematics and electrophysiological recordings of participants while they performed and observed congruent or non-congruent actions or during action execution alone. We found that movement velocities and the trajectory deviations of the executed actions increased during the observation of congruent actions compared to the observation of non-congruent actions or action execution alone. This facilitation was also discernible in the motor-related potentials of the participants; the motor-related potentials were transiently more negative in the congruent condition around the onset of the executed movement, which occurred 300 ms after the onset of the observed movement. This facilitation seemed to depend not only on spatial congruency but also on the optimal temporal relationship of the observation and execution events.
Highlights
Action observation, simulation and execution share neural mechanisms that allow for common motor representation (Prinz, 1997; Jeannerod, 2001)
We found that observing a congruent grasping action optimized the grasp component of the movement only when the movements occurred within a 200 ms delay and not when they were separated by 1 s (Ménoret et al, 2013)
The Cz electrode was chosen because the motor related potentials (MRP) such as the Readiness Potential and the Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) are commonly described (Libet, 1985) over this electrode and, because it was only observed over this electrode in our experiment
Summary
Simulation and execution share neural mechanisms that allow for common motor representation (Prinz, 1997; Jeannerod, 2001). Initially discovered in monkeys, may represent a correlate of this “action observationexecution” matching system (Gallese and Goldman, 1998) These mirror neurons, which have been identified in the macaque ventral premotor cortex and inferior parietal lobule, fire during the execution of an action and during the observation of the same action (Di Pellegrino et al, 1992; Gallese et al, 1996; Rizzolatti et al, 2001; Umiltà et al, 2001). Using extracellular neuronal recordings, Mukamel et al (2010) identified single neurons with mirror properties in the human supplementary motor area (SMA), the hippocampus, the parahippocampal gyrus and the entorhinal cortex These regions, which are not classically described as being a part of the mirror system, may provide evidence that the MNS is more dispersed than initially thought (Keysers and Gazzola, 2010). Coordinated behaviors are essential for successful interaction, and we may consider the implication of the Action-Observation network in such coordination and the importance of the optimization of the temporal coordination between observed and executed actions (Knoblich et al, 2011)
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