Abstract
Corticospinal excitability (CSE) in humans measured with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is generally increased by the perception of other people’s actions. This perception can be unimodal (visual or auditory) or multimodal (visual and auditory). The increase in TMS-measured CSE is typically prominent for muscles involved in the perceived action (muscle specificity). There are two main classes of accounts for this phenomenon. One suggests that the motor system mirrors the actions that the observer perceives (the resonance account). The other suggests that the motor system predicts the actions that the observer perceives (the predictive account). To test these accounts (which need not be mutually exclusive), subjects were presented with four versions of three-note piano sequences: sound only, sight only, audiovisual, and audiovisual with sound lagging behind (the prediction violation condition). CSE was measured in two hand muscles used to play the notes. CSE increased reliably in one muscle only for the prediction violation condition, in line with the predictive account, while the other muscle demonstrated CSE increase for all conditions, in line with the resonance account. This finding supports both predictive coding accounts as well as resonance accounts of motor facilitation during action perception.
Highlights
Motor regions of the brain are traditionally defined by their primary role in motor control but motor areas play a role in the perception of others’ actions (e.g., Hari et al, 1998; Buccino et al, 2001; Aziz-Zadeh et al, 2004; Fadiga et al, 2005)
A common measurement used for detecting motor activation is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) -induced motor-evoked potentials (MEPs), which reflects the level of corticospinal excitability (CSE) at the time of stimulation
The EMG data was exported from Visor2 (ANT Neuro), and we ran a custom Python script to extract MEPs
Summary
Motor regions of the brain are traditionally defined by their primary role in motor control (i.e., coding goals, planning, coordinating, and executing actions) but motor areas play a role in the perception of others’ actions (e.g., Hari et al, 1998; Buccino et al, 2001; Aziz-Zadeh et al, 2004; Fadiga et al, 2005). A common measurement used for detecting motor activation is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) -induced motor-evoked potentials (MEPs), which reflects the level of corticospinal excitability (CSE) at the time of stimulation. Increased CSE is found during visual perception of actions (Fadiga et al, 1995) as well as auditory perception of actions (Kohler et al, 2002; Aziz-Zadeh et al, 2004). This increase is thought to reflect the recruitment of the mirror neuron system (Gallese et al, 1996), which is active both during action observation and action execution for similar actions, suggesting its involvement. The cortical motor areas of an observer are recruited for motor simulation of others’ actions in synchrony with those actions, and this is specific to the same muscle involved in the action
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
