Abstract
IntroductionHumans are more familiar with index – thumb than with any other finger to thumb grasping. The effect of familiarity has been previously tested with complex, specialized and/or transitive movements, but not with simple intransitive ones. The aim of this study is to evaluate brain activity patterns during the observation of simple and intransitive finger movements with differing degrees of familiarity.MethodologyA functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study was performed using a paradigm consisting of the observation of 4 videos showing a finger opposition task between the thumb and the other fingers (index, middle, ring and little) in a repetitive manner with a fixed frequency (1 Hz). This movement is considered as the pantomime of a precision grasping action.ResultsSignificant activity was identified in the bilateral Inferior Parietal Lobule and premotor regions with the selected level of significance (FDR [False Discovery Rate] = 0.01). The extent of the activation in both regions tended to decrease when the finger that performed the action was further from the thumb. More specifically, this effect showed a linear trend (index>middle>ring>little) in the right parietal and premotor regions.ConclusionsThe observation of less familiar simple intransitive movements produces less activation of parietal and premotor areas than familiar ones. The most important implication of this study is the identification of differences in brain activity during the observation of simple intransitive movements with different degrees of familiarity.
Highlights
Humans are more familiar with index – thumb than with any other finger to thumb grasping
Significant activity was identified in the bilateral Inferior Parietal Lobule and premotor regions with the selected level of significance (FDR [False Discovery Rate] = 0.01)
The most important implication of this study is the identification of differences in brain activity during the observation of simple intransitive movements with different degrees of familiarity
Summary
Humans are more familiar with index – thumb than with any other finger to thumb grasping. Mirror neurons were firstly discovered in the premotor cortex of macaques (area F5) [8,9]: single cell recordings in these animals showed that the same neuron was activated when the macaque performed an action, and when it observed the same action. This feature was termed ‘‘mirror property’’ and many human brain imaging experiments have demonstrated the presence of neural systems with mirror properties in human brain regions, anatomically comparable to the monkey’s mirror neuron areas [10]. It is widely accepted that parietal regions (Superior Parietal Lobule [SPL], Inferior Parietal Lobule [SPL] and Intraparietal Sulcus [IPS]) and frontal regions (Dorsal and Ventral Premotor Cortex [dPMC and vPMC] and Inferior Frontal Gyrus [IFG]) are the main core of the human MNS [6]
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