Experience Influences Brain Mechanisms of Watching Dance

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (supplement) ◽  
pp. 352-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seon Hee Jang ◽  
Frank E Pollick
Keyword(s):  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Visual Experience ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Retrosplenial Cortex ◽  
Imagery Task ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction ◽  
Action Observation Network ◽  
Viewing Experience

The study of dance has been helpful to advance our understanding of how human brain networks of action observation are influenced by experience. However previous studies have not examined the effect of extensive visual experience alone: for example, an art critic or dance fan who has a rich experience of watching dance but negligible experience performing dance. To explore the effect of pure visual experience we performed a single experiment using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to compare the neural processing of dance actions in 3 groups: a) 14 ballet dancers, b) 10 experienced viewers, c) 12 novices without any extensive dance or viewing experience. Each of the 36 participants viewed short 2-second displays of ballet derived from motion capture of a professional ballerina. These displays represented the ballerina as only points of light at the major joints. We wished to study the action observation network broadly and thus included two different types of display and two different tasks for participants to perform. The two different displays were: a) brief movies of a ballet action and b) frames from the ballet movies with the points of lights connected by lines to show a ballet posture. The two different tasks were: a) passively observe the display and b) imagine performing the action depicted in the display. The two levels of display and task were combined factorially to produce four experimental conditions (observe movie, observe posture, motor imagery of movie, motor imagery of posture). The set of stimuli used in the experiment are available for download after this paper. A random effects ANOVA was performed on brain activity and an effect of experience was obtained in seven different brain areas including: right Temporoparietal Junction (TPJ), left Retrosplenial Cortex (RSC), right Primary Somatosensory Cortex (S1), bilateral Primary Motor Cortex (M1), right Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC), right Temporal Pole (TP). The patterns of activation were plotted in each of these areas (TPJ, RSC, S1, M1, OFC, TP) to investigate more closely how the effect of experience changed across these areas. For this analysis, novices were treated as baseline and the relative effect of experience examined in the dancer and experienced viewer groups. Interpretation of these results suggests that both visual and motor experience appear equivalent in producing more extensive early processing of dance actions in early stages of representation (TPJ and RSC) and we hypothesise that this could be due to the involvement of autobiographical memory processes. The pattern of results found for dancers in S1 and M1 suggest that their perception of dance actions are enhanced by embodied processes. For example, the S1 results are consistent with claims that this brain area shows mirror properties. The pattern of results found for the experienced viewers in OFC and TP suggests that their perception of dance actions are enhanced by cognitive processes. For example, involving aspects of social cognition and hedonic processing – the experienced viewers find the motor imagery task more pleasant and have richer connections of dance to social memory. While aspects of our interpretation are speculative the core results clearly show common and distinct aspects of how viewing experience and physical experience shape brain responses to watching dance.

scholarly journals Hypnosis-induced modulation of corticospinal excitability during motor imagery

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Cesari ◽  
Michele Modenese ◽  
Sara Benedetti ◽  
Mehran Emadi Andani ◽  
Mirta Fiorio
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Imagery Task ◽  
Hypnotic Susceptibility ◽  
Motor Abilities ◽  
Neurophysiological Mechanisms ◽  
Altered State Of Consciousness ◽  
System Activation

Abstract Hypnosis can be considered an altered state of consciousness in which individuals produce movements under suggestion without apparent voluntary control. Despite its application in contexts implying motor control, evidence for the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying hypnosis is scarce. Inter-individual differences in hypnotic susceptibility suggest that sensorimotor strategies may manifest in a hypnotic state. We tested by means of transcranial magnetic stimulation applied over the primary motor cortex whether motor system activation during a motor imagery task differs in the awake and in the hypnotic state. To capture individual differences, 30 healthy volunteers were classified as high or low hypnotizable (Highs and Lows) according to ad-hoc validated scales measuring hypnotic susceptibility and personality questionnaires. Corticospinal activation during motor imagery in the hypnotic state was greater in the Highs than the Lows. Intrinsic motivation in task performance and level of persuasion modulated corticospinal activation in the Highs. Corticospinal system activation under hypnosis may have practical implications that merit research in areas where hypnosis can be applied to improve motor performance, such as loss of motor abilities and sports.

scholarly journals Systematic Balance Exercises Influence Cortical Activation and Serum BDNF Levels in Older Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 1910 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kubica ◽  
Szymura ◽  
Domagalik ◽  
Golda ◽  
Wiecek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Balance Training ◽  
Cortical Activation ◽  
Bdnf Expression ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Balance Exercises ◽  
Serum Bdnf

: We sought to investigate whether systematic balance training modulates brain area activity responsible for postural control and influence brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mRNA protein expression. Seventy-four older adults were randomly divided into three groups (mean age 65.34 ± 3.79 years, 30 females): Classic balance exercises (CBT), virtual reality balance exercises (VBT), and control (CON). Neuroimaging studies were performed at inclusion and after completion of the training or 12 weeks later (CON). Blood samples were obtained to measure BDNF expression. The study revealed significant interaction of sessions and groups: In the motor imagery (MI) condition for supplementary motor area (SMA) activity (Fat peak = 5.25, p < 0.05); in the action observation (AO) condition for left and right supramarginal gyrus/posterior insula (left: Fat peak = 6.48, p < 0.05; right: Fat peak = 6.92, p < 0.05); in the action observation together with motor imagery (AOMI) condition for the middle occipital gyrus (laterally)/area V5 (left: Fat peak = 6.26, p < 0.05; right: Fat peak = 8.37, p < 0.05), and in the cerebellum–inferior semilunar lobule/tonsil (Fat peak = 5.47, p < 0.05). After the training serum BDNF level has increased in CBT (p < 0.001) and in CBT compared to CON (p < 0.05). Systematic balance training may reverse the age-related cortical over-activations and appear to be a factor mediating neuroplasticity in older adults.

Event-related desynchronization reflects downregulation of intracortical inhibition in human primary motor cortex

2013 ◽  
Vol 110 (5) ◽  
pp. 1158-1166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitsuaki Takemi ◽  
Yoshihisa Masakado ◽  
Meigen Liu ◽  
Junichi Ushiba
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Sensorimotor Cortex ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Motor Evoked Potentials ◽  
Short Interval ◽  
Hand Movement ◽  
Intracortical Inhibition ◽  
Imagery Task ◽  
Event Related Desynchronization

There is increasing interest in electroencephalogram (EEG)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) as a tool for rehabilitation of upper limb motor functions in hemiplegic stroke patients. This type of BCI often exploits mu and beta oscillations in EEG recorded over the sensorimotor areas, and their event-related desynchronization (ERD) following motor imagery is believed to represent increased sensorimotor cortex excitability. However, it remains unclear whether the sensorimotor cortex excitability is actually correlated with ERD. Thus we assessed the association of ERD with primary motor cortex (M1) excitability during motor imagery of right wrist movement. M1 excitability was tested by motor evoked potentials (MEPs), short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI), and intracortical facilitation (ICF) with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Twenty healthy participants were recruited. The participants performed 7 s of rest followed by 5 s of motor imagery and received online visual feedback of the ERD magnitude of the contralateral hand M1 while performing the motor imagery task. TMS was applied to the right hand M1 when ERD exceeded predetermined thresholds during motor imagery. MEP amplitudes, SICI, and ICF were recorded from the agonist muscle of the imagined hand movement. Results showed that the large ERD during wrist motor imagery was associated with significantly increased MEP amplitudes and reduced SICI but no significant changes in ICF. Thus ERD magnitude during wrist motor imagery represents M1 excitability. This study provides electrophysiological evidence that a motor imagery task involving ERD may induce changes in corticospinal excitability similar to changes accompanying actual movements.

scholarly journals Prior cortical activity differences during an action observation plus motor imagery task related to motor adaptation performance of a coordinated multi-limb complex task

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 769-779
Author(s):  
J. Ignacio Serrano ◽  
Daniel Muñoz-García ◽  
Raúl Ferrer-Peña ◽  
Victor D’eudeville ◽  
Marta Brero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Motor Adaptation ◽  
Cortical Activity ◽  
Imagery Task ◽  
Complex Task

scholarly journals Neural Suppression Elicited During Motor Imagery Following the Observation of Biological Motion From Point-Light Walker Stimuli

2022 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Grazia ◽  
Michael Wimmer ◽  
Gernot R. Müller-Putz ◽  
Selina C. Wriessnegger
Keyword(s):  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Mental Simulation ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Point Light

Introduction: Advantageous effects of biological motion (BM) detection, a low-perceptual mechanism that allows the rapid recognition and understanding of spatiotemporal characteristics of movement via salient kinematics information, can be amplified when combined with motor imagery (MI), i.e., the mental simulation of motor acts. According to Jeannerod’s neurostimulation theory, asynchronous firing and reduction of mu and beta rhythm oscillations, referred to as suppression over the sensorimotor area, are sensitive to both MI and action observation (AO) of BM. Yet, not many studies investigated the use of BM stimuli using combined AO-MI tasks. In this study, we assessed the neural response in the form of event-related synchronization and desynchronization (ERD/S) patterns following the observation of point-light-walkers and concordant MI, as compared to MI alone.Methods: Twenty right-handed healthy participants accomplished the experimental task by observing BM stimuli and subsequently performing the same movement using kinesthetic MI (walking, cycling, and jumping conditions). We recorded an electroencephalogram (EEG) with 32 channels and performed time-frequency analysis on alpha (8–13 Hz) and beta (18–24 Hz) frequency bands during the MI task. A two-way repeated-measures ANOVA was performed to test statistical significance among conditions and electrodes of interest.Results: The results revealed significant ERD/S patterns in the alpha frequency band between conditions and electrode positions. Post hoc comparisons showed significant differences between condition 1 (walking) and condition 3 (jumping) over the left primary motor cortex. For the beta band, a significantly less difference in ERD patterns (p &lt; 0.01) was detected only between condition 3 (jumping) and condition 4 (reference).Discussion: Our results confirmed that the observation of BM combined with MI elicits a neural suppression, although just in the case of jumping. This is in line with previous findings of AO and MI (AOMI) eliciting a neural suppression for simulated whole-body movements. In the last years, increasing evidence started to support the integration of AOMI training as an adjuvant neurorehabilitation tool in Parkinson’s disease (PD).Conclusion: We concluded that using BM stimuli in AOMI training could be promising, as it promotes attention to kinematic features and imitative motor learning.

scholarly journals Neural Topography and Content of Movement Representations

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Floris P. de Lange ◽  
Peter Hagoort ◽  
Ivan Toni
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Mental Rotation ◽  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
Imagery Task ◽  
Hand Laterality ◽  
Posterior Parietal

We have used implicit motor imagery to investigate the neural correlates of motor planning independently from actual movements. Subjects were presented with drawings of left or right hands and asked to judge the hand laterality, regardless of the stimulus rotation from its upright orientation. We paired this task with a visual imagery control task, in which subjects were presented with typographical characters and asked to report whether they saw a canonical letter or its mirror image, regardless of its rotation. We measured neurovascular activity with fast event-related fMRI, distinguishing responses parametrically related to motor imagery from responses evoked by visual imagery and other task-related phenomena. By quantifying behavioral and neurovascular correlates of imagery on a trial-by-trial basis, we could discriminate between stimulus-related, mental rotation-related, and response-related neural activity. We found that specific portions of the posterior parietal and precentral cortex increased their activity as a function of mental rotation only during the motor imagery task. Within these regions, the parietal cortex was visually responsive, whereas the dorsal precentral cortex was not. Response- but not rotation-related activity was found around the left central sulcus (putative primary motor cortex) during both imagery tasks. Our study provides novel evidence on the topography and content of movement representations in the human brain. During intended action, the posterior parietal cortex combines somatosensory and visuomotor information, whereas the dorsal premotor cortex generates the actual motor plan, and the primary motor cortex deals with movement execution. We discuss the relevance of these results in the context of current models of action planning.

Effect of tactile stimulation on primary motor cortex excitability during action observation combined with motor imagery

2015 ◽  
Vol 600 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megumi Tanaka ◽  
Shinji Kubota ◽  
Yusuke Onmyoji ◽  
Masato Hirano ◽  
Kazumasa Uehara ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Tactile Stimulation ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Motor Cortex Excitability

scholarly journals Age-Related Differences in Cortical and Subcortical Activities during Observation and Motor Imagery of Dynamic Postural Tasks: An fMRI Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Mouthon ◽  
J. Ruffieux ◽  
M. Mouthon ◽  
H.-M. Hoogewoud ◽  
J.-M. Annoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Balance Control ◽  
Dynamic Balance ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Internal Representation ◽  
Mental Simulation ◽  
Visual Input ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Postural Tasks

Age-related changes in brain activation other than in the primary motor cortex are not well known with respect to dynamic balance control. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore age-related differences in the control of static and dynamic postural tasks using fMRI during mental simulation of balance tasks. For this purpose, 16 elderly (72 ± 5 years) and 16 young adults (27 ± 5 years) were asked to mentally simulate a static and a dynamic balance task by motor imagery (MI), action observation (AO), or the combination of AO and MI (AO + MI). Age-related differences were detected in the form of larger brain activations in elderly compared to young participants, especially in the challenging dynamic task when applying AO + MI. Interestingly, when MI (no visual input) was contrasted to AO (visual input), elderly participants revealed deactivation of subcortical areas. The finding that the elderly demonstrated overactivation in mostly cortical areas in challenging postural conditions with visual input (AO + MI and AO) but deactivation in subcortical areas during MI (no vision) may indicate that elderly individuals allocate more cortical resources to the internal representation of dynamic postural tasks. Furthermore, it might be assumed that they depend more strongly on visual input to activate subcortical internal representations.

scholarly journals Neural Dissociations between Action Verb Understanding and Motor Imagery

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 2387-2400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roel M. Willems ◽  
Ivan Toni ◽  
Peter Hagoort ◽  
Daniel Casasanto
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
Mental Simulation ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Imagery Task ◽  
Cortical Motor ◽  
Motor Representations ◽  
Action Verbs

According to embodied theories of language, people understand a verb like throw, at least in part, by mentally simulating throwing. This implicit simulation is often assumed to be similar or identical to motor imagery. Here we used fMRI to test whether implicit simulations of actions during language understanding involve the same cortical motor regions as explicit motor imagery. Healthy participants were presented with verbs related to hand actions (e.g., to throw) and nonmanual actions (e.g., to kneel). They either read these verbs (lexical decision task) or actively imagined performing the actions named by the verbs (imagery task). Primary motor cortex showed effector-specific activation during imagery, but not during lexical decision. Parts of premotor cortex distinguished manual from nonmanual actions during both lexical decision and imagery, but there was no overlap or correlation between regions activated during the two tasks. These dissociations suggest that implicit simulation and explicit imagery cued by action verbs may involve different types of motor representations and that the construct of “mental simulation” should be distinguished from “mental imagery” in embodied theories of language.

scholarly journals Implicit visual sensitivity towards slim versus overweight bodies modulates motor resonance in the primary motor cortex: A tDCS study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stergios Makris ◽  
Valentina Cazzato
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Video Clip ◽  
Normal Weight ◽  
Visual Sensitivity ◽  
Motor Resonance ◽  
Action Observation Network ◽  
Cathodal Tdcs ◽  
Overweight Group

AbstractMotor resonance (MR) can be influenced by individual differences and similarity in the physical appearance between the actor and observer. Recently, we reported that action simulation is modulated by an implicit visual sensitivity towards normal-weight compared with overweight bodies. Furthermore, recent research has suggested the existence of an action observation network responsible for MR, with limited evidence whether the primary motor cortex (M1) is part of this. We expanded our previous findings with regards to the role of an implicit normal-weight-body preference in the MR mechanism. At the same time, we tested the functional relevance of M1 to MR, by using a transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) protocol. Seventeen normal-weight and 17 overweight participants were asked to observe normal-weight or overweight actors reaching and grasping a light or heavy cube, and then, at the end of each video-clip to indicate the correct cube weight. Before the task, all participants received 15 min of sham or cathodal tDCS over the left M1. Measures of anti-fat attitudes were also collected. During sham tDCS, all participants were better in simulating the actions performed by normal-weight compared with overweight models. Surprisingly, cathodal tDCS selectively improved the ability in the overweight group to simulate actions performed by the overweight models. This effect was not associated with scores of fat phobic attitudes or implicit anti-fat bias. Our findings are discussed in the context of relevance of M1 to MR and its social modulation by anti-fat attitudes.

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