Does the Side of Stroke Matter? An fMRI Study on the Role of Stroke Laterality on the Action Observation Network

Many have recently questioned whether all levels of actions understanding, from lower kinematic levels to the higher goal or intention levels of action understanding, are processed in the action observation network (a network of neurons that are active during action execution and observation). A recent study by Wurm and Lingnau ( J Neurosci 35: 7727–7735, 2015) gave evidence to the contrary, by showing that higher levels of action understanding are processed in the lateral occipitotemporal cortex. An important next step is to differentiate between the role of the lateral occipitotemporal cortex in processing the visual form of an observed action and the goal of an observed action.

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Reorganization of action observation network in children with unilateral cerebral palsy: an fMRI study

Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology ◽

10.1111/dmcn.22_14017 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 60 ◽

pp. 16-17

Keyword(s):

Cerebral Palsy ◽

Action Observation ◽

Action Observation Network ◽

Observation Network ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Unilateral Cerebral Palsy

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Reorganization of the Action Observation Network and Sensory-Motor System in Children with Unilateral Cerebral Palsy: An fMRI Study

Neural Plasticity ◽

10.1155/2018/6950547 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2018 ◽

pp. 1-15 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Giuseppina Sgandurra ◽

Laura Biagi ◽

Leonardo Fogassi ◽

Elisa Sicola ◽

Adriano Ferrari ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cerebral Palsy ◽

Action Observation ◽

Response To Therapy ◽

Clinical Scales ◽

Action Observation Network ◽

Observation Network ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Fmri Session ◽

Sensory Motor ◽

Unilateral Cerebral Palsy

Little is known about the action observation network (AON) in children with unilateral cerebral palsy (UCP). Using fMRI, we aimed to explore AON and sensory-motor network (SMN) in UCP children and compare them to typically developed (TD) children and analyse the relationship between AON (re-)organization and several neurophysiological and clinical measures. Twelve UCP children were assessed with clinical scales and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). For the fMRI study, they underwent a paradigm based on observation of complex and simple object-manipulation tasks executed by dominant and nondominant hand. Moreover, UCP and TD children carried out a further fMRI session to explore SMN in both an active motor and passive sensory task. AON in the UCP group showed higher lateralization, negatively related to performances on clinical scales, and had greater activation of unaffected hemisphere as compared to the bilateral representation in the TD group. In addition, a good congruence was found between bilateral or contralateral activation of AON and activation of SMN and TMS data. These findings indicate that our paradigm might be useful in exploring AON and the response to therapy in UCP subjects.

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The Role of Embodiment and Individual Empathy Levels in Gesture Comprehension

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000351 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 64 (1) ◽

pp. 56-64 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Karine Jospe ◽

Agnes Flöel ◽

Michal Lavidor

Keyword(s):

Action Observation ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Expression Recognition ◽

Opposite Pattern ◽

Action Observation Network ◽

Observation Network ◽

Selective Interaction ◽

Gesture Comprehension ◽

Restricted Condition

Abstract. Research suggests that the action-observation network is involved in both emotional-embodiment (empathy) and action-embodiment (imitation) mechanisms. Here we tested whether empathy modulates action-embodiment, hypothesizing that restricting imitation abilities will impair performance in a hand gesture comprehension task. Moreover, we hypothesized that empathy levels will modulate the imitation restriction effect. One hundred twenty participants with a range of empathy scores performed gesture comprehension under restricted and unrestricted hand conditions. Empathetic participants performed better under the unrestricted compared to the restricted condition, and compared to the low empathy participants. Remarkably however, the latter showed the exactly opposite pattern and performed better under the restricted condition. This pattern was not found in a facial expression recognition task. The selective interaction of embodiment restriction and empathy suggests that empathy modulates the way people employ embodiment in gesture comprehension. We discuss the potential of embodiment-induced therapy to improve empathetic abilities in individuals with low empathy.

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Large-Scale Organization of the Hand Action Observation Network in Individuals Born Without Hands

Cerebral Cortex ◽

10.1093/cercor/bhy212 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 29 (8) ◽

pp. 3434-3444 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Gilles Vannuscorps ◽

Moritz F Wurm ◽

Ella Striem-Amit ◽

Alfonso Caramazza

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Action Observation ◽

Spatial Arrangement ◽

Upper Limbs ◽

Body Movements ◽

Action Observation Network ◽

Observation Network ◽

Pattern Similarity ◽

High Level

Abstract The human high-level visual cortex comprises regions specialized for the processing of distinct types of stimuli, such as objects, animals, and human actions. How does this specialization emerge? Here, we investigated the role of effector-specific visuomotor coupling experience in shaping the organization of the action observation network (AON) as a window on this question. Observed body movements are frequently coupled with corresponding motor codes, e.g., during monitoring one’s own movements and imitation, resulting in bidirectionally connected circuits between areas involved in body movements observation (e.g., of the hand) and the motor codes involved in their execution. If the organization of the AON is shaped by this effector-specific visuomotor coupling, then, it should not form for body movements that do not belong to individuals’ motor repertoire. To test this prediction, we used fMRI to investigate the spatial arrangement and functional properties of the hand and foot action observation circuits in individuals born without upper limbs. Multivoxel pattern decoding, pattern similarity, and univariate analyses revealed an intact hand AON in the individuals born without upper limbs. This suggests that the organization of the AON does not require effector-specific visuomotor coupling.

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The Case of Pretense: Observing Actions and Inferring Goals

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2009.21049 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 21 (4) ◽

pp. 642-653 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Ricarda I. Schubotz ◽

D. Yves von Cramon

Keyword(s):

Action Observation ◽

Relevant Information ◽

Action Observation Network ◽

Observation Network ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Scene Gist ◽

Brain Correlates ◽

Goal Inference ◽

The Brain ◽

Real Action

When we observe an action, we know almost immediately what goal is pursued by the actor. Strikingly, this applies also to pretend action (pantomime), which provides relevant information about the manipulation itself but not about the manipulated objects. The present fMRI study addressed the issue of goal inference from pretend action as compared with real action. We found differences as well as commonalities for the brain correlates of inferring goals from both types of action. They differed with regard to the weights of the underlying action observation network, indicating the exploitation of object information in the case of real actions and manipulation information in the case of pretense. However, goal inferences from manipulation information resulted in a common network for both real and pretend action. Interestingly, this latter network also comprised areas that are not identified by action observation and that might be due to the processing of scene gist and to the evaluation of fit of putative action goals. These findings suggest that observation of pretense emphasizes the requirement to internally simulate the observed act but rule out fundamental differences of how observers cope with real and pretend action.

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Subjective understanding of actions and emotions involves the interplay of the semantic and action observation networks in the brain

10.1101/2021.04.15.439961 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Minye Zhan ◽

Rainer Wilhelm Goebel ◽

Beatrice de Gelder

Keyword(s):

Action Observation ◽

Premotor Cortex ◽

Emotion Understanding ◽

Action Observation Network ◽

Observation Network ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Subjective Reports ◽

The Brain ◽

Left Middle ◽

7T Fmri

How we subjectively generate an understanding of other people's bodily actions and emotions is not well understood. In this 7T fMRI study, we examined the representational geometry of bodily action- and emotion-understanding by mapping individual subjective reports with word embeddings, besides using conventional univariate/multivariate analyses with predefined categories. Dimensionality reduction revealed that the representations for perceived action and emotion were high dimensional, each correlated to but were not reducible to the predefined action and emotion categories. With searchlight representational similarity analysis, we found the left middle superior temporal sulcus and left dorsal premotor cortex corresponded to the subjective action and emotion representations. Furthermore using task-residual functional connectivity and hierarchical clustering, we found that areas in the action observation network and the semantic/default-mode network were functionally connected to these two seed regions and showed similar representations. Our study provides direct evidence that both networks were concurrently involved in subjective action and emotion understanding.

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