Understanding motor resonance

European Journal of Neuroscience, 2011

Observation of others' actions induces a subliminal activation of motor pathways (motor resonance) that is mediated by the mirror neuron system and reflects the motor program encoding the observed action. Whether motor resonance represents the movements composing an action or also its motor intention remains of debate, as natural actions implicitly contain their motor intentions. Here, action and intention are dissociated using a natural and an impossible action with the same grasping intention: subjects observe an avatar grasping a ball using either a natural hand action ('palmar' finger flexion) or an impossible hand action ('dorsal' finger flexion). Motor-evoked potentials (MEPs), elicited by single transcranial magnetic stimulation of the hand area in the primary motor cortex, were used to measure the excitability modulation of motor pathways during observation of the two different hand actions. MEPs were recorded from the opponens pollicis (OP), abductor digiti minimi (ADM) and extensor carpi radialis (ECR) muscles. A significant MEP facilitation was found in the OP, during observation of the grasping phase of the natural action; MEPs in the ADM were facilitated during observation of the hand opening phase of the natural action and of both opening and grasping phases of the impossible action. MEPs in the ECR were not affected. As different resonant responses are elicited by the observation of the two different actions, despite their identical intention, we conclude that the mirror neuron system cannot utilize the observer's subliminal motor program in the primary motor cortex to encode action intentions.

Language and Cognition, 2014

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1866980814000362 How to cite this article: DAVID KEMMERER Does the motor system contribute to the perception and understanding of actions? Reflections on Gregory Hickok's The myth of mirror neurons: the real neuroscience of communication and cognition. Language and Cognition, a b s t r a c t It has been said that mirror neurons are "the most hyped concept in neuroscience" (Jarrett, 2012 ). In his book The myth of mirror neurons: the real neuroscience of communication and cognition , Gregory Hickok does the fi eld a great service by cutting through this hype and showing that, contrary to the views of many laypeople as well as some experts, mirror neurons are not the fundamental 'basis' of action understanding. I argue here, however, that he takes his critique too far by eff ectively denying that the motor system plays any signifi cant role at all in the perception and interpretation of actions. In fact, a large literature strongly supports the hypothesis that motor regions in the frontal and parietal lobes not only subserve the execution of actions, but also contribute to the comprehension of actions, regardless of whether they are directly observed or linguistically represented. In addition, recent research suggests that although the articulatory system is involved primarily in speech production, it enhances speech perception too, even when the auditory stimuli are not explicitly attended.

Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2014

We challenge Cook et al.'s claim about the vagueness of the notion of action understanding in relation with mirror neurons. We show the multidimensional nature of action understanding and provide a definition of motor-based action understanding, shedding new light on the various components of action understanding and on their relationship. Finally, we propose an alternative perspective on the origin of mirror neurons, stressing the necessity to abandon the dichotomy between genetic and associative hypotheses.

After the discovery of the " mirror " neurons in primates, some researchers tended to explain action understanding as a result of functioning of these units. The proponents of the traditional view on the nature of this cognitive and social phenomenon assume that the mirror neurons do not provide action understanding or provide it only partly. There exist empirical data that cannot be explained through the mirror neuron model of understanding others' actions. Analyzing the mirror neuron data, I revise their function and propose an alternative role of this type of neurons. At first, goals and intentions of the executor's action are coded outside the mirror neuron system. If the action is important for the observer and can be useful in his own motor repertoire, his/her mirror neuron system implicitly reproduces the action, retrieving the kinematics and sensory consequences the observer experienced in the past while executing the same action. Thus, the implicit reproduction facilitates the observer to execute this action either immediately or in the future. More likely, precisely this, but not action understanding, is the function of the mirror neurons.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8, 2014

We focus on the thesis that action understanding is a function of the mirror neuron system. According to our opinion, understanding is a process that runs through hermeneutic circles from the “Vorverständnis” (“previous understanding”) to steps of deeper understanding. Our critique relates to the narrow neuroscientific definition of action understanding as the capacity to recognize several movements as belonging to one action. After a reconstruction of the model's developments, we will challenge the claims of the model by Rizzolatti and Sinigaglia (2010). By analyzing the relation between the experimental results and its interpretation, we will conclude that there is no proof that mirror neuron activity leads to action understanding.

Neuroimage, 2008

Mirror neurons in the monkey's premotor cortex respond during both execution and observation of actions, and are thought to be critical for understanding others' actions. Human studies have shown premotor cortex activation while viewing actions, hearing their sounds, listening to or reading action-related sentences, and have compared execution and observation of similar actions. However, we still lack direct evidence in humans of the most striking and theoretically relevant feature of mirror neurons, i.e., that they map seen/heard actions onto motor representations of the same actions at an abstract level. Here we combine fast event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging with an unconscious semantic priming paradigm, and show that the human auditory mirror system also holds an abstract representation of the meaning of heard actions. We analyzed the effect on brain activity of trial-by-trial semantic congruency between a target sound denoting a hand or mouth action (or an environmental event) and a briefly flashed written word acting as an unconscious crossmodal prime. Left inferior frontal and posterior temporal regions selectively responded to action sounds in a non-somatotopic fashion, and were modulated by semantic congruency only in action sound trials. We also observed regions selective for either hand or mouth actions, which however did not show a corresponding effector-specific effect of semantic congruency. These results provide evidence that the human mirror system represents the meaning of actions (but not of other events) (a) at an abstract, semantic level, (b) independently of the effector, and (c) independently of conscious awareness. This property of mirror neurons is at the basis of the proposal by Rizzolatti and coworkers (Gallese et al., 2002; Rizzolatti et al., 1996a) that the mirror neuron system is involved in understanding actions performed by others, by directly matching the observed action to an internal motoric representation of the action in one's own motor repertoire. This direct matching would "give sense" to the other's action and would be at the basis of interindividual communication and possibly language (Rizzolatti and Craighero, 2004). The mirror neuron system might represent the biological basis not only for social interactions, but also for empathy with other people and the attribution of intentions to others (Gallese, 2003). An impressive series of neuroimaging studies in humans (Aziz-Zadeh et al., 2006a;

Neuropsychologia, 2014

Many human behaviours and pathologies have been attributed to the putative mirror neuron system, a neural system that is active during both the observation and execution of actions. While there are now a very large number of papers on the mirror neuron system, variations in the methods and analyses employed by researchers mean that the basic characteristics of the mirror response are not clear. This review focuses on three important aspects of the mirror response, as measured by modulations in corticospinal excitability: (1) muscle specificity; (2) direction; and (3) timing of modulation. We focus mainly on electromyographic (EMG) data gathered following single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), because this method provides precise information regarding these three aspects of the response. Data from paired-pulse TMS paradigms and peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) are also considered when we discuss the possible mechanisms underlying the mirror response. In this systematic review of the literature, we examine the findings of 85 TMS and PNS studies of the human mirror response, and consider the limitations and advantages of the different methodological approaches these have adopted in relation to discrepancies between their findings. We conclude by proposing a testable model of how action observation modulates corticospinal excitability in humans. Specifically, we propose that action observation elicits an early, non-specific facilitation of corticospinal excitability (at around 90 ms from action onset), followed by a later modulation of activity specific to the muscles involved in the observed action (from around 200 ms). Testing this model will greatly advance our understanding of the mirror mechanism and provide a more stable grounding on which to base inferences about its role in human behaviour.

EPSA Philosophical Issues in the Sciences, 2009

Though the existence of a mirror system for action is widely accepted, its mechanism and function are still controversial. It was originally held that the primary function of the mirror mechanism is to enable an individual to understand the actions performed by others, by directly matching the sensory with the motor representations of those actions. Recently, however, Gergely Csibra has proposed that mirror activation cannot be construed in terms of a mechanism that directly matches observed and executed motor acts, but must be based on a purely visual reconstruction of action, so that the primary mirror function would not be to understand other's actions, but to emulate them. The aim of this paper is to refute Csibra's arguments, showing that they are mostly based on a partial reading of the functional properties of mirror neurons as well as on a biased construal of both action and action understanding.

Physiological Reviews, 2014

L Rizzolatti G, Cattaneo L, Fabbri-Destro M, Rozzi S. Cortical Mechanisms Underlying the Organization of Goal-Directed Actions and Mirror Neuron-Based Action Understanding. Physiol Rev 94: 655-706, 2014; doi:10.1152/physrev.00009.2013Our understanding of the functions of motor system evolved remarkably in the last 20 years. This is the consequence not only of an increase in the amount of data on this system but especially of a paradigm shift in our conceptualization of it. Motor system is not considered anymore just a "producer" of movements, as it was in the past, but a system crucially involved in cognitive functions. In the present study we review the data on the cortical organization underlying goal-directed actions and action understanding. Our review is subdivided into two major parts. In the first part, we review the anatomical and functional organization of the premotor and parietal areas of monkeys and humans. We show that the parietal and frontal areas form circuits devoted to specific motor functions. We discuss, in particular, the visuo-motor transformation necessary for reaching and for grasping. In the second part we show how a specific neural mechanism, the mirror mechanism, is involved in understanding the action and intention of others. This mechanism is located in the same parieto-frontal circuits that mediate goal-directed actions. We conclude by indicating future directions for studies on the mirror mechanism and suggest some major topics for forthcoming research.