The Specificity of Action Knowledge in Sensory and Motor Systems
Neuroimaging studies have found that sensorimotor systems are engaged when participants observe actions or comprehend action language. However, most of these studies have asked the binary question of whether action concepts are embodied or not, rather than whether sensory and motor areas of the brai...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2014-05-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00494/full |
| _version_ | 1819114182215204864 |
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| author | Christine E Watson Christine E Watson Eileen R Cardillo Bianca eBromberger Anjan eChatterjee |
| author_facet | Christine E Watson Christine E Watson Eileen R Cardillo Bianca eBromberger Anjan eChatterjee |
| author_sort | Christine E Watson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Neuroimaging studies have found that sensorimotor systems are engaged when participants observe actions or comprehend action language. However, most of these studies have asked the binary question of whether action concepts are embodied or not, rather than whether sensory and motor areas of the brain contain graded amounts of information during putative action simulations. To address this question, we used repetition suppression (RS) functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine if functionally-localized motor movement and visual motion regions-of-interest (ROI) and two anatomical ROIs (inferior frontal gyrus, IFG; left posterior middle temporal gyrus) were sensitive to changes in the exemplar (e.g., two different people kicking) or representational format (e.g., photograph or schematic drawing of someone kicking) within pairs of action images. We also investigated whether concrete versus more symbolic depictions of actions (i.e., photographs versus schematic drawings) yielded different patterns of activation throughout the brain. We found that during a conceptual task, sensory and motor systems represent actions at different levels of specificity. While the visual motion ROI did not exhibit RS to different exemplars of the same action or to the same action depicted by different formats, the motor movement ROI did. These effects are consistent with person-specific action simulations: if the motor system is recruited for action understanding, it does so by activating one’s own motor program for an action. We also observed significant repetition enhancement within the IFG ROI to different exemplars or formats of the same action, a result that may indicate additional cognitive processing on these trials. Finally, we found that the recruitment of posterior brain regions by action concepts depends on the format of the input: left lateral occipital cortex and right supramarginal gyrus responded more strongly to symbolic depictions of actions than concrete ones. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T04:41:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4c22be84d40347389ac1e1a960d8c41d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T04:41:14Z |
| publishDate | 2014-05-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-4c22be84d40347389ac1e1a960d8c41d2022-12-21T18:38:45ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782014-05-01510.3389/fpsyg.2014.0049482802The Specificity of Action Knowledge in Sensory and Motor SystemsChristine E Watson0Christine E Watson1Eileen R Cardillo2Bianca eBromberger3Anjan eChatterjee4Albert Einstein Healthcare NetworkUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaNeuroimaging studies have found that sensorimotor systems are engaged when participants observe actions or comprehend action language. However, most of these studies have asked the binary question of whether action concepts are embodied or not, rather than whether sensory and motor areas of the brain contain graded amounts of information during putative action simulations. To address this question, we used repetition suppression (RS) functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine if functionally-localized motor movement and visual motion regions-of-interest (ROI) and two anatomical ROIs (inferior frontal gyrus, IFG; left posterior middle temporal gyrus) were sensitive to changes in the exemplar (e.g., two different people kicking) or representational format (e.g., photograph or schematic drawing of someone kicking) within pairs of action images. We also investigated whether concrete versus more symbolic depictions of actions (i.e., photographs versus schematic drawings) yielded different patterns of activation throughout the brain. We found that during a conceptual task, sensory and motor systems represent actions at different levels of specificity. While the visual motion ROI did not exhibit RS to different exemplars of the same action or to the same action depicted by different formats, the motor movement ROI did. These effects are consistent with person-specific action simulations: if the motor system is recruited for action understanding, it does so by activating one’s own motor program for an action. We also observed significant repetition enhancement within the IFG ROI to different exemplars or formats of the same action, a result that may indicate additional cognitive processing on these trials. Finally, we found that the recruitment of posterior brain regions by action concepts depends on the format of the input: left lateral occipital cortex and right supramarginal gyrus responded more strongly to symbolic depictions of actions than concrete ones.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00494/fullmotor systemfunctional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)ActionsSemantic memoryvisual motion |
| spellingShingle | Christine E Watson Christine E Watson Eileen R Cardillo Bianca eBromberger Anjan eChatterjee The Specificity of Action Knowledge in Sensory and Motor Systems Frontiers in Psychology motor system functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Actions Semantic memory visual motion |
| title | The Specificity of Action Knowledge in Sensory and Motor Systems |
| title_full | The Specificity of Action Knowledge in Sensory and Motor Systems |
| title_fullStr | The Specificity of Action Knowledge in Sensory and Motor Systems |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Specificity of Action Knowledge in Sensory and Motor Systems |
| title_short | The Specificity of Action Knowledge in Sensory and Motor Systems |
| title_sort | specificity of action knowledge in sensory and motor systems |
| topic | motor system functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Actions Semantic memory visual motion |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00494/full |
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