An fMRI study of action observation and action execution in childhood
Although many studies have examined the location and function of the mirror neuron system (MNS) in human adults, we know relatively little about its development. The current study fills this gap by using fMRI to examine for the first time the development of the brain regions implicated in action exe...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2019-06-01
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| Series: | Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878929318302202 |
| _version_ | 1818849393803001856 |
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| author | Santiago Morales Lindsay C. Bowman Kayla R. Velnoskey Nathan A. Fox Elizabeth Redcay |
| author_facet | Santiago Morales Lindsay C. Bowman Kayla R. Velnoskey Nathan A. Fox Elizabeth Redcay |
| author_sort | Santiago Morales |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Although many studies have examined the location and function of the mirror neuron system (MNS) in human adults, we know relatively little about its development. The current study fills this gap by using fMRI to examine for the first time the development of the brain regions implicated in action execution, action observation, and their overlap. We examined age-related differences in brain activation by contrasting a group of children (n = 21) and adults (n = 18). Surfaced-based analyses of action execution and action observation revealed that brain activity for action observation and execution in children is similar to adults, though adults displayed greater activity than children within the right superior parietal lobe during action execution and the occipital lobe during action observation compared to control. Further, within-individual measures of overlapping activation between action observation and execution revealed age-related differences, such that adults, compared to children, displayed more spatial overlap. Moreover, the extent of the overlap in activation across conditions was related to better motor skills and action representation abilities in children. These data indicate that the MNS changes between middle childhood and adulthood. The data also demonstrate the functional significance of the putative MNS to motor skills and action representation during development. Keywords: Action execution, Action observation, Brain development, fMRI, Mirror neuron system |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T06:32:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fc14967bf4854eaeb6b117987542c719 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1878-9293 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T06:32:32Z |
| publishDate | 2019-06-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-fc14967bf4854eaeb6b117987542c7192022-12-21T20:32:21ZengElsevierDevelopmental Cognitive Neuroscience1878-92932019-06-0137An fMRI study of action observation and action execution in childhoodSantiago Morales0Lindsay C. Bowman1Kayla R. Velnoskey2Nathan A. Fox3Elizabeth Redcay4The University of Maryland, College Park, United States; Corresponding author at: 3304 Benjamin Building, Campus Dr., College Park, MD, 20742, United States.The University of Maryland, College Park, United States; The University of California, Davis, United StatesThe University of Maryland, College Park, United StatesThe University of Maryland, College Park, United StatesThe University of Maryland, College Park, United StatesAlthough many studies have examined the location and function of the mirror neuron system (MNS) in human adults, we know relatively little about its development. The current study fills this gap by using fMRI to examine for the first time the development of the brain regions implicated in action execution, action observation, and their overlap. We examined age-related differences in brain activation by contrasting a group of children (n = 21) and adults (n = 18). Surfaced-based analyses of action execution and action observation revealed that brain activity for action observation and execution in children is similar to adults, though adults displayed greater activity than children within the right superior parietal lobe during action execution and the occipital lobe during action observation compared to control. Further, within-individual measures of overlapping activation between action observation and execution revealed age-related differences, such that adults, compared to children, displayed more spatial overlap. Moreover, the extent of the overlap in activation across conditions was related to better motor skills and action representation abilities in children. These data indicate that the MNS changes between middle childhood and adulthood. The data also demonstrate the functional significance of the putative MNS to motor skills and action representation during development. Keywords: Action execution, Action observation, Brain development, fMRI, Mirror neuron systemhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878929318302202 |
| spellingShingle | Santiago Morales Lindsay C. Bowman Kayla R. Velnoskey Nathan A. Fox Elizabeth Redcay An fMRI study of action observation and action execution in childhood Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience |
| title | An fMRI study of action observation and action execution in childhood |
| title_full | An fMRI study of action observation and action execution in childhood |
| title_fullStr | An fMRI study of action observation and action execution in childhood |
| title_full_unstemmed | An fMRI study of action observation and action execution in childhood |
| title_short | An fMRI study of action observation and action execution in childhood |
| title_sort | fmri study of action observation and action execution in childhood |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878929318302202 |
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