Developmental Differences in Cortical Activation During Action Observation, Action Execution and Interpersonal Synchrony: An fNIRS Study

Abstract

Interpersonal synchrony (IPS) is an important everyday behavior influencing social cognitive development; however, few studies have investigated the developmental differences and underlying neural mechanisms of IPS. functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a novel neuroimaging tool that allows the study of cortical activation in the presence of natural movements. Using fNIRS, we compared cortical activation patterns between children and adults during action observation, execution, and IPS. Seventeen school-age children and 15 adults completed a reach to cleanup task while we obtained cortical activation data from bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), superior temporal sulcus (STS), and inferior parietal lobes (IPL). Children showed lower spatial and temporal accuracy during IPS compared to adults (i.e., spatial synchrony scores (Mean ± SE) in children: 2.67 ± 0.08 and adults: 2.85 ± 0.06; temporal synchrony scores (Mean ± SE) in children: 2.74 ± 0.06 and adults: 2.88 ± 0.05). For both groups, the STS regions were more activated during action observation, while the IFG and STS were more activated during action execution and IPS. The IPS condition involved more right-sided activation compared to action execution suggesting that IPS is a higher-order process involving more bilateral cortical activation. In addition, adults showed more left lateralization compared to the children during movement conditions (execution and IPS); which indicated greater inhibition of ipsilateral cortices in the adults compared to children. These findings provide a neuroimaging framework to study imitation and IPS impairments in special populations such as children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Differences in cortical activation patterns during action observation, action execution, and interpersonal synchrony between children with or without autism spectrum disorder (ASD): An fNIRS pilot study

“…Using fMRI, researchers have found greater activation during action imitation or execution compared to observation [ 40 , 42 , 44 ]. These findings echo the results of our past fNIRS study of interpersonal synchrony in healthy adults and children [ 22 , 23 ]. Together, these results suggest that the challenges of imitation or interpersonal synchrony stem from the complexity of motor control components and not the observation component.…”

“…Moreover, we compared the behaviors and associated cortical activation between interpersonal synchrony and its component behaviors (i.e., action observation and execution). Our past findings in adults and typically developing children show that the neural complexity of imitation/interpersonal synchrony arises from the motor component and not the perceptual component [ 22 , 23 ].…”

Brief Relaxation Practice Induces Significantly More Prefrontal Cortex Activation during Arithmetic Tasks Comparing to Viewing Greenery Images as Revealed by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)

“…First, the fNIRS device focused on the pre-frontal cortex and could not perform whole brain assessment and was not able to assess deeper neuroanatomical structures [26]. Second, our sample size was small but was comparable with previous fNIRS studies [11,27,28]. Third, due to limitation of time and consistency, this study only involved one cognitive task (i.e., arithmetic tasks) and did not include other cognitive tasks (e.g., verbal fluency test, trail making task), and further research is required to assess the effect brief relaxation practice on other cognitive tasks.…”

Cerebral hemodynamic response during a live action-observation and action-execution task: A fNIRS study

“…The results also implicate other brain regions including the supplementary motor region (SMA) [37] or superior/middle temporal gyri [30]. Recent studies with developing population have found consisting cortical activation patterns [38,39]. When comparing execution and observation, studies have reported that observing someone perform an action seems to elicit more bilateral activation than executing the same action in the superior/middle temporal gyri, STS, vPMC and somatosensory region [30,31].…”