Neural correlates of action: Comparing meta-analyses of imagery, observation, and execution

Abstract

Several models propose Motor Imagery, Action Observation, and Movement Execution recruit the same brain regions. There is, however, no quantitative synthesis of the literature that directly compares their respective networks. Here we summarized data from neuroimaging experiments examining Motor Imagery (303 experiments, 4902 participants), Action Observation (595 experiments, 11,032 participants), and related control tasks involving Movement Execution (142 experiments, 2302 participants). Comparisons across these networks showed that Motor Imagery and Action Observation recruited similar premotor-parietal cortical networks. However, while Motor Imagery recruited a similar subcortical network to Movement Execution, Action Observation did not consistently recruit any subcortical areas. These data quantify and amend previous models of the similarities in the networks for Motor Imagery, Action Observation, and Movement Execution, while highlighting key differences in their recruitment of motor cortex, parietal cortex, and subcortical structures.

Gravity highlights a dual role of the insula in internal models

“…We found that mental movements activated brain areas similar to actual movements. This confirms that motor execution and motor imagery engage common neural representations (for a review, see Hardwick et al, 2018;Hétu et al, 2013). Our findings also revealed brain responses in the insular cortex in both actual and imagined movements.…”

“…This mental process is particularly beneficial when physical movements are not possible; for example, for a patient in a bed rest. It is captivating that mental and actual actions engage similar neural networks, such as the parietal and prefrontal cortices, the supplementary motor area, the premotor and primary motor cortices, the basal ganglia, the cerebellum, and even the spinal cord (Grosprêtre et al, 2016;Guillot and Collet, 2005;Hardwick et al, 2018;Hétu et al, 2013;Jeannerod, 2001). At the computational level, evidence support the hypothesis that mental simulation of movement is generated by internal forward models, which are neural networks that mimic the causal flow of the physical process by predicting the future sensorimotor state (e.g., position, velocity) given the efferent copy of the motor command and the current state (Kilteni et al, 2018;Miall and Wolpert, 1996;Wolpert and Flanagan, 2001).…”

Differential contributions of left-hemispheric language regions to basic semantic composition

“…These interactions were inclusively masked by the significant voxels of the minuend in order to restrict them to those voxels that were also activated in the task (cf. Hardwick, Caspers, Eickhoff, & Swinnen, 2018).…”

Frontal and occipito-temporal Theta activity as marker of error monitoring in Human-Avatar joint performance

“…At the neural level, individuals' ability to predict the fate of observed actions Abreu et al, 2017) is thought to rely on the activity of the Action Observation Network (AON, Rizzolatti & Craighero, 2004;van Overwalle & Baetens, 2009;Molenberghs et al, 2012;Hardwick et al, 2018) comprising occipito-temporal regions responsible for visual processing of body images (Extrastriate Body Area, EBA; lateral occipito-temporal cortex, LOTC) and biological motion (Superior Temporal Sulcus, STS, Puce & Perrett, 2003;Giese & Poggio, 2003) as well as parietal (anterior Intra Parietal Sulcus, aIPS) and premotor (ventral and dorsal PreMotor, vPM, dPM) areas where the transformation of visual information into motor coordinates is thought to be computed (Keysers & Gazzola, 2014).…”