Parietal Lobe: From Action Organization to Intention Understanding

Fogassi, Leonardo; Ferrari, Pier Francesco; Gesierich, Benno; Rozzi, Stefano; Chersi, Fabian; Rizzolatti, Giacomo

doi:10.1126/science.1106138

Cited by 1,702 publications

(1,336 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Single-cell recordings in macaque monkeys demonstrate that different mirror neurons discharge when a movement (e.g., grasping) is part of different end-state. Thus, when a monkey reaches for food and brings it to the mouth (e.g., for eating), different mirror neurons are activated than when the monkey places the food aside [e.g., for placing; Fogassi et al, 2005]. Similar goal identifying brain regions have been documented in the IFG of the human brain ].…”

Section: Theoretical Perspectives On Social Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Social cognition and the brain: A meta‐analysis

Overwalle

2008

Human Brain Mapping

1,527

102

1,300

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This meta-analysis explores the location and function of brain areas involved in social cognition, or the capacity to understand people's behavioral intentions, social beliefs, and personality traits. On the basis of over 200 fMRI studies, it tests alternative theoretical proposals that attempt to explain how several brain areas process information relevant for social cognition. The results suggest that inferring temporary states such as goals, intentions, and desires of other people-even when they are false and unjust from our own perspective-strongly engages the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). Inferring more enduring dispositions of others and the self, or interpersonal norms and scripts, engages the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), although temporal states can also activate the mPFC. Other candidate tasks reflecting general-purpose brain processes that may potentially subserve social cognition are briefly reviewed, such as sequence learning, causality detection, emotion processing, and executive functioning (action monitoring, attention, dual task monitoring, episodic memory retrieval), but none of them overlaps uniquely with the regions activated during social cognition. Hence, it appears that social cognition particularly engages the TPJ and mPFC regions. The available evidence is consistent with the role of a TPJ-related mirror system for inferring temporary goals and intentions at a relatively perceptual level of representation, and the mPFC as a module that integrates social information across time and allows reflection and representation of traits and norms, and presumably also of intentionality, at a more abstract cognitive level.

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Section: Theoretical Perspectives On Social Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Social cognition and the brain: A meta‐analysis

Overwalle

2008

Human Brain Mapping

1,527

102

1,300

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The dorsal stream prepares manipulatory actions like grasping and reaching (Shmuelof and Zohary 2005). A quite new discovery is the mirror neuron system, which fires both when an action is performed by the individual and when an action is performed by another (Rizzolatti 1996;Rizzolatti and Craighero 2004;Fogassi, Ferrari et al 2005). It has been found that the mirror neuron system is related to the dorsal stream.…”

Section: Two Visual Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fitting objects into holes: On the development of spatial cognition skills.

Örnkloo¹,

Hofsten²

2007

Developmental Psychology

118

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The authors examined 14-to 26-month-old infants' understanding of the spatial relationships between objects and apertures in an object manipulation task. The task was to insert objects with various cross-sections (circular, square, rectangular, ellipsoid, and triangular) into fitting apertures. A successful solution required the infant to mentally rotate the object to be fit into the aperture and use that information to plan the action. The object was presented standing up in half of the trials; in the other half, it was lying down. The results showed that infants solved the problem consistently from age 22 months and that a successful solution was associated with appropriate preadjustments before the hand arrived with the block to the aperture. No sex differences were found.

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“…Additionally, during observation of similar actions, mirror neurons in inferior parietal lobe (IPL), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and ventral premotor cortex, have been shown to respond differentially depending solely on the goal of the action (Fogassi et al. 2005; Iacoboni et al. 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power modulation of electroencephalogram mu and beta frequency depends on perceived level of observed actions

Simon

Mukamel

2016

Brain and Behavior

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IntroductionThe ability to understand actions and intentions of others is of great importance to social relationships and is associated with the mirror neuron system of the human brain. Whether conscious perception of specific actions is necessary to trigger activity in this system, or alternatively whether this response is independent of conscious perception is not known.MethodsWe addressed this issue by rendering videos of right hand movements invisible to conscious perception, and measuring electroencephalogram (EEG) power suppression in the mu (8–13 Hz) and beta (15–25 Hz) range as index corresponding to the magnitude of mirror neuron activity.ResultsIn the beta range over bilateral sensorimotor sites, we find that suppression indices follow the reported perceptual level of subjects with stronger suppression for consciously perceived trials. Furthermore, in the nonperceived trials, oscillation power is significantly suppressed relative to baseline. In the low mu range (8–10 Hz), oscillation power over the left sensorimotor site is significantly more suppressed in the consciously perceived versus nonperceived trials.ConclusionsOur data suggest that the intensity of mirror system responses during action observation decreases with the observers' perception level yet remains significant during observation of invisible actions. Such subliminal activity could help explain phenomena such as covert imitation.

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Parietal Lobe: From Action Organization to Intention Understanding

Cited by 1,702 publications

References 21 publications

Social cognition and the brain: A meta‐analysis

Social cognition and the brain: A meta‐analysis

Fitting objects into holes: On the development of spatial cognition skills.

Power modulation of electroencephalogram mu and beta frequency depends on perceived level of observed actions

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