J Korean Phys Ther.  2019 Jun;31(3):157-160. 10.18857/jkpt.2019.31.3.157.

A Comprasion of the Activation of Mirror Neurons Induced by Action Observation between Simple and Complex Hand Movement

• Lee MY
• Kim JS

• KMID: 2453161
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.18857/jkpt.2019.31.3.157

Abstract

PURPOSE
We compared the activation pattern of the mirror neurons (MN) between two types of hand movement according to action observation using functional MRI.
METHODS
Twelve right-handed healthy subjects (5 male and 7 female, mean age 21.92±2.02 years) participated in the experiment. During fMRI scanning, subjects underwent two different stimuli on the screen: 1) video clips showing repeated grasping and releasing of the ball via simple hand movement (SHM), and (2) video clips showing an actor performing a Purdue Pegboard test via complex hand movement (CHM). paired t-test in statistical parametric mapping (SPM) was used to compare the activation differences between the two types of hand movement.
RESULTS
CHM as compared with the SHM produced a higher blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal response in the right superior frontal gyrus, left inferior and superior parietal lobules, and lingual gyrus. However, no greater BOLD signal response was found by SHM compared with CHM (FWE corrected, p<0.05).
CONCLUSION
Our findings provided that the activation patterns for observation of SHM and CHM are different. CHM also elicited boarder or stronger activations in the brain, including inferior parietal lobule called the MN region.

Keyword

Action observation; Mirror neuron; fMRI

MeSH Terms

Brain
Female
Hand Strength
Hand*
Healthy Volunteers
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Mirror Neurons*
Occipital Lobe
Oxygen
Parietal Lobe
Prefrontal Cortex
Oxygen