Modulation of Motor Cortex Excitability by Physical Similarity with an Observed Hand Action
Open Access
- 3 October 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLOS ONE
- Vol. 2 (10), e971
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000971
Abstract
The passive observation of hand actions is associated with increased motor cortex excitability, presumably reflecting activity within the human mirror neuron system (MNS). Recent data show that in-group ethnic membership increases motor cortex excitability during observation of culturally relevant hand gestures, suggesting that physical similarity with an observed body part may modulate MNS responses. Here, we ask whether the MNS is preferentially activated by passive observation of hand actions that are similar or dissimilar to self in terms of sex and skin color. Transcranial magnetic stimulation-induced motor evoked potentials were recorded from the first dorsal interosseus muscle while participants viewed videos depicting index finger movements made by female or male participants with black or white skin color. Forty-eight participants equally distributed in terms of sex and skin color participated in the study. Results show an interaction between self-attributes and physical attributes of the observed hand in the right motor cortex of female participants, where corticospinal excitability is increased during observation of hand actions in a different skin color than that of the observer. Our data show that specific physical properties of an observed action modulate motor cortex excitability and we hypothesize that in-group/out-group membership and self-related processes underlie these effects.Keywords
This publication has 47 references indexed in Scilit:
- Do You See What I Mean? Corticospinal Excitability During Observation of Culture-Specific GesturesPLOS ONE, 2007
- The self and social cognition: the role of cortical midline structures and mirror neuronsTrends in Cognitive Sciences, 2007
- Gender differences in the human mirror system: a magnetoencephalography studyNeuroReport, 2006
- rTMS to the right inferior parietal lobule disrupts self–other discriminationSocial Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2006
- Motor facilitation during action observation: topographic mapping of the target muscle and influence of the onlooker's postureEuropean Journal of Neuroscience, 2006
- Sex Differences in the Brain: Implications for Explaining AutismScience, 2005
- Human motor cortex excitability during the perception of others’ actionCurrent Opinion in Neurobiology, 2005
- Imaging race.American Psychologist, 2005
- Social Projection to Ingroups and Outgroups: A Review and Meta-AnalysisPersonality and Social Psychology Review, 2005
- Modulation of right motor cortex excitability without awareness following presentation of masked self-imagesCognitive Brain Research, 2004