Journal
COGNITIVE BRAIN RESEARCH
Volume 19, Issue 2, Pages 195-201Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2003.12.001
Keywords
mirror neurons; EEG; Mu rhythm; goal-directed actions
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Recent electrophysiological studies have shown that the human electroencephalographic mu rhythm is suppressed during the observation of actions performed by other persons, an effect that may be functionally related to the behaviour of so-called mirror neurons observed in area F5 of nonhuman primates. Because mirror neuron activity has been reported to be functionally specific to object-oriented actions, the present study was designed to determine if the human mu rhythm also exhibits this property. EEG measurements were obtained from 12 normal subjects while they observed either a precision grip of a manipulandum or an empty grip using the same hand position. Our results showed that the magnitude of the mu rhythm was significantly lower for the object grip condition than for the empty grip condition. These data support the notion that the human mu rhythm indexes a brain system that is functionally comparable to the monkey mirror neuron system. We propose that nonobject-directed actions may result in representational schemas that are either different or less salient than motorically equivalent actions that are directed toward objects. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available