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. 2005;43(1):115-27.
doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2004.04.026.

An fMRI study of imitation: action representation and body schema

Thierry Chaminade  1 , Andrew N Meltzoff, Jean Decety
Affiliations

An fMRI study of imitation: action representation and body schema

Thierry Chaminade et al. Neuropsychologia. 2005.

Abstract

Recent neuropsychological investigations of apraxia have led to new hypotheses about the representational defects associated with imitation impairments in neurological patients. This fMRI experiment investigated the relation between imitation and the body schema in healthy subjects. Experimental conditions were derived from a factorial plan, and participants were asked to watch a human model performing bodily gestures and then to execute either an identical or a different action, with the same or different limbs. Brain areas activated when subjects imitated the model were traced to the representation of the action (main effect of performing an identical action regardless of limb), to the body schema (using the same limb regardless of action), or to both. The first set of analyses yielded a network associated with visual perception, indicating that action representation is primarily visuospatial not motor, while the second analysis highlighted regions involved in body schema including the inferior parietal cortex and the insula. It is suggested that imitation of simple body gestures requires both a visuospatial description of the observed model, sustained by visual perception areas in the right occipitotemporal and superior parietal cortices and a visuospatial description of one's own body, supported by the left inferior parietal lobule. These results favor a model of praxis proposing that imitation deficits in left inferior parietal lobe patients with apraxia reflect primarily an impairment of the body schema, while deficits of praxis in right parietal patients are limited to gestures demanding in terms of visuospatial analysis.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Snapshots from stimuli are used to depict two actions. Top: horizontal left–right horizontal movement with the right hand. Bottom: counterclockwise rotation with the left foot.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Top and lateral views of glass brains showing hemodynamic changes associated with: (A) imitating, (B) main effect of executing an identical action and (C) main effect of using the same limb.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Two coronal sections of a representative brain showing activity associated with imitating. The anterior section (left) shows clusters of activity in the posterior cingulate, extending to the rostral end of the calcarin sulcus and bilaterally in the fusiform gyrus. The most posterior section shows clusters of activity in the calcarin sulcus and extrastriate body area in the right hemisphere. Both sections show activity in the right intraparietal sulcus.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Two sections of a representative brain showing activity associated with reproducing an identical action. The sagittal section (left) shows clusters of activity in the posterior cingulate, extending to the rostral end of the calcarin sulcus, and in the ventromedial cortex. The coronal section shows bilateral clusters of activity in area MT.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Two sections of a representative brain showing activity associated with using the same limb. The sagittal section (left) shows clusters of activity in the right posterior insula and precentral gyrus. The coronal section shows bilateral clusters of activity in the supramarginal gyrus as well as a left-lateralized cluster in the parietal operculum.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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