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

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.