title: Using action understanding to understand the left inferior parietal cortex in the human brain.
abstract: Humans have a sophisticated knowledge of the actions that can be performed with objects. In an fMRI study we tried to establish whether this depends on areas that are homologous with the inferior parietal cortex (area PFG) in macaque monkeys. Cells have been described in area PFG that discharge differentially depending upon whether the observer sees an object being brought to the mouth or put in a container. In our study the observers saw videos in which the use of different objects was demonstrated in pantomime; and after viewing the videos, the subject had to pick the object that was appropriate to the pantomime. We found a cluster of activated voxels in parietal areas PFop and PFt and this cluster was greater in the left hemisphere than in the right. We suggest a mechanism that could account for this asymmetry, relate our results to handedness and suggest that they shed light on the human syndrome of apraxia. Finally, we suggest that during the evolution of the hominids, this same pantomime mechanism could have been used to 'name' or request objects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK.
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Passingham
authors.affiliation: Brain and Vision Research Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, 44 Cummington Mall, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: Brain and Vision Research Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, 44 Cummington Mall, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Goparaju
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cowey
authors.affiliation: Brain and Vision Research Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, 44 Cummington Mall, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Massachussetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Department of Neurology & Radiology, 15 Parkman Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Electronic address: vaina@bu.edu.
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Vaina
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014741:Video Recording; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Action observation; Action understanding; Apraxia; Cerebral dominance; Human brain; Inferior parietal cortex; Pantomime
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