title: Electroencephalogram evidence for the activation of human mirror neuron system during the observation of intransitive shadow and line drawing actions.
abstract: Previous studies have demonstrated that hand shadows may activate the motor cortex associated with the mirror neuron system in human brain. However, there is no evidence of activity of the human mirror neuron system during the observation of intransitive movements by shadows and line drawings of hands. This study examined the suppression of electroencephalography mu waves (8-13 Hz) induced by observation of stimuli in 18 healthy students. Three stimuli were used: real hand actions, hand shadow actions and actions made by line drawings of hands. The results showed significant desynchronization of the mu rhythm ("mu suppression") across the sensorimotor cortex (recorded at C3, Cz and C4), the frontal cortex (recorded at F3, Fz and F4) and the central and right posterior parietal cortex (recorded at Pz and P4) under all three conditions. Our experimental findings suggest that the observation of "impoverished hand actions", such as intransitive movements of shadows and line drawings of hands, is able to activate widespread cortical areas related to the putative human mirror neuron system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China.
authors.forename: Huaping
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China.
authors.forename: Yaoru
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Systems and Computing, Brunel University, St John's 043, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: action understanding; clinical practice; direct matching hypothesis; electroencephalogram; event-related desynchronization; grants-supported paper; impoverished hand actions; mirror neuron system; mu rhythm; mu suppression; neural regeneration; neuroregeneration; photographs-containing paper