title: Primary somatosensory cortex necessary for the perception of weight from other people's action: A continuous theta-burst TMS experiment.
abstract: The presence of a network of areas in the parietal and premotor cortices, which are active both during action execution and observation, suggests that we might understand the actions of other people by activating those motor programs for making similar actions. Although neurophysiological and imaging studies show an involvement of the somatosensory cortex (SI) during action observation and execution, it is unclear whether SI is essential for understanding the somatosensory aspects of observed actions. To address this issue, we used off-line transcranial magnetic continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) just before a weight judgment task. Participants observed the right hand of an actor lifting a box and estimated its relative weight. In counterbalanced sessions, we delivered sham and active cTBS over the hand region of the left SI and, to test anatomical specificity, over the left motor cortex (M1) and the left superior parietal lobule (SPL). Active cTBS over SI, but not over M1 or SPL, impaired task performance relative to sham cTBS. Moreover, active cTBS delivered over SI just before participants were asked to evaluate the weight of a bouncing ball did not alter performance compared to sham cTBS. These findings indicate that SI is critical for extracting somatosensory features (heavy/light) from observed action kinematics and suggest a prominent role of SI in action understanding.
authors.affiliation: BCN Neuroimaging Centre, Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, CMHC S110, 34 Park Street, New Haven, CT 06519, USA.
authors.forename: Nikola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Valchev
authors.affiliation: Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Campus Cesena, 47521 Cesena, Italyhe somatosensory aspects of the actions of others rem; IRCSS Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00179 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Emmanuele
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tidoni
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, UK.
authors.forename: Antonia F de C
authors.initials: AFC
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.affiliation: BCN Neuroimaging Centre, Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, An Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 129 B, 1001 NK Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: v.gazzola@nin.knaw.nl.
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gazzola
authors.affiliation: Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Campus Cesena, 47521 Cesena, Italyhe somatosensory aspects of the actions of others rem; IRCSS Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00179 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: alessio.avenanti@unibo.it.
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Avenanti
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; D014892:Weight Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Action observation; Causality; Somatosensory cortex (SI); Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS); Weight lifting