The role of putative human anterior intraparietal sulcus area in observed manipulative action discrimination

• Published in: Brain and behavior Vol. 9; no. 3; pp. e01226 - n/a
• Main Authors: Orban, Guy A., Ferri, Stefania, Platonov, Artem
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.03.2019; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Actors; Adult; Attention - physiology; Brain Mapping - methods; Discrimination, Psychological - physiology; Experiments; featural attention; Female; fMRI; Gender; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Motor Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Motor Cortex - physiology; Neurons; Original Research; Parietal Lobe - diagnostic imaging; Parietal Lobe - physiology; Photic Stimulation - instrumentation; Photic Stimulation - methods; posterior parietal cortex; selective neurons; Studies; two‐alternative forced choice; fMRI; featural attention; two-alternative forced choice; posterior parietal cortex; selective neurons
• DOI: 10.1002/brb3.1226
• ISSN: 2162-3279

Introduction Although it has become widely accepted that the action observation network (AON) includes three levels (occipito‐temporal, parietal and premotor), little is known concerning the specific role of these levels within perceptual tasks probing action observation. Recent single cell studies suggest that the parietal level carries the information required to discriminate between two‐alternative observed actions, but do not exclude possible contributions from the other two levels. Methods Two functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments used a task‐based attentional modulation paradigm in which subjects viewed videos of an actor performing a manipulative action on a coloured object, and discriminated between either two observed manipulative actions, two actors or two colours. Results Both experiments demonstrated that relative to actor and colour discrimination, discrimination between observed manipulative actions involved the putative human anterior intraparietal sulcus (phAIP) area in parietal cortex. In one experiment, where the observed actions also differed with regard to effectors, premotor cortex was also specifically recruited. Conclusions Our results highlight the primary role of parietal cortex in discriminating between two‐alternative observed manipulative actions, consistent with the view that this level plays a major role in representing the identity of an observed action. Putative human AIP is activated bilaterally when humans make judgments about others’ actions, compared to when they judge the gender of the actor or the colour of the target object.