Fronto-parietal mirror neuron system modeling: Visuospatial transformations support imitation learning independently of imitator perspective |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA;2. Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA;3. Behavioral Biology Branch, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA;4. Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA;5. University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA;6. Maryland Robotics Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA;1. Psychiatry Department, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt;2. Radiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt;1. Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA;2. School of Medicine, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA;3. Department of Kinesiology, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, USA;1. Department of Kinesiology, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA;2. The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Miami – Miami, FL 33136, USA;1. Department of Kinesiology, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA;2. School of Kinesiology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA;1. University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Center for Human Movement Sciences, Groningen, The Netherlands;2. University of Groningen, Department of Psychology, Groningen, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | Although the human mirror neuron system (MNS) is critical for action observation and imitation, most MNS investigations overlook the visuospatial transformation processes that allow individuals to interpret and imitate actions observed from differing perspectives. This problem is not trivial since accurately reaching for and grasping an object requires a visuospatial transformation mechanism capable of precisely remapping fine motor skills where the observer’s and imitator’s arms and hands may have quite different orientations and sizes. Accordingly, here we describe a novel neural model to investigate the dynamics between the fronto-parietal MNS and visuospatial processes during observation and imitation of a reaching and grasping action. Our model encompasses i) the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL), regions that are postulated to produce neural drive and sensory predictions, respectively; ii) the middle temporal (MT) and middle superior temporal (MST) regions that are postulated to process visual motion of a particular action; and iii) the superior parietal lobule (SPL) and intra-parietal sulcus (IPS) that are hypothesized to encode the visuospatial transformations enabling action observation/imitation based on different visuospatial viewpoints. The results reveal that when a demonstrator executes an action, an imitator can reproduce it with similar kinematics, independently of differences in anthropometry, distance, and viewpoint. As with prior empirical findings, similar model synaptic activity was observed during both action observation and execution along with the existence of both view-independent and view-dependent neural populations in the frontal MNS. Importantly, this work generates testable behavioral and neurophysiological predictions. Namely, the model predicts that i) during observation/imitation the response time increases linearly as the rotation angle of the observed action increases but remain similar when performing both clockwise and counterclockwise rotation and ii) IPL embeds essentially view-independent neurons while SPL/IPS includes both view-independent and view-dependent neurons. Overall, this work suggests that MT/MST visuomotion processes combined with the SPL/IPS allow the MNS to observe and imitate actions independently of demonstrator-imitator spatial relationships. |
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| Keywords: | Mirror neuron system Cognitive-motor learning Visuospatial processing Action imitation Internal models View-based processes |
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