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Related Concept Videos

Hierarchy of Motor Control01:18

Hierarchy of Motor Control

The hierarchy of motor control refers to the different levels of organization and processing involved in controlling movement in the body. These levels range from higher cortical areas involved in planning and decision-making to lower spinal cord reflexes that respond automatically to external stimuli.
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Observational Learning01:12

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Fixed Action Patterns01:06

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Corticospinal Excitability Modulation During Action Observation
12:33

Corticospinal Excitability Modulation During Action Observation

Published on: December 31, 2013

Movement observation specifies motor programs activated by the action observed objective.

Angel Lago1, Miguel Fernandez-del-Olmo

  • 1Facultade de Ciencias do Deporte e a Educacin Fsica (INEF Galicia), Departamento de Educacion Fisica e Deportiva, Avd. Ernesto Che Guevara 121, Pazos-Lins, 15179 Oleiros, A Coruna, Spain. alago@udc.es

Neuroscience Letters
|March 1, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Observing actions activates motor programs. This study found that action observation initially activates goal-based motor programs, which become muscle-specific only when an effector interacts with an object, revealing mirror system dynamics.

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A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants
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Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy of the Sensory and Motor Brain Regions with Simultaneous Kinematic and EMG Monitoring During Motor Tasks
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Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy of the Sensory and Motor Brain Regions with Simultaneous Kinematic and EMG Monitoring During Motor Tasks

Published on: December 5, 2014

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Corticospinal Excitability Modulation During Action Observation
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A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants
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A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants

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Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy of the Sensory and Motor Brain Regions with Simultaneous Kinematic and EMG Monitoring During Motor Tasks
11:31

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy of the Sensory and Motor Brain Regions with Simultaneous Kinematic and EMG Monitoring During Motor Tasks

Published on: December 5, 2014

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Motor Control
  • Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

  • Human cortical areas activate during both action execution and observation.
  • Action observation triggers a motor program resembling the observed action.
  • It remains unclear if observed action motor programs are muscle-specific.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Investigate if the mirror system activates muscle-specific motor programs or codes actions by their goal.
  • Determine the specificity of motor programs activated by action observation.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the primary motor cortex (M1).
  • Examined cortical excitability in different muscles during action observation tasks.
  • Assessed responses with static effectors and effector-object interactions.

Main Results:

  • Cortical excitability increased in non-involved muscles when observing a static effector and object, suggesting goal-based activation.
  • When an effector interacted with an object, the activated motor program became muscle-specific.
  • Action observation initially activates goal-based motor programs, transitioning to muscle-specific ones with effector-object interaction.

Conclusions:

  • Observing object-related actions activates a goal-based motor program.
  • This goal-based program transforms into a muscle-specific one upon effector-object interaction.
  • The mirror system's motor programming is context-dependent, shifting from goal-oriented to specific execution.