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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 24, 2026

Corticospinal Excitability Modulation During Action Observation

Corticospinal Excitability Modulation During Action Observation

Published on: December 31, 2013

Dissociating modality-specific and supramodal neural systems for action understanding.

Robert P Spunt¹, Matthew D Lieberman

¹Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095-1563, USA. bobspunt@gmail.com

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience

|March 9, 2012

Summary

Action understanding involves distinct brain systems. The mirror neuron system (MNS) processes visual action details and implementation, while the mentalizing system (MZS) understands action motives across senses.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Neuroimaging
Human Brain Function

Background:

The neural basis of action understanding is debated, with proposed roles for the mirror neuron system (MNS) and mentalizing system (MZS).
Action understanding is complex, involving perception of movement (how) and inference of intent (why), potentially across different sensory modalities (vision, language).

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the modality-specific or supramodal contributions of the MNS and MZS to understanding action implementation and motive.
To differentiate the roles of MNS and MZS in processing visual versus linguistic action information.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to scan 21 volunteers.
Participants viewed actions presented as videos or text, considering implementation ('how') and motive ('why').

Main Results:

Bilateral parietal and right frontal MNS areas were modality-specific for video perception; left-hemisphere MNS was supramodal for implementation understanding.
The MZS (largely left-hemisphere) showed supramodal understanding of motive, but MZS-MNS connectivity for motive inference was stronger for videos than text.
Distinct MNS regions contribute to action perception and implementation, while MZS supports abstract, modality-independent motive representation.

Conclusions:

Supports a tripartite model where MNS subregions handle action perception and implementation, and MZS handles abstract motive understanding.
Action understanding relies on a network of brain systems, with specific roles for MNS and MZS in processing different aspects of actions across modalities.