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Brain activity for visual judgment of lifted weight
Alexander Ritter1, Thomas Weiss, Marcel Franz
1Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany; Department of Sports Medicine and Health Promotion, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany.
Human Movement Science
|August 13, 2013
Summary
Viewing biological motion to judge weight activates brain regions involved in pain processing, like the anterior cingulate (ACC) and insula. This suggests why chronic pain may disrupt weight perception.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Pain Research
Background:
- Humans can discern complex information, such as gender and mood, from point-light biological motion.
- Sensorimotor regions are expected to activate when judging manipulated weight from biological motion.
- Chronic pain in a limb involved in movement interferes with weight judgment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if brain regions associated with pain processing are activated during the perception of biological motion used for weight judgment.
- To test the hypothesis that pain-processing cortical regions are recruited when viewing point-light biological motion with a weight judgment task.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used in healthy subjects.
- Participants viewed point-light biological motion stimuli of two movement types with varying weights in a blocked design.
Main Results:
- Significant activation was observed in pain-related regions, including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula, and somatosensory areas.
- Typical biological motion processing areas (occipital, temporal) and cerebellum/prefrontal cortex also showed activation.
- Somatosensory activation likely supports weight judgment, while ACC and insula activation may relate to behavioral relevance or pain processing.
Conclusions:
- The study reveals that judging weight from biological motion recruits brain regions involved in pain perception.
- This finding offers insight into the neural mechanisms of weight judgment and explains how chronic pain might interfere with this task.
- Interference in chronic pain patients may occur in somatosensory areas, ACC, and/or insula.
