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Imagining and reading actions: Towards similar motor representations
Dupont W1, Papaxanthis C1, Madden-Lombardi C1,2
1INSERM UMR1093-CAPS, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, UFR des Sciences du Sport, F-21000, Dijon, France.
Heliyon
|February 23, 2023
Summary
Action language and motor imagery share overlapping motor representations. This finding, supported by behavioral and neurophysiological evidence, deepens our understanding of the motor system.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Motor Control
- Psycholinguistics
Background:
- Action language and motor imagery both activate the brain's motor system.
- Understanding their relationship is key to elucidating underlying neural mechanisms.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the mutual influence between action language and motor imagery.
- To determine if these processes share common motor representations.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted using subliminal presentation of hand-action verbs and motor imagery tasks.
- Experiment 1 involved a behavioral task assessing perception of subliminal verbs influenced by imagined actions.
- Experiment 2 measured corticospinal excitability using transcranial magnetic stimulation during imagined hand movements and subliminal verb presentation.
Main Results:
- Imagining congruent actions improved accuracy in perceiving subliminal action verbs (behavioral evidence).
- Subliminal action verbs modulated corticospinal excitability during motor imagery, with incongruent verbs suppressing typical excitability changes (neurophysiological evidence).
Conclusions:
- Behavioral and neurophysiological findings indicate a mutual influence between action language and motor imagery.
- These results strongly suggest that action language and motor imagery utilize overlapping motor representations within the brain.
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