Neural Regeneration Research ›› 2013, Vol. 8 ›› Issue (3): 251-257.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1673-5374.2013.03.007

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Electroencephalogram evidence for the activation of human mirror neuron system during the observation of intransitive shadow and line drawing actions

Huaping Zhu1, Yaoru Sun1, Fang Wang2   

  1. 1 Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China
    2 Department of Information Systems and Computing, Brunel University, St John’s 043, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK
  • Received:2012-07-30 Revised:2012-10-29 Online:2013-01-25 Published:2013-01-25
  • Contact: Yaoru Sun, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China, yaoru@ tongji.edu.cn.
  • About author:Huaping Zhu☆, Ph.D.
  • Supported by:

    This work was supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 60775019, 60970062 and 61173116, and the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China, No. 201100702110014.

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Abstract:

Previous studies have demonstrated that hand shadows may activate the motor cortex associated with the mirror neuron system in human brain. However, there is no evidence of activity of the human mirror neuron system during the observation of intransitive movements by shadows and line drawings of hands. This study examined the suppression of electroencephalography mu waves (8–13 Hz) induced by observation of stimuli in 18 healthy students. Three stimuli were used: real hand actions, hand shadow actions and actions made by line drawings of hands. The results showed significant desynchronization of the mu rhythm (“mu suppression”) across the sensorimotor cortex (recorded at C3, Cz and C4), the frontal cortex (recorded at F3, Fz and F4) and the central and right posterior parietal cortex (recorded at Pz and P4) under all three conditions. Our experimental findings suggest that the observation of “impoverished hand actions”, such as intransitive movements of shadows and line drawings of hands, is able to activate widespread cortical areas related to the putative human mirror neuron system.

Key words: neural regeneration, clinical practice, mirror neuron system, action understanding, direct matching hypothesis, mu suppression, event-related desynchronization, mu rhythm, electroencephalogram, impoverished hand actions, grants-supported paper, photographs-containing paper, neuroregeneration