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Mirror-image representation of action in the anterior parietal cortex

Nature Neuroscience volume 11, pages 1267–1269 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Mimicking hand actions made by someone facing us (that is, allocentric viewpoint) is typically performed with the opposite hand. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we found a similar mirror-image representation of others' actions in the human anterior parietal cortex. Viewing egocentric-based actions elicited greater fMRI activation in the contralteral hemisphere (as in, self action), whereas observation of action seen from an allocentric viewpoint generated greater activation in the ipsilateral hemisphere. This mirror-like mapping occurs without active imitation, providing further evidence for an automatic action-simulation system in the parietal cortex.

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Figure 1: aSPL shows opposite hand identity preference in the two (egocentric and allocentric) viewing conditions.
Figure 2: A mirror-inverted representation of action: ROI analysis.
Figure 3: Action observation and imitation in the aSPL.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Hochstein for his inspiring suggestions and T. Orlov for helpful discussions.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Lior Shmuelof

    Present address: Present address: Motor Performance Laboratory, The Neurological Institute, Columbia University Medical Center, 710 West 168th Street, New York, New York 10032, USA.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neurobiology Department, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat ram, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel, Israel

    Lior Shmuelof & Ehud Zohary

  2. Interdisciplinary Center for Neural Computation, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat ram, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel, Israel

    Ehud Zohary

Authors
  1. Lior Shmuelof
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  2. Ehud Zohary
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Contributions

L.S. and E.Z. jointly planned the experiments. L.S. conducted the experiments and the data analysis. L.S. and E.Z. wrote the paper together.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lior Shmuelof.

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Supplementary Figures 1–4 and Supplementary Methods (PDF 156 kb)

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Shmuelof, L., Zohary, E. Mirror-image representation of action in the anterior parietal cortex. Nat Neurosci 11, 1267–1269 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2196

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