Open AccessCerebral hemodynamic response during a live action-observation and action-execution task: A fNIRS study
Author(s) -
Helga O. Miguel,
Emma Condy,
Thien Nguyen,
Selin Zeytinoglu,
Emily Blick,
Kimberly Bress,
Kosar Khaksari,
Hadis Dashtestani,
John Millerhagen,
Sheida Shahmohammadi,
Nathan A. Fox,
Amir Gandjbakhche
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0253788
Subject(s) - inferior parietal lobule , neuroimaging , neuroscience , neural correlates of consciousness , functional near infrared spectroscopy , superior parietal lobule , psychology , parietal lobe , haemodynamic response , mirror neuron , action (physics) , angular gyrus , functional neuroimaging , medicine , cognition , prefrontal cortex , blood pressure , heart rate , physics , quantum mechanics
Although many studies have examined the location of the action observation network (AON) in human adults, the shared neural correlates of action-observation and action-execution are still unclear partially due to lack of ecologically valid neuroimaging measures. In this study, we aim to demonstrate the feasibility of using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure the neural correlates of action-observation and action execution regions during a live task. Thirty adults reached for objects or observed an experimenter reaching for objects while their cerebral hemodynamic responses including oxy-hemoglobin (HbO) and deoxy-hemoglobin (HbR) were recorded in the sensorimotor and parietal regions. Our results indicated that the parietal regions, including bilateral superior parietal lobule (SPL), bilateral inferior parietal lobule (IPL), right supra-marginal region (SMG) and right angular gyrus (AG) share neural activity during action-observation and action-execution. Our findings confirm the applicability of fNIRS for the study of the AON and lay the foundation for future work with developmental and clinical populations.