Mirroring the Social Aspects of Speech and Actions: The Role of the Insula

Abstract

Action and speech may take different forms, being expressed, for example, gently or rudely. These aspects of social communication, named vitality forms, have been little studied in neuroscience. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated the role of insula in processing action and speech vitality forms. In speech runs, participants were asked to listen or imaging themselves to pronounce action verbs gently or rudely. In action runs, they were asked to observe or imaging themselves to perform actions gently or rudely. The results showed that, relative to controls, there was an activation of the dorso-central insula in both tasks of speech and action runs. The insula sector specific for action vitality form was located slightly more dorsally than that of speech with a large overlap of their activations. The psycho-physiological interaction analysis showed that the insular sector involved in action vitality forms processing is connected with the left hemisphere areas controlling arm actions, whereas the sector involved in speech vitality forms processing is linked with right hemisphere areas related to speech prosody. We conclude that the central part of the insula is a key region for vitality forms processing regardless of the modality by which they are conveyed or expressed.

Differences in Action Style Recognition in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…More specifically, Di Cesare et al (2016) using the same stimuli employed in the present study showed that observation of “rude,” “neutral,” and “gentle” vitality forms relative to controls produced activation of the dorso-central insula. Authors also found that the same area is also involved in the expression of action vitality forms ( Di Cesare et al, 2015 , 2017 ). Pooling together, these findings strongly suggest the existence of a mirror mechanism for action vitality forms in the dorso-central insula.…”

“…While this study focused on visual information, it is important to stress that vitality forms may be conveyed by both visual and auditory information. In a recent study Di Cesare et al (2017) demonstrated that the central insula is a key region involved in both acoustical and visual vitality form processing. Furthermore, vitality forms do not coincide with emotions, since a single emotion (e.g., anger), may be expressed through multiple vitality forms (e.g., it may “explode,” “ooze out,” or “sneak up”; Stern, 2010 ).…”

Vitality Forms Expressed by Others Modulate Our Own Motor Response: A Kinematic Study

“…Indeed, a series of fMRI studies has demonstrated that this insular sector is involved in vitality form processing (Di Cesare et al, 2013 , 2015 , 2016a , b ). Additionally, Di Cesare et al ( 2017a ) have recently demonstrated that the dorso-central insula is activated not only when participants observed or imagined performing action vitality forms but also when they listened to or imagined pronouncing action verbs with gentle and rude vitality forms. These findings clearly indicate that the insular cortex has a role in the processing of multimodal vitality forms, suggesting the existence of a mirror mechanism specific for vitality forms.…”

Social Cognition for Human-Robot Symbiosis—Challenges and Building Blocks

“…Moreover, after having defined a suitable gesture language, as close as possible to established social standards, robot companions and human partners should be trained to use it in order to optimize symbiotic collaboration while minimizing mis-understanding. In other words, social robotics requires to define a social standard for well-educated human-robot symbiotic interaction, also taking into account what has been described as “vitality forms” of social communication (Di Cesare et al, 2018 ).…”