Sensitivity of the Action Observation Network to Physical and Observational Learning

Abstract

Human motor skills can be acquired by observation without the benefit of immediate physical practice. The current study tested if physical rehearsal and observational learning share common neural substrates within an action observation network (AON) including premotor and inferior parietal regions, that is, areas activated both for execution and observation of similar actions. Participants trained for 5 days on dance sequences set to music videos. Each day they physically rehearsed one set of dance sequences ("danced"), and passively watched a different set of sequences ("watched"). Functional magnetic resonance imaging was obtained prior to and immediately following the 5 days of training. After training, a subset of the AON showed a degree of common activity for observational and physical learning. Activity in these premotor and parietal regions was sustained during observation of sequences that were danced or watched, but declined for unfamiliar sequences relative to the pretraining scan session. These imaging data demonstrate the emergence of action resonance processes in the human brain based on observational learning without physical practice and identify commonalities in the neural substrates for physical and observational learning.

Top-down social modulation of interpersonal observation–execution

“…The neural substrate underpinning this coupling is suggested (Cattaneo, Sandrini, & Schwarzbach, 2010;Kilner, Neal, Weiskopf, Friston, & Frith, 2009) to be the human mirror system (inferior frontal gyrus, premotor cortex, inferior parietal lobule), which supports the imitation of actions (Iacoboni et al, 1999) and the acquisition of motor skills via observation (Cross, Kraemer, Hamilton, Kelley, & Grafton, 2009). In addition to representing motor actions, imitation is a very important mechanism for developing of social rapport (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999) and feelings of affiliation (Lakin & Chartrand, 2003;van Baaren, Janssen, Chartrand, & Dijksterhuis, 2009).…”

Neurocognitive control in dance perception and performance

“…The authors found that premotor and parietal regions demonstrate responses specifically tuned to motor familiarity of the observer, over and above responses seen in the same mirror system regions when the dancers watched movements that were visually familiar, but never executed. The second study used novice dancers learning simple dance sequences in a dance video game context, either by physical practice or passive observation (Cross, Kraemer, Hamilton, Kelley, & Grafton, 2009b). Among this population, there were similarities between physical and observational learning within parietal and premotor mirror system regions, with performance data adding additional support to the notion that physical and observational learning shape the brain and behavior in a similar manner.…”

Neuroaesthetics and beyond: new horizons in applying the science of the brain to the art of dance

“…This study thus demonstrates that changes in sensorimotor cortex were seen while observing dance track with actual physical ability to perform the movements, and these changes in the brain do not require years of rehearsal to manifest-a mere 6 weeks of rehearsal is enough to see marked changes in neural response profiles. These researchers have further explored the effects of de novo dance learning in populations of novice dancers, demonstrating the utility of dance learning paradigms to address questions of observational learning (Cross et al 2009b) and how different cues for learning dance are represented within the AON (Cross et al 2009a).…”