The role of parietal cortex in overimitation: a study with fNIRS

Abstract

Previous studies have shown right parietal activation in response to observing irrational actions. Behavioral studies show that people sometimes imitate irrational actions, a phenomenon called overimitation. However, limitations on movement in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) mean that the neural basis of overimitation has not been studied. To address this, our study employed a less restrictive neuroimaging technique, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Measurements were taken while participants observed either rational or irrational movements before performing movements on a computerized puzzle task. Observing irrational actions produced greater activation in right anterior inferior parietal lobule (aIPL), replicating results from the fMRI literature. This is a proof of principle that fNIRS can be used as an alternative to fMRI in social cognition experiments, and that parietal cortex has a core role in responding to irrational actions. ARTICLE HISTORY

The present and future use of functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) for cognitive neuroscience

“…Others take advantage of the flexibility of fNIRS to examine neural response to affective touch 131 or to imitation behavior. 132 For example, in the latter paper, participants completed an interactive task in which they saw a demonstrator make typical straight actions or abnormal curved actions and then had the opportunity to imitate them; right inferior parietal cortex showed a stronger activation signal when viewing the curved actions, which replicates previous fMRI studies. However, in fMRI, it is very hard to implement the imitation actions, and fNIRS provides more flexibility to explore the neural mechanisms of interactive behavior.…”

“… showed that both infants and mothers have a positive fNIRS response in the PFC when seeing videos of the other smiling. Others take advantage of the flexibility of fNIRS to examine neural response to affective touch or to imitation behavior . For example, in the latter paper, participants completed an interactive task in which they saw a demonstrator make typical straight actions or abnormal curved actions and then had the opportunity to imitate them; right inferior parietal cortex showed a stronger activation signal when viewing the curved actions, which replicates previous fMRI studies.…”

Effect of Audiovisual Cross-Modal Conflict during Working Memory Tasks: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study

“…Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive device designed to monitor cerebral hemodynamics, a method commonly used to assess cerebral activity [34]. fNIRS is a small and portable machine that is less vulnerable to head and body motion artifacts and can measure brain activity in an environment closer to daily life.…”

Adults imitate to send a social signal

“…The current study aims to test the social-signalling hypothesis of imitation in a rigorous manner, avoiding confounding factors that have affected previous studies. In this study pairs of naïve adult participants were asked to move blocks from one location to another in a specified order (Oliver, Tachtsidis, & Hamilton, 2017) (Figure 1). This augmented-reality setup provided a rich interactive context while avoiding experimenter effects.…”