Hands on the future: facilitation of cortico-spinal hand-representation when reading the future tense of hand-related action verbs
Hands on the future: facilitation of cortico-spinal hand-representation when reading the future tense of hand-related action verbs
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1460-9568.2010.07305.x
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发表时间：
2010-08-01
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Aglioti, Salvatore Maria
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Candidi, Matteo;Leone-Fernandez, Barbara;Aglioti, Salvatore Maria
阅读与动作相关的动词会引起感觉运动神经活动，这表明动作的语言表征所影响的神经结构在很大程度上与实际动作执行所涉及的神经结构重叠。虽然直接动作观察的研究表明运动镜像本质上是预期性的，但目前还没有关于从语言中获取与动作相关的知识是否也考虑到动作的时间部署的信息。使用经颅磁刺激，我们试图确定阅读未来时态的动作动词是否会比相同动词以过去时态变化时引起更高的皮质脊髓活动。我们记录了健康受试者放松的手部和腿部肌肉的运动诱发电位（MEP），这些受试者正在默读与手或腿相关的动作、感觉（非躯体）和以将来时或过去时态结合的抽象动词。在阅读未来变位的手相关动作动词时，从手记录的 MEP 幅度比过去更高。在阅读与腿部相关的动作动词时，没有发现与未来相关的腿部肌肉活动调节。同样，对于抽象或感觉动词，没有发现与未来相关的手或腿肌肉反应性变化。这些结果表明，手部动作的预期镜像可能是由语言表征触发的，而不仅仅是直接动作观察触发的。
Reading action-related verbs brings about sensorimotor neural activity, suggesting that the linguistic representation of actions impinges upon neural structures largely overlapping with those involved in actual action execution. While studies of direct action observation indicate that motor mirroring is inherently anticipatory, no information is currently available on whether deriving action-related knowledge from language also takes into account the temporal deployment of actions. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, here we sought to determine whether reading action verbs conjugated in the future induced higher cortico-spinal activity with respect to when the same verbs were conjugated in the past tense. We recorded motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) from relaxed hand and leg muscles of healthy subjects who were reading silently hand- or leg-related action, sensorial (non-somatic) and abstract verbs conjugated either in future or past tense. The amplitude of MEPs recorded from the hand was higher during reading hand-related action verbs conjugated in the future than in the past. No future-related modulation of leg muscles activity was found during reading leg-related action verbs. In a similar vein, no future-related change of hand or leg muscles reactivity was found for abstract or sensorial verbs. These results indicate that the anticipatory mirroring of hand actions may be triggered by linguistic representations and not only by direct action observation.