Impairment of actions chains in autism and its possible role in intention understanding
Impairment of actions chains in autism and its possible role in intention understanding
复制标题
DOI：
10.1073/pnas.0706273104
复制
发表时间：
2007-11-06
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Rizzolatti, Giacomo
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cattaneo, Luigi;Fabbri-Destro, Maddalena;Rizzolatti, Giacomo
在猴子身上的实验表明，许多编码特定运动动作(例如，抓握)的顶神经元和运动前神经元，当这个动作是具有不同目标的动作(例如，抓食与抓位置)的一部分时，表现出明显不同的激活。这些“动作受限”神经元中的许多具有镜像特性，选择性地激发对它们所属动作的初始运动动作的观察。通过从一开始就激活特定的动作链，该机制允许观察者在动作执行之前拥有整个动作的内部副本，从而使他们能够直接理解代理的意图。使用肌电记录，我们表明，在典型的发育中的儿童中存在类似的链状组织，而在自闭症儿童中它受到损害。我们认为，由于这种功能障碍，高功能自闭症儿童可能从认知上理解他人的意图，但缺乏从经验上理解他人意图的机制。
Experiments in monkeys demonstrated that many parietal and premotor neurons coding a specific motor act (e.g., grasping) show a markedly different activation when this act is part of actions that have different goals (e.g., grasping for eating vs. grasping for placing). Many of these "action-constrained" neurons have mirror properties firing selectively to the observation of the initial motor act of the actions to which they belong motorically. By activating a specific action chain from its very outset, this mechanism allows the observers to have an internal copy of the whole action before its execution, thus enabling them to understand directly the agent's intention. Using electromyographic recordings, we show that a similar chained organization exists in typically developing children, whereas it is impaired in children with autism. We propose that, as a consequence of this functional impairment, high-functioning autistic children may understand the intentions of others cognitively but lack the mechanism for understanding them experientially.