A developmental social neuroscience approach to perception-action relations

在我们的日常生活中，我们经常观察别人的各种行为。我们如何处理这些行为，并理解我们正在观察的人的目标和意图？从历史上看，大脑系统对动作的感知和动作的实际执行通常被认为是完全分开的，但最近的研究表明，它们有很大的重叠。最近的一个理论认为，识别和理解一个动作涉及到执行同样动作的大脑系统——大脑？镜像神经元系统？(MNS)。根据这个理论，为了理解别人的行为，我们自己的大脑实际上暗地里反映了那个人的行为。MNS最初是在猴子身上发现的，最近的研究表明，人类也存在类似的系统。然而，相对未被探索的MNS的一个关键方面是在动作观察过程中感知系统和动作系统之间耦合的发展。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下。天普大学（Temple University）的彼得·马歇尔（Peter Marshall）和托马斯·希普利（Thomas Shipley）正在进行一系列研究，旨在阐明MNS的发展。这些研究让婴儿、学龄前儿童和成年人参与不同的任务，旨在评估行动观察过程中感知系统和行动系统之间的重叠。这些任务包括对人类行为的被动观察，对自己执行动作的认识，以及对新动作的模仿。在某些任务中，将记录脑电图（EEG）。结合对参与者在这些任务中的公开行为的分析，将确定当婴儿和儿童观察人类行为时，大脑的运动区域是否确实活跃。这项研究还将调查这种大脑活动如何与感知和行动之间耦合的其他行为测量相关联，以及大脑活动模式如何与幼儿理解和模仿他人行为的能力相关联。这些研究涉及本科生和研究生在研究过程的各个阶段的积极参与。它们很有可能被传播给对儿童和成人如何处理和理解他人行为感兴趣的专业人士和外行人。这一结果可能有助于我们理解普遍的发育障碍，如自闭症，其特征是模仿和社会认知缺陷，可能涉及MNS功能的破坏。

Throughout our daily lives, we frequently observe other people carrying out various actions. How do we process these actions and come to understand the goals and intentions of the people that we are watching? Historically, the brain systems underlying the perception of an action and the actual carrying out of an action have often been considered to be quite separate, but recent research has suggested substantial overlap. One recent theory suggests that recognizing and understanding an action involves brain systems that would be involved in carrying out the same action--the ?mirror neuron system? (MNS). On that theory, in order to understand someone else's actions, our own brains actually covertly mirror that person's actions. The MNS was originally identified in monkeys, and recent work has suggested that a similar system also exists in humans. However, one key aspect of the MNS that is relatively unexplored is the development of the coupling between the perception and action systems during action observation. With support from the National Science Foundation, Drs. Peter Marshall and Thomas Shipley at Temple University are carrying out a series of studies designed to elucidate the development of the MNS. The studies involve infants, preschoolers and adults participating in different tasks which are designed to assess the overlap between the perception and action systems during action observation. These tasks include the passive viewing of human actions, the recognition of oneself performing an action, and the imitation of novel actions. During some of the tasks, the electroencephalograms (EEG) will be recorded. In combination with analyses of participants' overt behavior during these tasks, it will be determined whether motor areas of the brain are indeed active while infants and children observe human actions. The research will also investigate how this brain activity relates to other behavioral measurements of the coupling between perception and action, and how the patterns of brain activity relate to young children's abilities to understand and copy the actions of others.The studies involve the active participation of undergraduate and graduate students at all stages of the research process. They have clear potential for being broadcast to professionals and laypeople interested in how children and adults process and understand other people's actions. The result may help us understand pervasive developmental disorders such as autism, which are characterized by deficits in imitation and social cognition and which may involve disruptions in MNS function.