The contribution of brain sub-cortical loops in the expression and acquisition of action understanding abilities

Research on action understanding in cognitive neuroscience has led to the identification of a wide "action understanding network" mainly encompassing parietal and premotor cortical areas. Within this cortical network mirror neurons are critically involved implementing a neural mechanism according to which, during action understanding, observed actions are reflected in the motor patterns for the same actions of the observer. We suggest that focusing only on cortical areas and processes could be too restrictive to explain important facets of action understanding regarding, for example, the influence of the observer's motor experience, the multiple levels at which an observed action can be understood, and the acquisition of action understanding ability. In this respect, we propose that aside from the cortical action understanding network, sub-cortical processes pivoting on cerebellar and basal ganglia cortical loops could crucially support both the expression and the acquisition of action understanding abilities. Within the paper we will discuss how this extended view can overcome some limitations of the "pure" cortical perspective, supporting new theoretical predictions on the brain mechanisms underlying action understanding that could be tested by future empirical investigations. © 2013 The Authors.

Tipo Pubblicazione: 
Articolo
Author or Creator: 
Caligiore, Daniele
Pezzulo, Giovanni
Miall, Chris Chris
Baldassarre, Gianluca
Publisher: 
Pergamon., New York, Stati Uniti d'America
Source: 
Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews 37 (2013): 2504–2515. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2013.07.016
info:cnr-pdr/source/autori:Caligiore, Daniele; Pezzulo, Giovanni; Miall, Chris Chris; Baldassarre, Gianluca/titolo:The contribution of brain sub-cortical loops in the expression and acquisition of action understanding abilities/doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.201
Date: 
2013
Resource Identifier: 
http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/309392
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2013.07.016
info:doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2013.07.016
http://www.scopus.com/record/display.url?eid=2-s2.0-84889640332&origin=inward
Language: 
Eng
ISTC Author: 
Ritratto di Giovanni Pezzulo
Real name: