Frequency-dependent oscillatory neural profiles during imitation

• DOI: 10.1038/srep45806
• Publication Date: 2017-04-10T09:10:40Z
• Authors: Hisato Sugata; Masayuki Hirata; Yuichi Tamura; Hisao Onishi; Tetsu Goto; Toshihiko Araki; Shiro Yorifuji
• Keywords: Magnetoencephalography; Mirror neuron

Imitation is a complex process that includes higher-order cognitive and motor function. This requires an observation-execution matching system transforms observed action into identical movement. Although the low-gamma band thought to reflect higher processes, no studies have focused on it. Here, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) examine neural oscillatory changes including during imitation. Twelve healthy, right-handed participants performed finger task consisting of four conditions (imitation, execution, observation, rest). During imitation execution conditions, significant event-related desynchronizations (ERDs) were at left frontal, central, parietal MEG sensors in alpha, beta, bands. Functional connectivity analysis sensor level revealed imitation-related between group frontal band. Furthermore, source reconstruction with synthetic aperture magnetometry showed ERDs sensorimotor area middle gyrus (MFG) condition when compared other three conditions. Our results suggest activities MFG play important role related