Empathy and the somatotopic auditory mirror system in humans

被引:524
作者
Gazzola, Valeria
Aziz-Zadeh, Lisa
Keysers, Christian [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Groningen, Med Ctr, Sch Behav & Cognit Neurosci, Neuroimaging Ctr, NL-9713 AW Groningen, Netherlands
[2] Univ Calif Berkeley, Dept Psychol, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
[3] Int Comp Sci Inst, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
[4] Univ So Calif, Brain & Creat Inst, Los Angeles, CA 90089 USA
[5] Univ So Calif, Dept Occupat Sci, Los Angeles, CA 90089 USA
关键词
D O I
10.1016/j.cub.2006.07.072
中图分类号
Q5 [生物化学]; Q7 [分子生物学];
学科分类号
071010 ; 081704 ;
摘要
How do we understand the actions of other individuals if we can only hear them? Auditory mirror neurons respond both while monkeys perform hand or mouth actions and while they listen to sounds of similar actions [1, 2]. This system might be critical for auditory action understanding and language evolution [1-6]. Preliminary evidence suggests that a similar system may exist in humans [7-10]. Using fMRI, we searched for brain areas that respond both during motor execution and when individuals listened to the sound of an action made by the same effector. We show that a left hemispheric temporo-parieto-premotor circuit is activated in both cases, providing evidence for a human auditory mirror system. In the left premotor cortex, a somatotopic pattern of activation was also observed: A dorsal cluster was more involved during listening and execution of hand actions, and a ventral cluster was more involved during listening and execution of mouth actions. Most of this system appears to be multimodal because it also responds to the sight of similar actions. Finally, individuals who scored higher on an empathy scale activated this system more strongly, adding evidence for a possible link between the motor mirror system and empathy.
引用
收藏
页码:1824 / 1829
页数:6
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