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Cited by 101Action Observation and SynchronizationTactile and Sensory InteractionsNeurobiology of Language and Bilingualism

Reading about the actions of others: Biological motion imagery and action congruency influence brain activity

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Deen, Ben, McCarthy, Gregory·2010·Neuropsychologia
DOI 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.01.028PMC PMC3515847
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Abstract

Prior neuroimaging research has implicated regions within and near the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) in the visual processing of biological motion and of the intentions implied by specific movements. However, it is unknown whether this region is engaged during the processing of human motion at a conceptual level, such as during story comprehension. Here, we obtained functional magnetic resonance images from subjects reading brief stories that described a human character's background and then concluded with an action or decision made by the character. Half of the stories contained incidental descriptions of biological motion (such as the character's walking or grasping) while the remaining half did not. As a second factor, the final action of the story was either congruent or incongruent with the character's background and implied goals and intentions. Stories that contained biological motion strongly activated the pSTS bilaterally, along with ventral temporal areas, premotor cortex, left motor cortex, and the precuneus. Active regions of pSTS in individual subjects closely overlapped with regions identified with a separate biological motion localizer (point-light display) task. Reading incongruent versus congruent stories activated dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral anterior insula. These results support the hypothesis that reading can engage higher visual cortex in a content-specific manner, and suggest that the presence of biological motion should be controlled as a potential confound in fMRI studies using story comprehension tasks.

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  • Deen and McCarthy (2010) found that the same pSTS region that responded to biological motion was activated more strongly when participants read Theory of Mind stories with strong biological motion imagery compared with those without such imagery.

    “Interestingly, Deen and McCarthy (2010) also found that the same pSTS region that responded to biological motion was activated more strongly when participants read Theory of Mind stories with strong biological motion imagery compared with those without such imagery.”

    From Functional Heterogeneity and Convergence in the Right Temporoparietal Junction (2016) · cites this paper as Deen and McCarthy 2010

    The Results (Stories with and without biological motion) report that right pSTS responded more strongly to stories with biological motion than to stories without it, and that this region overlapped with the region responsive to visually perceived biological motion. However, the Introduction says the stories were only analogous to theory-of-mind vignettes, and the Discussion (pSTS Response to Stories with Human Motion) explicitly says the authors did not run a theory-of-mind task. The study varied descriptions of human motion, not measured strength of biological-motion imagery. (LLM, conf=0.90)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Processing human motion at a conceptual level, such as during story comprehension, shows a similar pattern of brain activation.

    “and during processing of human motion at a conceptual level, such as during story comprehension (Deen and McCarthy, 2010).”

    From Corticomotor Excitability during Observation and Imagination of a Work of Art (2011) · cites this paper as Deen and McCarthy, 2010

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Authors
Deen, B., & McCarthy, G.
Affiliations
Yale University (US)
Corresponding author
McCarthy, Gregory
ORCID
Deen, Ben
Venue
Neuropsychologia
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2010-05
Volume
48
Issue
6
Pages
1607-1615
ISSN
0028-3932 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.01.028
PMC
PMC3515847
OpenAlex
W1968784098
Cited by
101
References
14
Citations by year
2025: 16 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 4
FWCI
10.49
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Neuropsychologia (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
NIH (NS41328)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
Keywords
biological motion, posterior superior temporal sulcus, narrative comprehension, reading, point-light displays, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, ventral temporal cortex, motor cortex, precuneus
MeSH terms
Brain Mapping, Decision Making, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Imagination, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Motion, Motion Perception, Oxygen, Photic Stimulation, Reading, Temporal Lobe, Visual Pathways, Comprehension, Young Adult

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