Impairment of actions chains in autism and its possible role in intention understanding.

ABSTRACT: Experiments in monkeys demonstrated that many parietal and premotor neurons coding a specific motor act (e.g., grasping) show a markedly different activation when this act is part of actions that have different goals (e.g., grasping for eating vs. grasping for placing). Many of these "action-constrained" neurons have mirror properties firing selectively to the observation of the initial motor act of the actions to which they belong motorically. By activating a specific action chain from its very outset, this mechanism allows the observers to have an internal copy of the whole action before its execution, thus enabling them to understand directly the agent's intention. Using electromyographic recordings, we show that a similar chained organization exists in typically developing children, wh

SUBMITTER: Cattaneo L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2077067 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature