Infants' somatotopic neural responses to seeing human actions: I've got you under my skin.

ABSTRACT: Human infants rapidly learn new skills and customs via imitation, but the neural linkages between action perception and production are not well understood. Neuroscience studies in adults suggest that a key component of imitation-identifying the corresponding body part used in the acts of self and other-has an organized neural signature. In adults, perceiving someone using a specific body part (e.g., hand vs. foot) is associated with activation of the corresponding area of the sensory and/or motor strip in the observer's brain-a phenomenon called neural somatotopy. Here we examine whether preverbal infants also exhibit somatotopic neural responses during the observation of others' actions. 14-month-old infants were randomly assigned to watch an adult reach towards and touch an object using

SUBMITTER: Saby JN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3813772 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature