Final published version
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Motor cortex activity during action observation predicts subsequent action imitation in human infants
AU - Köster, M.
AU - Langeloh, M.
AU - Kliesch, C.
AU - Kanngiesser, P.
AU - Hoehl, S.
PY - 2020/9/1
Y1 - 2020/9/1
N2 - From early on, human infants acquire novel actions through observation and imitation. Yet, the neural mechanisms that underlie infants’ action learning are not well understood. Here, we combine the assessment of infants’ neural processes during the observation of novel actions on objects (i.e. transitive actions) and their subsequent imitation of those actions. Most importantly, we found that the 7–10 Hz motor cortex activity increased during action observation and predicted action imitation in 20-month-olds (n = 36). 10-month-olds (n = 42), who did not yet reliably imitate others’ actions, showed a highly similar neural activity pattern during action observation. The presence or absence of communicative signals did neither affect infants’ neural processing nor their subsequent imitation behavior. These findings provide first evidence for neural processes in the motor cortex that allow infants to acquire transitive actions from others ‒ and pinpoint a key learning mechanism in the developing brain of human infants.
AB - From early on, human infants acquire novel actions through observation and imitation. Yet, the neural mechanisms that underlie infants’ action learning are not well understood. Here, we combine the assessment of infants’ neural processes during the observation of novel actions on objects (i.e. transitive actions) and their subsequent imitation of those actions. Most importantly, we found that the 7–10 Hz motor cortex activity increased during action observation and predicted action imitation in 20-month-olds (n = 36). 10-month-olds (n = 42), who did not yet reliably imitate others’ actions, showed a highly similar neural activity pattern during action observation. The presence or absence of communicative signals did neither affect infants’ neural processing nor their subsequent imitation behavior. These findings provide first evidence for neural processes in the motor cortex that allow infants to acquire transitive actions from others ‒ and pinpoint a key learning mechanism in the developing brain of human infants.
KW - article
KW - clinical article
KW - female
KW - human
KW - human experiment
KW - imitation
KW - infant
KW - male
KW - motor cortex
U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116958
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116958
M3 - Journal article
VL - 218
JO - NeuroImage
JF - NeuroImage
SN - 1053-8119
M1 - 116958
ER -