Sequences of Abstract Nonbiological Stimuli Share Ventral Premotor Cortex with Action Observation and Imagery

Activation triggered by either observed or imagined actions suggests that the ventral premotor cortex (PMv) provides an action vocabulary that allows us to detect and anticipate basically invariant perceptual states in observed actions. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the same PMv region is also recruited by nonbiological (abstract) stimulus sequences as long as the temporal order of stimuli has to be processed. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we instructed participants to assess expected outcomes in observed actions [external biological cues (EB)], motor imagery [internal biological cues (IB)], or geometrical figure sequences [external nonbiological cues (EN)]. As hypothesized, we found that each condition elicited significant activation within PMv [left hemisphere, Brodman Area (BA) 6], in contrast to a sequential target detection control task. In addition, cue-specific activations were identified in areas that were only engaged for biologically (action) cued (EB, IB) and nonbiologically cued (EN) tasks. Biologically cued tasks elicited activations within inferior frontal gyri adjacent to PMv (BA 44/45), in the frontomedian wall, the extrastriate body area, posterior superior temporal sulci, somatosensory cortices, and the amygdala-hippocampal-area, whereas the nonbiologically cued task engaged presupplementary motor area, middle frontal gyri, intraparietal sulci, and caudate nuclei of the basal ganglia. In sum, findings point to a basic premotor contribution to the representation or processing of sequentially structured events, supplemented by different sets of areas in the context of either biological or nonbiological cues.