Viewing a forelimb induces widespread cortical activations

Given that prerequisite of activating the mirror neuron system is the preshaping of the hand and its interaction with the object during observation of a reaching-to-grasp-an-object action, the effects of viewing the object, the reaching forelimb and the static hand may obscure the effects of observing the grasping action per se. To disentangle these effects, we employed the (14)C-deoxyglucose quantitative autoradiographic method to map the functional activity in the entire cortex of monkeys (Macaca mulatta) which observed the experimenter performing non-goal-directed (purposeless) forelimb movements towards an object that was previously presented but no longer visible. Thus, our monkeys were exposed to the view of an object, a moving arm and a static hand with extended wrist and fingers. The distribution of metabolic activity was analyzed in 20μm thick brain sections, and two dimensional maps were reconstructed in the occipital operculum, the temporal, the lateral and medial parietal, the lateral and medial frontal, the lateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices, including the cortex within the lunate, superior temporal, lateral, parietoccipital, intraparietal, central, arcuate and principal sulci. Increased metabolic activity, as compared to fixation-control monkeys, was measured in the forelimb representation of the primary motor and somatosensory cortices, the premotor cortices F2 and F5, cingulate motor areas, the secondary somatosensory cortex SII, the posterior intraparietal area 5 and areas TPOc and FST, in the hemisphere contralateral to the moving arm. Moreover, bilateral activations were elicited in areas pre-SMA, 8m, SSA and the somatorecipient area VS, the retroinsula, the auditory belt area CM, motion areas MT, MST, LOP/CIP, area 31, visual areas TEO, V6, V6Av and the parafoveal and peripheral visual representations of areas V1 and V2, respectively. Few parietal, auditory and visual areas were bilaterally depressed. In brief, a surprisingly wide cortical network is recruited even by mere observation of an arm executing goalless movements, which partially overlaps with the cortical network supporting the execution and observation of goal-directed forelimb actions. Interestingly, this overlap concerns mainly lower order sensory-motor rather than higher order association prefrontal and parietal cortices. Our results demonstrate that in order to reveal the net effects specifically induced by observation of a purposeful reaching-to-grasp action, the use of an appropriate control taking into account the effects of viewing the object to be grasped, the reaching arm and the static hand is crucial.