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The Journal of Neuroscience, June 7, 2006, 26(23):6282-6287; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0638-06.2006

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
The Neural Basis of Imitation is Body Part Specific

Georg Goldenberg¹ and Hans-Otto Karnath²

¹Neuropsychological Department, Bogenhausen Hospital, D-81925 Munich, Germany, and ²Section of Neuropsychology, Center of Neurology, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Georg Goldenberg, Neuropsychological Department, Bogenhausen Hospital, Englschalkingerstrasse 77, D-81925 Munich, Germany. Email: Georg.Goldenberg{at}extern.lrz-muenchen.de

Imitation is an important constituent of the behavioral repertoire of human beings. We use imitation for learning motor skills, for facilitating comprehension of other persons’ actions and mental states, and as a communicative reference to actions or people. Although some non-human species display imitative behaviors, none of them equals the versatility and perfection of human imitation. The versatility and apparent ease of human imitation is, however, not at all self-evident when one considers the neural and cognitive transformations that must be accomplished for successful imitation. Imitation of meaningless gestures poses a particular challenge for our brain, because similarity between the body of the model and one’s own body must bridge fundamental differences between the perspective and modalities of perceiving and controlling one’s own and other bodies. We analyzed the locations of left-hemisphere lesions disturbing imitation of meaningless gestures and found a clear-cut body part specificity. Disturbed imitation of finger postures was associated with anterior lesions including the opercular portion of the inferior frontal gyrus, whereas disturbed imitation of hand postures was associated with posterior lesions affecting the inferior parietal lobule and temporo-parieto-occipital junction. These locations do not correspond with known somatotopic maps of motor representations. Rather, they argue for an intermediate step of processing interpolated between perception and execution of gestures as has been suggested by the mirror neuron and the body part coding hypotheses.

Key words: imitation; body schema; mirror neurons; inferior frontal gyrus; parietal lobe; apraxia

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Received Feb. 13, 2006; revised April 15, 2006; accepted April 24, 2006.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Georg Goldenberg, Neuropsychological Department, Bogenhausen Hospital, Englschalkingerstrasse 77, D-81925 Munich, Germany. Email: Georg.Goldenberg{at}extern.lrz-muenchen.de

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