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The Journal of Neuroscience, January 25, 2006, 26(4):1133-1137; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4551-05.2006
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Brief Communications
Goal Representation in Human Anterior Intraparietal Sulcus
Antonia F. de C. Hamilton and
Scott T. Grafton
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755
Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Antonia F. de C. Hamilton at the above address. Email: antonia.hamilton{at}dartmouth.edu
When a child reaches toward a cookie, the watching parent knows immediately what the child wants. The neural basis of this ability to interpret other peoples actions in terms of their goals has been the subject of much speculation. Research with infants has shown that 6 month olds respond when they see an adult reach to a novel goal but habituate when an adult reaches to the same goal repeatedly. We used a similar approach in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment. Adult participants observed a series of movies depicting goal-directed actions, with the sequence controlled so that some goals were novel and others repeated relative to the previous movie. Repeated presentation of the same goal caused a suppression of the blood oxygen level-dependent response in two regions of the left intraparietal sulcus. These regions were not sensitive to the trajectory taken by the actors hand. This result demonstrates that the anterior intraparietal sulcus represents the goal of an observed action.
Key words: parietal; motor control; action observation; fMRI; mirror neuron system; human
Received Oct. 24, 2005;
revised Dec. 9, 2005;
accepted Dec. 11, 2005.
Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Antonia F. de C. Hamilton at the above address. Email: antonia.hamilton{at}dartmouth.edu
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