RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Your Goal Is Mine: Unraveling Mimetic Desires in the Human Brain
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 7146
OP 7157
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4821-11.2012
VO 32
IS 21
A1 Lebreton, Maël
A1 Kawa, Shadia
A1 Forgeot d'Arc, Baudouin
A1 Daunizeau, Jean
A1 Pessiglione, Mathias
YR 2012
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/21/7146.abstract
AB The spread of desires among individuals is widely believed to shape motivational drives in human populations. However, objective evidence for this phenomenon and insights into the underlying brain mechanisms are still lacking. Here we show that participants rated objects as more desirable once perceived as the goals of another agent's action. We then unravel the mechanisms underpinning such goal contagion, using functional neuroimaging. As expected, observing goal-directed actions activated a parietofrontal network known as the mirror neuron system (MNS), whereas subjective desirability ratings were represented in a ventral striatoprefrontal network known as the brain valuation system (BVS). Crucially, the induction of mimetic desires through action observation involved the modulation of BVS activity through MNS activity. Furthermore, MNS–BVS effective connectivity predicted individual susceptibility toward mimetic desires. We therefore suggest that MNS–BVS interaction represents a fundamental mechanism explaining how nonverbal behavior propagates desires without the need for explicit, intentional communication.