TY - JOUR
T1 - Observing social gestures
T2 - An fMRI study
AU - Knutson, Kristine M.
AU - McClellan, Erin M.
AU - Grafman, Jordan
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Center for Biological and Computational Learning provided the database of facial images. The authors have no conXict of interest. Funding: This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
PY - 2008/6
Y1 - 2008/6
N2 - We investigated the effects of social content of gestures on brain activation patterns. We used a 3 × 3 × 3 factorial design in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment with participants observing gestures varied by type (fascist salute, wave, or arm lift), number of images shown at a time, and face frequency. We sought to determine whether increasing the social content of the gesture spreads activation from traditional sensorimotor regions engaged in mirror neuron activity to prefrontal regions concerned with social behavior. Results indicate that viewing a highly provocative gesture (fascist salute) compared to a less provocative but still socially meaningful gesture (wave) reveals activation in prefrontal and limbic areas. In addition, as expected there was more inferior frontal gyrus activation when participants observed a greater number of gesturing actors. Additionally, the psychological characteristics of shame and defeat affected activation in the inferior parietal lobe, which is part of the mirror neuron system, for the fascist salute compared to the wave contrast. We conclude that observing social gestures activates social- and emotion-processing areas of the brain, and the activation varies depending on the observer's psychological characteristics.
AB - We investigated the effects of social content of gestures on brain activation patterns. We used a 3 × 3 × 3 factorial design in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment with participants observing gestures varied by type (fascist salute, wave, or arm lift), number of images shown at a time, and face frequency. We sought to determine whether increasing the social content of the gesture spreads activation from traditional sensorimotor regions engaged in mirror neuron activity to prefrontal regions concerned with social behavior. Results indicate that viewing a highly provocative gesture (fascist salute) compared to a less provocative but still socially meaningful gesture (wave) reveals activation in prefrontal and limbic areas. In addition, as expected there was more inferior frontal gyrus activation when participants observed a greater number of gesturing actors. Additionally, the psychological characteristics of shame and defeat affected activation in the inferior parietal lobe, which is part of the mirror neuron system, for the fascist salute compared to the wave contrast. We conclude that observing social gestures activates social- and emotion-processing areas of the brain, and the activation varies depending on the observer's psychological characteristics.
KW - Functional MRI
KW - Gestures
KW - Social psychology
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U2 - 10.1007/s00221-008-1352-6
DO - 10.1007/s00221-008-1352-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 18483724
AN - SCOPUS:45449089254
VL - 188
SP - 187
EP - 198
JO - Experimental Brain Research
JF - Experimental Brain Research
SN - 0014-4819
IS - 2
ER -