Details
- ERC sector
- SH4 - The Human Mind and Its Complexity
- ERC subsector
- SH4_5 - Attention, perception, action, consciousness
- Project start date
- CUP
- D53D23009860001
- Financial support received
- €105.984,00
Description and purpose
Mirror neurons (MNs), discovered in macaque premotor cortex and other regions, fire during both action execution and observation. Despite extensive evidence, the mechanisms underlying this "motor resonance" remain unclear. Clarifying this is vital for translational applications in neurorehabilitation. ResonAct tests the hypothesis that MNs primarily prepare behavioral actions in social contexts, with their activity modulated by observational context.
Purpose
ResonAct explores whether MNs primarily prepare actions by studying their role in freely interacting monkeys and humans. In WP1, we examine how MNs influence socially facilitated eating behaviors, and whether MNs are causally involved. In WP2, we investigate how motor resonance and voluntary control coexist in humans in everyday life. The Action Pre-Selection Hypothesis (APH) suggests that only prepared actions are facilitated, while others are inhibited.
Expected results
ResonAct will not only aim at scientific progress in the understanding of the functioning of the primate mirror mechanisms, but will also provide the first ever demonstration of the causal role of monkey MNs; moreover, being focused on studying motor resonance in ecological contexts, ResonAct takes into account important pragmatic variables such as the state of the motor system in action observation, differently from most of previous research.
Achieved results
ResonAct has yielded preliminary results enhancing our capacity to study spontaneous behavior in freely moving monkeys, as demonstrated in a recent Science publication and international conference abstracts. Recording neural activity in such contexts demands control of environmental, behavioral, and technical variables. In humans, we successfully classified covert actions via motor-evoked potentials, offering new insights into the neural bases of action representation and social cognition.
Scientific director
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