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Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the left posterior middle temporal gyrus reduces wrist velocity during emblematic hand gesture imitation

Reader, Arran T.; Holmes, Nicholas P.

Authors

Arran T. Reader

Nicholas P. Holmes



Abstract

© 2018, The Author(s). Results from neuropsychological studies, and neuroimaging and behavioural experiments with healthy individuals, suggest that the imitation of meaningful and meaningless actions may be reliant on different processing routes. The left posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) is one area that might be important for the recognition and imitation of meaningful actions. We studied the role of the left pMTG in imitation using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and two-person motion-tracking. Participants imitated meaningless and emblematic meaningful hand and finger gestures performed by a confederate actor whilst both individuals were motion-tracked. rTMS was applied during action observation (before imitation) over the left pMTG or a vertex control site. Since meaningless action imitation has been previously associated with a greater wrist velocity and longer correction period at the end of the movement, we hypothesised that stimulation over the left pMTG would increase wrist velocity and extend the correction period of meaningful actions (i.e., due to interference with action recognition). We also hypothesised that imitator accuracy (actor-imitator correspondence) would be reduced following stimulation over the left pMTG. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that stimulation over the pMTG, but not the vertex, during action observation reduced wrist velocity when participants later imitated meaningful, but not meaningless, hand gestures. These results provide causal evidence for a role of the left pMTG in the imitation of meaningful gestures, and may also be in keeping with proposals that left posterior temporal regions play a role in the production of postural components of gesture.

Citation

Reader, A. T., & Holmes, N. P. (2019). Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the left posterior middle temporal gyrus reduces wrist velocity during emblematic hand gesture imitation. Brain Topography, 32(2), 332-341. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-018-0684-1

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 25, 2018
Online Publication Date Nov 8, 2018
Publication Date Mar 30, 2019
Deposit Date Jan 8, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Brain Topography
Print ISSN 0896-0267
Electronic ISSN 1573-6792
Publisher Springer Verlag
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 32
Issue 2
Pages 332-341
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-018-0684-1
Keywords Anatomy; Radiological and Ultrasound Technology; Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging; Neurology; Clinical Neurology
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1451677
Publisher URL https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10548-018-0684-1

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