Neural encoding of visual action stimuli in mirror neurons in monkey premotor area

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Martin A. Giese, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Clinical Neurology; Neurosurgery and Neuroradiology
• Term: from 2010 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 175437053

Mirror neurons in prefrontal cortex are active during the execution of actions and during action observation. Such neurons show interesting tuning properties for visually presented action stimuli that combine selectivity for details of the moving effector with information about the goal object and the spatial relationship of effector and object. Yet, the precise neural and computational mechanisms underlying the visual processing of action stimuli in area F5 of the premotor cortex remain largely unknown. The proposed project builds on previous results obtained in a project on the visual properties of F5 mirror neurons. By combining electrophysiological experiments with state-of-the-art methods from computer graphics and neural modelling we want to further the understanding of the processing of action-related visual information in area F5. Specifically, we intend to investigate how spatial and temporal information about actions is encoded by mirror neurons in area F5 and how dynamic visual and motor representations interact at the level of single cells. These experiments may unravel new constraints for computational theories on the mirror neuron system.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Major Instrumentation: Opt. Bewegungsanalysesystem
• Instrumentation Group: 3490 Sonstige medizinische Registriergeräte und Zubehör
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Hans-Peter Thier