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Abstract:
Agency refers to the ability of an individual to correctly
attribute actions to their veridical source. To explore the
cognitive and neural processes involved in agency we used variation
of subjective perspective during mental simulation of action. A
positron emission tomography (PET) activation study was designed to
record cerebral hemodynamic changes while subjects either imagined
themselves performing an object-oriented action (first-person
perspective) or imagined the experimenter performing the same
action (third-person perspective). Action simulation was triggered
either by verbal (spoken sentences describing familiar actions) or
visual (pictures of familiar objects) stimuli. First and
third-person perspective simulation, irrespective of the triggering
sensory modality, were associated with common activation in the
SMA, the precentral gyrus and the MT/V5 complex. Additionally,
third-person perspective specifically recruited the right inferior
parietal, the precuneus! ! , the posterior cingulate and the
frontopolar cortex. Involvement of motor regions in both first and
third-person perspective simulation is interpreted in favor of the
simulation theory (a candidate to account for Theory of Mind).
Frontopolar activation could reflect the expression of an
inhibitory process while thinking to another's action. We suggest
that right inferior parietal and precuneus, known to be involved in
self-representation, may play a specific role in distinguishing
self-produced actions from those generated by others.
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