eprintid: 2863
rev_number: 7
eprint_status: archive
userid: 69
dir: disk0/00/00/28/63
datestamp: 2015-11-10 11:01:36
lastmod: 2016-09-13 09:44:33
status_changed: 2015-11-10 11:01:36
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Handjaras, Giacomo
creators_name: Bernardi, Giulio
creators_name: Benuzzi, Francesca
creators_name: Nichelli, Paolo
creators_name: Pietrini, Pietro
creators_name: Ricciardi, Emiliano
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: pietro.pietrini@imtlucca.it
creators_id: emiliano.ricciardi@imtlucca.it
title: A topographical organization for action representation in the human brain
ispublished: pub
subjects: RC0321
divisions: CSA
full_text_status: none
keywords: action representation, action topography, pattern classification, fMRI, multivariate analysis
note: Open Access article - Fulltext on publisher's website
abstract: How the human brain represents distinct motor features into a unique finalized action still remains undefined. Previous models proposed the distinct features of a motor act to be hierarchically organized in separated, but functionally interconnected, cortical areas. Here, we hypothesized that distinct patterns across a wide expanse of cortex may actually subserve a topographically organized coding of different categories of actions that represents, at a higher cognitive level and independently from the distinct motor features, the action and its final aim as a whole. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and pattern classification approaches on the neural responses of 14 right-handed individuals passively watching short movies of hand-performed tool-mediated, transitive, and meaningful intransitive actions, we were able to discriminate with a high accuracy and characterize the category-specific response patterns. Actions are distinctively coded in distributed and overlapping neural responses within an action-selective network, comprising frontal, parietal, lateral occipital and ventrotemporal regions. This functional organization, that we named action topography, subserves a higher-level and more abstract representation of finalized actions and has the capacity to provide unique representations for multiple categories of actions. Hum Brain Mapp 36:3832–3844, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
date: 2015
date_type: published
publication: Human Brain Mapping
volume: 36
number: 10
publisher: Wiley
pagerange: 3832-3844
id_number: 10.1002/hbm.22881
refereed: TRUE
issn: 1065-9471
official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hbm.22881
citation:   Handjaras, Giacomo and Bernardi, Giulio and Benuzzi, Francesca and Nichelli, Paolo and Pietrini, Pietro and Ricciardi, Emiliano  A topographical organization for action representation in the human brain.  Human Brain Mapping, 36 (10).  pp. 3832-3844.  ISSN 1065-9471      (2015)