RESONACT

How does activity in the premotor cortex contribute to preparing behavior while observing the actions of others? ResonAct will test the hypothesis that so-called mirror activity does not merely reflect observed actions, but contributes to selecting and preparing the observer’s response according to the social context.

At the University of Parma, neuronal activity will be chronically recorded from the ventral premotor cortex and primary motor cortex of freely moving macaques engaged in natural social interactions. In particular, the project will assess whether this activity predicts the social facilitation of feeding, namely the increase in food intake in the presence of a conspecific, while the animal observes or listens to another individual feeding. Reversible inactivation of the ventral premotor cortex through chronically implanted microtubes will also make it possible to establish the causal role of this area in controlling the behavior. By systematically manipulating sensory information and the modes of interaction between the animals, the project will determine how observational and social factors modulate activity within premotor networks.

In parallel, at the University of Milan, electroencephalography and transcranial magnetic stimulation will be used to investigate in humans how motor demands and social context influence activity in the ventral premotor cortex and primary sensorimotor areas, as well as functional connectivity between these regions.

The integration of findings obtained in macaques and humans will enable the development of a new model of the role of the premotor cortex in preparing behavior during social interactions, clarifying how the brain adapts an individual’s actions to those of others. The results may also provide new theoretical foundations for future applications in cognitive neuroscience and neurorehabilitation.