Work

Motor imagery and self-recognition from actions

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: • Motor imagery ability influences how the brain represents and recognizes one’s own movements. • Distinguishing the self from others using movement patterns can be decoded in brain regions linked to motor-based and action processing. • Brain regions for body and social perception help identify people based on their motion patterns. We recently identified cortical areas in the Action Observation Network that preferentially encoded self actions from minimal kinematic cues (Kadambi et al., 2025). Here, we investigate how identity decoding in these brain areas (Inferior Parietal Lobules, IPL; Inferior Frontal Gyri, IFG; Primary Motor Cortex, M1; Extrastriate Body Area, EBA; Superior Temporal Sulci, STS) relate to motor imagery ability. Using multivariate decoding and localizer analyses, we found that frontoparietal regions (IPL, IFG, and M1) selectively decoded self-identity, while occipitotemporal regions (EBA and STS), did not show such self-specific selectivity, but largely decoded across identities. Participant variability in motor imagery ability was positively associated with self-identity decoding in the IPL, EBA, STS and negatively with other-identity decoding in the IFG. These results introduce functional links between motor imagery and self-action decoding, emerging from frontoparietal and occipitotemporal regions.

Source: NeuroImage

DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121525

Authors: A. Kadambi, H. Lu, M. Monti, S. Narayanan, M. Iacoboni

Institutions: University of Southern California, University of California, Los Angeles, Google (Switzerland)

Language: English

Topic: Action Observation and Synchronization

Subfield: Social Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,540

Funders: American Psychological Association, Society for Neuroscience, Tiny Blue Dot Foundation, University of California, Los Angeles