TY  - JOUR
AU  - Santos, N.
AU  - Kuzmanovic, B.
AU  - David, N.
AU  - Rotarska-Jagiela, A.
AU  - Eickhoff, S. B.
AU  - Shah, J. N.
AU  - Fink, G. R.
AU  - Bente, G.
AU  - Vogeley, K:
TI  - Animated brain: A functional neuroimaging study on animacy experience
JO  - NeuroImage
VL  - 53
SN  - 1053-8119
CY  - Orlando, Fla.
PB  - Academic Press
M1  - PreJuSER-10744
SP  - 291 - 302
PY  - 2010
N1  - We would like to thank Barbara Elghahwagi and Cordula Kemper for their assistance with the fMRI scanning; Carolin Aumann for help with the subject's recruitment; and Bettina Bewernick, Alexandra Georgescu, Astrid Gawronski, Hanna Kockler, Leonhard Schilbach, and Ralf Tepest for their valuable comments on the study. This work was supported by the German Volkswagen-Stiftung (Kai Vogeley) and the Portuguese scientific foundation Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT), the latest in the form of a fellowship to Natacha Santos.
AB  - Previous research used animated geometric figures to investigate social cognitive processes involved in ascribing mental states to others (e.g. mentalizing). The relationship between animacy perception and brain areas commonly involved in social cognition, as well as the influence of particular motion patterns on animacy experience, however, remains to be further elucidated. We used a recently introduced paradigm for the systematic variation of motion properties, and employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify the neural mechanisms underlying animacy experience. Based on individual ratings of increased animacy experience the following brain regions of the "social neural network" (SNN), known to be involved in social cognitive processes, were recruited: insula, superior temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex bilaterally. Decreased animacy experience was associated with increased neural activity in the inferior parietal and inferior frontal gyrus, key constituents of the human "mirror neuron system" (hMNS). These findings were corroborated when analyses were based on movement patterns alone, irrespective of subjective experience. Additionally to the areas found for increased animacy experience, an increase in interactive movements elicited activity in the amygdala and the temporal pole. In conclusion, the results suggest that the hMNS is recruited during a low-level stage of animacy judgment representing a basic disposition to detect the salience of movements, whereas the SNN appears to be a high-level processing component serving evaluation in social and mental inference.
KW  - Adult
KW  - Brain: physiology
KW  - Cognition: physiology
KW  - Cues
KW  - Humans
KW  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging
KW  - Male
KW  - Motion Perception: physiology
KW  - Photic Stimulation: methods
KW  - J (WoSType)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:20570742
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000280818900032
DO  - DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.05.080
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/10744
ER  -