Bases neurales de l'attribution d'intentions et d'émotions à Autrui
Dr Julie Grezes
CR1 INSERM
Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives - UMR 742 INSERM
Département d'Etudes Cognitives - Ecole Normale Supérieure
29 Rue d'Ulm - 75005 Paris France
TEL : 00 33 (0)1 44 32 26 76
FAX : 00 33 (0)1 44 32 26 86
 : julie.grezes AT ens.fr
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Presentation
The ability to generate and to recognize the actions performed by others is the bedrock of our social life. Our work aims at bringing a better understanding of the brain mechanisms implied in the ability to infer intentions and emotions from the perception of the other people's behaviours.
Our previous work (in collaboration with Dr Jean Decety demonstrated that brain regions subserving action planning and motor execution (parietal and premotor cortex) are already engaged during the observation of both objects and actions. They suggested that action observation automatically triggers action simulation, a mechanism that could be at the basis of action understanding. This mechanism is influence by the motor competence of the observer. In collaboration with Pr . Passingham, Pr . Haggard, Dr Glaser, and Dr Calvo-Merino, we have shown a clear effect of acquired motor skills on brain activity during action observation. The activations were stronger when the subjects had the specific motor representation for the action they observed. Therefore, the parietal and premotor cortex mirror system does not respond simply to visual kinematics of body movement, but transforms visual inputs into the specific motor capabilities of the observer. We conclude that action observation evokes individual, acquired motor representations in the human mirror system.
Our research then focuses on the mechanisms that underlie the abilities to infer mental states to others from the perception of their behaviours. Mental states can be described as the desires, emotions, beliefs and intentions that are reflected in human actions. In collaboration with Pr . Passingham and Pr . Frith, we scanned subjects while they viewed actions being performed on videos. The videos showed actors picking up boxes. When the observers judged the actions to reflect a false belief (study 1) or a deceptive intention (study 2 and 3), there was activation in the superior temporal sulcus, orbitofrontal, cingulate cortex and cerebellum. We suggest that this reflects a mismatch between the perceived action and the predicted action's outcomes derived from simulation. When the subjects judged the actions as reflecting deceptive intention, there was activation of the amygdala and rostral anterior cingulate cortex. These areas were not activated when subjects made judgements about the beliefs. These activations may reflect the observers' judgements of social intentions toward themselves and / or their emotional response to being deceived.
More recently, we started a project in collaboration with Pr . B. de Gelder aiming at investigating the neural basis involved during the perception of body expressions of emotions and its link with motor preparation. In parallel, we explore these abilities to infer mental states (intentions, false belief and emotions) through the perception of other people's behaviour in people with Asperger syndrome, in collaboration with Dr B. Wicker and Dr S. Berthoz. These projects combine several approaches, behavioural (performances and reactions times), physiological (such as skin conductance) and functional anatomy (IRMf). The inter-individual difference in socio-cognitive behaviours is taken into account using correlation analysis between structure, function and behaviour. This, we hope, will favour a better definition of the different phenotypes associated with difficulties in social interactions that are the core deficit in autism but equally for other psychiatric pathology (e.g. schizophrenia and personality disturbances) and neurological (fronto-temporal dementia). A better characterization of these phenotypes is required to the realization of genetic studies and to an effective therapeutic approach. |
Thesis supervision
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Swann Pichon |
Doctorant allocation MENRT - Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris6 |
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Thématiques et Collaborations
[A] Caractérisation de phénotypes sociaux chez des sujets sains et des patients asperger : approche cognitive et anatomo-fonctionelle
[B] Etude de l’influence du répertoire moteur personnel sur la perception des actions
[C] Etude des expressions corporelles des émotions
En collaboration avec :
Pr Alain Berthoz
Laboratoire de physiologie de la perception et de l'action - College de France - Paris
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Pr Beatrice de Gelder
Donders lab. for cognitive and affective neurosciences - Tilburg, The Netherlands
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Pr Tamar Flash
Weizmann Institut - Tel Aviv, Israel
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Dr Matin Giese
Laboratory for Action Representation and Learning (ARL)
Department of Cognitive Neurology - Tübingen, Germany
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Publications
Last updated May 2008
, Editions
- O. Morin, J. Grèzes (In press). What is “mirror” in the premotor cortex? A review. Neurophysiologie Clinique / Clinical Neurophysiology
- W.A.C. van de Riet, J. Grèzes, B de Gelder (In press). Specific and common brain regions involved in the perception of faces and bodies and the representation of their emotional expressions. Social Neuroscience.
- B. de Gelder, W.A.C. van de Riet, J. Grèzes, J. Denollet (In Press) Decreased differential activity in the amygdala in response to fearful expressions in Type D personality. Neurophysiologie Clinique / Clinical Neurophysiology
- S. Berthoz, M. Wessa, G. Kedia, B. Wicker, J. Grèzes (In Press) Cross-cultural validation of the Empathy Quotient in a French-speaking sample. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry / La Revue canadienne de psychiatrie.
- CC van Heijnsbergen, HK. Meeren, J. Grèzes, B. de Gelder (2007). Rapid detection of fear in body expressions, an ERP study. Brain Res. 2007 Dec;1186:233-41. Epub 2007 Oct 12
- S. Pichon, B. de Gelder & J. Grezes (2007). Emotional modulation of visual and motor areas by dynamic body expressions of anger. Social Neurosciences. EPub May 2007
- J. Grezes & B. de Gelder. Social perception: understanding other people’s intentions and emotions through their actions.To be published in Social Cognition: Development, Neuroscience and Autism. Tricia Striano & Vincent Reid, Editors; Blackwell.
- J. Grezes, S. Pichon, B. de Gelder (2007). Perceiving fear in dynamic body expressions. NeuroImage, 35, 959-967.
- B. Calvo-Merino, J. Grezes, D.E. Glaser, R.E. Passingham, P. Haggard (2006) Seeing or doing? Influence of visual and motor familiarity in action observation. Curr Biol. 10;16(19):1905-10
- J. Grezes, S. Berthoz, R.E. Passingham (2006) Amygdala activation when one is the target of deceit. Did he lie to you or to someone else? NeuroImage, 30:601-608.
- S. Berthoz, J. Grezes, J.L. Armony, R.E. Passingham, R.J. Dolan (2006) Affective response to one's own moral violations. NeuroImage, 31(2):945-50]
- J. Decety & J. Grezes (2006). The power of simulation: Imagining one's own and other's behaviour. Special Issue "Social Cognitive Neuroscience" of Cognitive Brain Research. 1079 :4-14.
- J. Grezes, B. De Gelder (2005) Contagion motrice et émotionnelle. "L'autisme, De la recherche à la pratique" coéditeurs : Christian Andres, Catherine Barthélémy, Alain Berthoz, Jean Massion, Bernadette Rogé", Editions Odile Jacob, Paris.
- B. Calvo-Merino, D.E. Glaser, J. Grezes, R.E. Passingham and P. Haggard (2005). Action observation and acquired motor skills: an fMRI study with expert dancers. Cerebral Cortex. 15(8):1243-9.
- J. Grezes, C. Frith, R.E. Passingham (2004) Brain mechanisms for inferring deceit in the actions of others. J. Neuroscience, 24: 5500-5505.
- J. Grezes, C. Frith, R.E. Passingham (2004). Inferring false beliefs from the actions of oneself and others: An fMRI study. NeuroImage. 21(2):744-50.
- J. Grezes, J.L. Armony, J. Rowe, R.E. Passingham (2003). Activations related to “Mirror” and “Canonical” neurones in the human brain: a fMRI study. NeuroImage 18: 928-937
- J. Grezes, M. Tucker, J.L. Armony, R. Ellis, R.E. Passingham (2003). Objects automatically potentiate action: an fMRI study of implicit processing. Eur. J. Neurosci. 17: 2735-2740
- J. Grezes, J. Decety (2002). Does visual perception of object afford action ? Evidence from a neuroimaging study. Neuropsychologia, 40: 212-222.
- J. Decety, T. Chaminade, J. Grezes, A. Meltzoff. (2002). A PET Exploration of the Neural Mechanisms Involved in Reciprocal Imitation. NeuroImage, 15(1): 265-272.
- J. Grezes, J. Decety (2001). Functional anatomy of execution, mental simulation, observation and verb generation of actions: A meta-analysis. Human Brain Mapping, 12: 1-19.
- J. Grezes, P Fonlupt, B Bertenthal, C Delon-Martin, C Segebarth, J Decety (2001). Does perception of biological motion rely on specific brain regions? NeuroImage, 13(5):775-85.J. Decety, J. Grezes (1999). Neural mechanisms subserving the perception of human actions. TICS, 3: 172-178.
- J. Grezes, N. Costes, J. Decety (1999). The effects of learning and intention on the neural network involved in the perception of meaningless actions. Brain, 122: 1875-1887.
- J. Grezes, N. Costes, J. Decety (1998). Top down effect of the strategy on the perception of human biological motion: a PET investigation. Cognitive Neuropsychology , 15: 553-582.
- J. Decety, J. Grezes, N. Costes, D. Perani, E. Procyk, F. Grassi, M. Jeannerod, F. Fazio (1997). Brain activity during observation of actions. Influence of action content and subject’s strategy. Brain, 120: 1763-1777.
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