Neural mechanisms subserving the perception of human actions

Abstract

Our ability to generate actions and to recognize actions performed by others is the bedrock of our social life. Behavioral evidence suggests that the processes underlying perception and action might share a common representational framework. That is, observers might understand the actions of another individual in terms of the same neural code that they use to produce the same actions themselves. What neurophysiological evidence, if any, supports such a hypothesis? In this article, brain imaging studies addressing this question are reviewed and examined in the light of the functional segregation of the perceptual mechanisms subtending visual recognition and those used for action. We suggest that there are not yet conclusive arguments for a clear neurophysiological substrate supporting a common coding between perception and action.