To understand the neural substrates of the anatomic imitation versus the specular imitation with the left or right hand, eleven normal female subjects who imitated the finger movements of an actor using the anatomically congruent or incongruent hand were examined using fMRI. As a result, the error rate tended to be higher for anatomic imitation than for specular imitation, and the bilateral inferior frontal gyrii (IFG) and the right dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) were activated during anatomic imitation versus specular imitation, irrespective of the hand used. Especially the right IFG activity may inhibit the motor representation associated with the preferred movement of imitating the actor's hand movement as if looking in a mirror.
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