A cognitive neuroscience trifecta

摘要

The article by Thakkar et al. in this issue (1) examines the brain functioning correlates of a very simple but highly important process: imitation. Using brain imaging and a simple task-observing versus imitating simple hand movements-the authors uncover brain dysfunctions in people with schizophrenia that may have major social cognitive relevance. Brain regions associated with imitation were un-deractivated during imitation and overactivated during observation. Thus, there is evidence of inefficient and nonspecific regional brain functioning. These findings are similar to reports over the past two decades in studies of neurocognitive functioning using much more complex procedures. There too, the findings suggested underactivation of important regions (as defined by the brain functioning of healthy individuals) during task performance and overactivation of regions that appear less relevant to the task immediately at hand.