Action observation responses in macaque frontal cortex

Neurons that are active during action execution and action observation (i.e., Action Observation/Execution Neurons, AOENs) are distributed across the brain in a network of parietal, motor, and prefrontal areas. In a previous study, we showed that most AOENs in ventral premotor area F5c, where they were discovered three decades ago, responded in a highly phasic way during the observation of a grasping action, did not require the perception of causality or a meaningful action, and even responded to static frames of the action videos. To assess whether these characteristics are shared with AOENs in other areas of the AOE network, we performed the first large-scale neural recordings during action execution and action observation in multiple frontal areas including dorsal premotor (PMd) area F2, primary motor (M1) cortex, ventral premotor area F5p, frontal eye field (FEF) and 45B. In all areas, AOENs displayed highly phasic responses during specific epochs of the action video and, in additio..., , # Data from: Action observation responses in macaque frontal cortex

This dataset was generated to assess the different neural responses in the macaque frontal cortex during the observation of actions. This study focused on neural responses of Action Observation/Execution neurons (AOENs, also known as mirror neurons), which are neurons that respond to both the execution and the observation of an action. To find AOENs, subjects performed two tasks during each recording session, and only neurons responding to both tasks were included in the analyses: 

A) Action execution task: the subject performed a visually guided delayed grasping task in which he grasped an object after a variable delay time indicated by a go cue.

B) Action observation task: the subject passively observed short action videos in which either a monkey or a human performed the action execution task.

Additional control videos were also shown to assess neural action observation responses in more detail (for example, a vi...,