caa a22 4500 606202927 CHVBK 20210128100955.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150901xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00429-014-0825-6 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00429-014-0825-6 Transcranial magnetic stimulation reveals two functionally distinct stages of motor cortex involvement during perception of emotional body language [Elektronische Daten] [Sara Borgomaneri, Valeria Gazzola, Alessio Avenanti] Studies indicate that perceiving emotional body language recruits fronto-parietal regions involved in action execution. However, the nature of such motor activation is unclear. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) we provide correlational and causative evidence of two distinct stages of motor cortex engagement during emotion perception. Participants observed pictures of body expressions and categorized them as happy, fearful or neutral while receiving TMS over the left or right motor cortex at 150 and 300ms after picture onset. In the early phase (150ms), we observed a reduction of excitability for happy and fearful emotional bodies that was specific to the right hemisphere and correlated with participants' disposition to feel personal distress. This ‘orienting' inhibitory response to emotional bodies was also paralleled by a general drop in categorization accuracy when stimulating the right but not the left motor cortex. Conversely, at 300ms, greater excitability for negative, positive and neutral movements was found in both hemispheres. This later motor facilitation marginally correlated with participants' tendency to assume the psychological perspectives of others and reflected simulation of the movement implied in the neutral and emotional body expressions. These findings highlight the motor system's involvement during perception of emotional bodies. They suggest that fast orienting reactions to emotional cues—reflecting neural processing necessary for visual perception—occur before motor features of the observed emotional expression are simulated in the motor system and that distinct empathic dispositions influence these two neural motor phenomena. Implications for theories of embodied simulation are discussed. The Author(s), 2014 Motor cortex nationallicence Transcranial magnetic stimulation nationallicence Motor evoked potentials nationallicence Emotion nationallicence Body expressions nationallicence Action simulation nationallicence Embodied cognition nationallicence Temporal dynamics nationallicence Borgomaneri Sara Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen and University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands aut Gazzola Valeria Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen and University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands aut Avenanti Alessio IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00179, Rome, Italy aut Brain Structure and Function Springer Berlin Heidelberg 220/5(2015-09-01), 2765-2781 1863-2653 220:5<2765 2015 220 429 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-014-0825-6 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-014-0825-6 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Borgomaneri Sara Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen and University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Gazzola Valeria Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen and University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Avenanti Alessio IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00179, Rome, Italy aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Brain Structure and Function Springer Berlin Heidelberg 220/5(2015-09-01), 2765-2781 1863-2653 220:5<2765 2015 220 429