Spontaneous Brain Activity Predicts Task-Evoked Activity During Animate Versus Inanimate Touch

Andrea Scalabrini, Sjoerd J.H. Ebisch, Zirui Huang, Simone Di Plinio, Mauro Gianni Perrucci, Gian Luca Romani, Clara Mucci, Georg Northoff

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The spontaneous activity of the brain is characterized by an elaborate temporal structure with scale-free properties as indexed by the power law exponent (PLE). We test the hypothesis that spontaneous brain activity modulates task-evoked activity during interactions with animate versus inanimate stimuli. For this purpose, we developed a paradigm requiring participants to actively touch either animate (real hand) or inanimate (mannequin hand) stimuli. Behaviorally, participants perceived the animate target as closer in space, temporally more synchronous with their own self, and more personally relevant, compared with the inanimate. Neuronally, we observed a modulation of task-evoked activity by animate versus inanimate interactions in posterior insula, in medial prefrontal cortex, comprising anterior cingulate cortex, and in medial superior frontal gyrus. Among these regions, an increased functional connectivity was shown between posterior insula and perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (PACC) during animate compared with inanimate interactions and during resting state. Importantly, PLE during spontaneous brain activity in PACC correlated positively with PACC task-evoked activity during animate versus inanimate stimuli. In conclusion, we demonstrate that brain spontaneous activity in PACC can be related to the distinction between animate and inanimate stimuli and thus might be specifically tuned to align our brain with its animate environment.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4628-4645
Number of pages18
JournalCerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
Volume29
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 17 2019

Keywords

  • animate stimuli
  • perigenual anterior cingulate cortex
  • scale-free brain dynamics
  • spontaneous brain activity
  • task evoked activity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Spontaneous Brain Activity Predicts Task-Evoked Activity During Animate Versus Inanimate Touch'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this