Imaging the Networks of Motor Cognition

It has been suggested that we comprehend and imagine voluntary actions through the use of essentially the same neuronal networks that mediate their execution. Two hypotheses, named in the literature the “mirror” neuron and the “simulation” theory, both variants of the general notion of “embodied cognition” are briefly reviewed in the first section of this chapter in order to provide a context for the experimental findings presented in subsequent sections. The second and third sections juxtapose functional neuroimaging evidence largely supporting the embodied cognition theory insofar as recognition of actions and imagining of actions are concerned. The fourth and final section explores the clinical and the functional neuroimaging literature for evidence of a neuronal network that mediates our subjective experience of ownership of our own body.