Also, the IFG and IPL are candidate areas for sensory control of action, movement imagery, and imitation (Gallese et al., 1996; Iacoboni & Mazziotta, 2007; Sale et al., 2012). In contrast, the depression of activity in the observation condition may indicate that subjects suppressed

these areas in order not to react. In addition, the left anterior prefrontal cortex, the ventral ACC and the right temporal cortex were active. Whereas the activity of the right inferior temporal gyrus was most likely related to visual processing of the stimulus (Borowsky et al., 2005), the anterior portion of the medial frontal cortex has been shown MK-1775 manufacturer to also be active in theory of mind tasks (Kampe et al., 2003; Schulte-Rüther et al., 2007). A similar activation cluster in ventral ACC area 10 was found BAY 57-1293 concentration during active catching. In line with the imagination task, this possibly results from choice-related value representations associated with accomplishing the task (Grabenhorst et al., 2008; Grabenhorst & Rolls, 2010). The behavioral data showed that, overall, the subjects

mastered the tasks successfully. There were, however, significant differences between the conditions. In the imagination condition, the button press indicating the time point of catching the imagined ball was, on average, delayed by 55 ms as compared with the optimal time point. Also, the success rate was only approximately 75% of trials. Accordingly, the subjects engaged in demanding and long mental visuomotor processes that heavily activated the cerebral cortical areas of higher movement control. In contrast, in the actual catching task, the subjects worked in an anticipatory

mode of action, and succeeded in grasping the ball, which they themselves judged as a simple non-demanding task, in 94% of trials. In fact, the anticipation of 248 ms was almost identical to the anticipation in isochronous finger-tapping movements (Stephan et al., 2002). Accordingly, enough we did not observe activation of brain areas concerned with visuomotor processing. Rather, the BOLD increases in the temporal cortex, including the parahippocampal place area, are likely to be linked to the encoding of perceptual input of landscapes and scenes and associated changing views (Epstein et al., 1999; Park & Chun, 2009). It is noteworthy that, despite the fact that the subjects acted with both hands and that the balls appeared in both visual fields, there was a left dominance in the brain activation patterns. To enhance the effect of rehabilitation, individually tailored and adaptive robot-based rehabilitation techniques have been developed to provide a means for extended long-term training sessions (Seitz, 2010).