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Advanced Neurology

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Functional features of the mirror neuron system

during action observation and execution in
patients with anxiety and depressive symptoms

1,2
2
Ekaterina D. Karimova *, Sabir E. Burkitbayev , Mikhail S. Zinchuk , and
1,2
Alla B. Guekht 2,3
1 Laboratory of Applied Physiology of Human Higher Nervous Activity, Institute of Higher Nervous
Activity and Neurophysiology (IHNA & NPh), Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Moscow, Russia
2 Scientific and Practical Center for Psychoneurology of the Moscow City Health Department,
Moscow, Russia
3 Department of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Pirogov
Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Russia

Abstract
The perception and comprehension of non-verbal information and body language
in humans and higher primates are realized by the mirror neuron system (MNS).
Anxiety and depressive symptoms may change social perception, which could
manifest as functional changes in the MNS. In this paper, using the inverse
electroencephalography (EEG) problem and rhythm suppression, we investigated
spatial and frequency distortions of the MNS in 24 patients exhibiting depressive
*Corresponding author: and anxiety symptoms and 23 controls. EEG was recorded during four motor tasks:
Ekaterina D. Karimova action observation (where participants observed a hand gesture performed by a
(e.d.karimova@ihna.ru)
demonstrator), imagination, execution, and joint execution (simultaneous execution
Citation: Karimova ED, with the demonstrator). Mu suppression was employed across a wide frequency
Burkitbayev SE, Zinchuk MS, and spatial range to assess the level of MNS activity, while the sLORETA method
Guekht AB. Functional features of
the mirror neuron system during was employed to localize the activity sources. The results indicate that the patients
action observation and execution demonstrated task-selective mu suppression mainly during observation and joint
in patients with anxiety and execution in the frontal, central, and occipital areas of the cortex across a wide
depressive symptoms. Adv Neuro.
2024;3(1):2009. frequency range. In contrast, the controls demonstrated clear and pronounced mu
https://doi.org/10.36922/an.2009 rhythm suppression in the central regions of the brain in the upper-frequency range
Received: October 11, 2023 (10.5 – 13 Hz) during all mirroring tasks. These results suggest that patients with
anxiety and depressive symptoms engage additional neural resources to complete
Accepted: January 3, 2024
social tasks, particularly involving auxiliary neural networks located in the frontal
Published Online: March 19, 2024 associative arrays and visual cortex.
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the Keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Mirror neurons; Electroencephalography;
Creative Commons Attribution Social perception; Communication
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited.
1. Introduction
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with Anxiety and affective disorders are coming to the fore in terms of prevalence and negative
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional impact on quality of life, especially exacerbated by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic,
1
affiliations. which has led to a serious crisis in the field of population mental health. Disorders

Volume 3 Issue 1 (2024) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/an.2009