Action goals and the praxis network: an fMRI study

The praxis representation network (PRN) of the left cerebral hemisphere is typically linked to the control of functional interactions with familiar tools. Surprisingly, little is known about the PRN engagement in planning and execution of tool-directed actions motivated by non-functional but purposeful action goals. Here we used functional neuroimaging to perform both univariate and multi-voxel pattern analyses (MVPA) in 20 right-handed participants who planned and later executed, with their dominant and non-dominant hands, disparate grasps of tools for different goals, including: (1) planning simple vs. demanding functional grasps of conveniently vs. inconveniently oriented tools with an intention to immediately use them, (2) planning simple—but non-functional—grasps of inconveniently oriented tools with a goal to pass them to a different person, (3) planning reaching movements directed at such tools with an intention to move/push them with the back of the hand, and (4) pantomimed execution of the earlier planned tasks. While PRN contributed to the studied interactions with tools, the engagement of its critical nodes, and/or complementary right hemisphere processing, was differently modulated by task type. E.g., planning non-functional/structural grasp-to-pass movements of inconveniently oriented tools, regardless of the hand, invoked the left parietal and prefrontal nodes significantly more than simple, non-demanding functional grasps. MVPA corroborated decoding capabilities of critical PRN areas and some of their right hemisphere counterparts. Our findings shed new lights on how performance of disparate action goals influences the extraction of object affordances, and how or to what extent it modulates the neural activity within the parieto-frontal brain networks.