What is the reaction of the elderly when they see them carrying heavy luggage and want to help?Professor Kazuyuki Kanosue and his group at Waseda University's Academy of Sport Sciences have clarified the areas of the brain that understand and act on "the efforts of others."

　Understanding the behavior of others is important for social life, but there are two neural circuits involved. One is the neural basis for understanding the "intention / purpose" of the behavior of others.In previous studies, brain activity was analyzed by showing images such as reaching out to grab an object.The other is the neural basis for understanding the "emotions" of others.It showed images such as people's smiles.Until now, since different images were used in these two types of research, there was almost no research on the neural basis that reads "emotion" from "movement."

　This time, in order to identify the brain region related to the understanding of the efforts of others, the subjects were shown images in which the actors' efforts were different.It is a video of a slender person and a well-built person lifting a heavy dumbbell and a light dumbbell, respectively (arm curl).As a result, the subject looked at the video and tried to read the brain activity related to the recognition that the person was doing his best, not the recognition that the dumbbell was heavy.

　As a result of measuring brain activity by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), it was found that the temporoparietal junction on the right side of the brain is specifically active when the actor observes images of labor-intensive movements. ..It was different from the area related to understanding the intention and purpose of the action.

　In the future, it will be an issue to examine the mechanism that causes individual differences when viewing the same video.It is expected that this achievement will elucidate the emotional and empathic mechanisms of watching sports, and develop methods for improving communication skills.