Who needs a referee? How incorrect basketball actions are automatically detected by basketball players' brain

While the existence of a mirror neuron system (MNS) representing and mirroring simple purposeful actions (such as reaching) is known, neural mechanisms underlying the representation of complex actions (such as ballet, fencing, etc.) that are learned by imitation and exercise are not well understood. In this study, correct and incorrect basketball actions were visually presented to professional basketball players and naïve viewers while their EEG was recorded. The participants had to respond to rare targets (unanimated scenes). No category or group differences were found at perceptual level, ruling out the possibility that correct actions might be more visually familiar. Large, anterior N400 responses of event-related brain potentials to incorrectly performed basketball actions were recorded in skilled brains only. The swLORETA inverse solution for incorrect-correct contrast showed that the automatic detection of action ineffectiveness/incorrectness involved the fronto/parietal MNS, the cerebellum, the extra-striate body area, and the superior temporal sulcus. © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.