Figure 1.

Brain areas in healthy right-handed adults which show increased activity relative to resting baseline when planning familiar tool-use pantomimes or communicative gestures. To facilitate visualization, activation maps are displayed on a partially unfolded template brain. (a) Planning tool-use pantomimes for production with the right hand is associated with greater activity in the left posterior parietal (pPar), dorsal (PMd) and ventral (PMv) premotor cortices, middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and frontal and posterior temporal (pTem) cortices. Effects are smaller in the homologous regions of the right cerebral hemisphere. (b) A similar network is engaged when planning communicative gestures for production with the right hand. Though less pronounced, these same areas also show increased activity when planning (c) tool-use pantomimes or (d) communicative gestures for production with the left hand.