Table I.

Studies entered into the Meta‐analysis

Ref.	Meth.	N	Stimuli	Task	Control	Example of stimulus
Body movements
Beauchamp et al.,2003	3T	9	Whole‐body motions filmed from different viewpoint	Forced‐choice discrimination task	Video clips of tool motion
Bonda et al.,1996	PET	11	Point‐light displays of dance‐like movements	Watch and recognize afterwards	Random motion dot patterns
Calvo‐Merino,2005	3T	20	Dance movements	Rate how tiring movement is	Blank screen
Cross et al.,2006		17	Dance movements	Rate own ability to perform movement	Fixation in blank screen
Grezes et al.,2001	1.5T	10	Point‐light walker	Observe	Random dot cube rotating
Grezes,2007	1.5T	16	Opening a door	Detect oddball stimulus (upside‐ down video clip)	Static frames from videos
Grossman and Blake, 2002	3T	10	Point‐light walker	Observe	Scrambled point‐light animations
Howard et al.,1996	1.5T	6	Point‐light video of running man	Observe	Random motion of dots
Iseki et al.,2008	3T	16	Normal gait movements	Watch very carefully	Movie of scrambled frames
Jung et al.,2009	1.5T	15	Point‐light kicking, throwing, running, climbing, jumping	1‐back task	Scrambled point‐light animations
Michels et al.,2005	1.5T	4	Point‐light walker	Detect human figure	Detect luminance change in stationary dots
Peelen et al.,2006	1.5T	18	Animations of simple, whole‐body actions	Observe	Scrambled images of the same animations
Peuskens et al.,2005	1.5T	6	Point‐light animations of different human actions	Observe, with central fixation	Scrambled animations
Pichon et al.,2008	1.5T	16	Actor opening and closing a door	Detect oddball	Static frames from videos
Santi et al.,2003	4T	10	Point‐light animations of jumping and walking	Observe, with central fixation	Scrambled version of point‐light walker
Saygin et al.,2004	4T	12	Point‐light biological motion animations of 10 actions	Detect color of dots	Scrambled versions of the same animations
Servos et al.,2002	4T	16	Point‐light animations of jumping and walking	Detect degrade motion	Scrambled version of point‐light walker
Thompson et al., 2005	3T	10	Animated mannequins walking	Detect gait changes; central fixation	Body parts of the mannequin displayed apart
Zentgraf et al.,2005	1.5T	10	Gymnastic movements	Judge quality or observe to imagine afterwards	Blank screen
Vaina et al.,2001	1.5T	5	Point‐light walker	Observe	Discrimination on briefly flashed letters T and L
Hand movements (non‐object related)
Bonda et al.,1996	PET	11	Point‐light display of hand simulating grasping	Observe and report afterwards	Random motion of point lights
Buccino et al.,2001	1.5T	12	Hand mimicking action	Observe	Static hand
Costantini et al.,2005	1.5	13	Index or little finger movement	Observe	Moving scissors
Cunnington et al.,2006	3T	14	Finger movements from the ASL (that could be known or unknown)	Observe to imitate subsequently	Scrambled image
Gallagher and Frith,2004	2T	12	Expressive and instrumental hand gestures	Observe	Still frame of neutral gesture
Grezes et al.,1998	PET	10 (males)	Meaningless hand movement	Observe	Static hand
Grezes et al.,1999	PET	9 (males)	Meaningless hand movements (derived from ASL)	Conjunction passive viewing and observe to imitate afterwards	Static hand
Holle et al,2010	3T	16	Narrative gestures	Observe	Fixation
Jonas et al.,2007	3T	17	Finger movements	Watch and lift finger when oddball stimulus appear	Static hand
Lui et al.,2008	1.5T	16	Mimed action, symbolic or meaningless movements 2 s clips	Carefully watch and extract meaning if present	Blue screen and motor imagery of the action that has just been shown
Montgomery et al.,2007	3T	14 (males)	Mimed action 2 s clips	Observe	Blank screen
Thompson et al.,2007	3T	11	Synthesized Index finger movements. Blocks of 40 s	Detect a target sequence of movement	Radial grating expanding and contracting
Villarreal et al.,2008	1.5T	17	Meaningless gestures of right arm and hand	Observe to recognize afterwards	Fixation in blank screen
Wheaton et al.,2004	3T	12	Opening and closing	Observe with central fixation	Static hand
Hand movement (object‐related)
Aziz_Zadeh et al.,2006	3T	12	Reaching and grasping	Observe	Blank screen
Baumgartner et al., 2009	3T	19	Manipulating object 2s videos	Pay attention to the adequacy of the action	Object moved by mechanical power (e.g. tumble dryer)
Biagi et al.,2010	1.5T	12	Manipulating object with right or left hand 8 s videos	Observe with central fixation	Static hands and object
Buccino et al., 2000	3T	12	Reaching and grasping a ball or a cup	Observe	Static hand
Buccino et al.,2004	1.5T	12	Hand performing guitar chord	Observe	Blank screen
Cheng et al.,2007	3T	10	Hand reaching and grasping. 2.5 s clips	Observe and report afterwards	Scrambled picture of object
Chong et al.,2008	1.5T	16	Hand reaching and grasping	Observe and discriminate which grip is used	Diamond shapes and discriminate color
Filimon et al.,2007	3T	16	Reaching and grasping object with abstract shape	Observe, with central fixation	Stationary object
Gazzola et al.,2007	1.5T	16	Reaching, grasping, and manipulating object on a table	Pay attention to hand‐object relationship	Static object and arm and hand behind it
Grafton et al.,1996	PET	7	Experimenter's hand grasping objects	Observe	Object in hand, without movement
Grosbras and Paus,2006	1.5T	20	Reaching, grasping, and manipulating objects	Observe to recognize afterwards	Expanding and contracting circles
Lotze et al.,2006	fMRI 1.5T	20	Meaningful movements (50% with object present and 50% pantomime)	Observe	Blank screen
Meister and Iacoboni,2007	3T	14	Hand manipulating object	Count number of finger touching object	Blank screen
Molnar‐Szakacs et al.,2006	3T	12	Sequence of four movements manipulating an object	Watch and pay attention to object manipulation	Blank screen
Perani et al.,2001	PET	8	Hand grasping geometrical objects	Observe	Stationary objects
Pierno et al.,2006	3T	14	Actor reaching and grasping an object	Observe	Stationary object
Shmuelof et al.,2005	1.5T	11	Hand reaching, grasping, and releasing an object	Observe with central fixation	Movie of scrambled images
Schuboz and Von Cramon,2004	3T	18	Both hands performing actions that involved two objects	Observe report afterwards	Movie with changing objects
Schubotz and Von Cramon,2009	3T	18	Hand actions involving two objects appropriately or not	Observe. In 25% of trials, prompt for response	Blank screen
Tai et al., 2004	PET	7	Experimenter's hand grasping an object	Observe	Static hand
Turella et al.,2009	3T	17	Reaching and grasping	Observe	Blank screen with fixation
Face movements
Whole face movements
Fox et al., 2009	3T	16	Moving faces	One‐back task	Moving objects
Grosbras and Paus,2006	3T	20	Non‐emotional face movements	Observe and report afterwards	Concentric circles expanding and contracting
Kilts et al.,2003	PET	13	Dynamic faces	Judge position of face relative to centre	Static faces
Lee et al., 2009	3T	17	Head turning	Observe and detect a rare red dot	Movie of scrambled frames
Eye movements
Hooker et al.,2003	fMRI 1.5T	10	Averted gaze shifts and back to centre	Monitor eye‐gaze target	Moving arrow on a static face
Pelphrey et al.,2005	fMRI 4T	15	Animated characters Averted gaze shifts and back to centre	Observe	Still frame of character
Puce et al.,1998	fMRI 1.5T	11	Averted gaze shifts	Attend and focus on a point midway between the eyes	Static face with moving radial background
Pierno et al.,2006	fMRI 3T	14	Gaze away and towards an object	Observe	Actor still with eyes away from object
Wicker et al.,1998	PET	10	Averted gaze shifts and back to centre	Observe	Static face looking down (only eye id visible)
Mouth movements
Aziz_Zadeh et al,2006	3T	12	Side view of mouth biting a fruit	Observe	Blank screen
Buccino et al.,2001	1.5T	12	Mime mouth actions (biting an apple and chewing)	Observe	Static face
Calvert and Campbell,2003	3T	8	Lower half of a face uttering consonant and vowel syllables	Fixate mouth area and detect phoneme target	Closed mouth images
Calvert et al.,1997		7	Lip movements of spoken or mouthed numbers	Lip‐reading	Static face
Campbell et al.,2001	1.5T	7	Numbers spoken by a female face	Rehearse silently the number	Static face. Count silently
Fridriksson et al.,2008	3T	20	Speech and non‐speech mouth movements	Same‐different judgement	Blank screen
Hall et al.,2005	3T	33	Face grunting	Press a key after each video	Static face with closed mouth
Paulesu et al.,2003	PET	8	Backward video of a face speaking	Observe and refrain from articulation	Static face
Pelphrey et al.,2005	4T	15	Animated character opening and closing his mouth	Observe	Still of character
Santi, et al.,2003	4T	10	Point‐light animation of face speaking	Observe with central fixation	Scrambled dots patterns
Thompson et al.,2007	3T	11	Animated face opening mouth	Central fixation and detect target sequence of movements	Radial grating motion
Wheaton et al.,2004	3T	12	Opening and closing mouth	Observe	Static face

Meth = method: fMRI field strength or PET; N = number of subjects.