Listening to action-related sentences impairs postural control

According to the mirror neurons data there exist areas in the premotor cortex that are activated both during action perception and action execution. It was hypothesized that posture maintenance would be impaired by simultaneous action perception in concordance with cognitive dissonance theory. A test was conducted during which 23 neurologically normal humans were to maintain their posture erect on the forceplate and to listen to the action-related sentences. Tests of differences and Friedman analysis of variance proved that listening to sentences that describe different actions and movements in the first and the third person impairs postural control in comparison with listening to sentences that describe objects of nature and everyday life.