EN
There is compelling neuroimaging evidence for a common lefthemisphere praxis representation network supporting the control of meaningful actions. Yet, the idea of dissociable neural systems for tool use (transitive) and intransitive (symbolic) gestures was revived by reports of selective dissociations between imitation and pantomime of transitive and intransitive skills. Because the contribution of recognition and/or visuo-spatial deficits was not directly assessed, this study tested whether distinct representations support transitive and intransitive skills during their visual processing, and later imitation. The outcomes were then compared to the results of verbally-cued gesture pantomimes. Both perception and imitation of the two gesture categories activated common networks, different between the tasks. The areas engaged more during watching transitive pantomimes, and imitation of intransitive gestures, were found outside of these networks. Examples of single case dissociations will be also shown and discussed. All these findings support the idea that transitive gestures are more demanding to process and execute. Yet, they also show that it is imitation of intransitive gestures that relies on modulations outside of the praxis representation network. These outcomes shed some new light on the prospects of recovery following right vs. left, and lateral vs. medial brain lesions.