Built on neurodegenerative lesions models, the disrupted motor grounding hypothesis (DMGH) posits that motor-system alterations selectively impair action comprehension. However, major doubts remain concerning the dissociability, neural signatures, and etiological generalizability of such deficits. Few studies have compared action-concept outcomes between disorders affecting and sparing motor circuitry, and none has examined their multimodal network predictors via data-driven approaches. Here, we first assessed action- and object-concept processing in patients with frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE), patients with posterior cortex epilepsy (PCE), and healthy controls. Then, we examined structural and functional network signatures via diffusion tensor imaging and resting-state connectivity measures. Finally, we used these measures to predict behavioral performance with an XGBoost machine learning regression algorithm. Relative to controls, FLE (but not PCE) patients exhibited selective action-concept deficits together with structural and functional abnormalities along motor networks. The XGBoost model reached a significantly large effect size only for action-concept outcomes in FLE, mainly predicted by structural (cortico-spinal tract, anterior thalamic radiation, uncinate fasciculus) and functional (M1-parietal/supramarginal connectivity) motor networks. These results extend the DMGH, suggesting that action-concept deficits are dissociable markers of frontal/motor (relative to posterior) disruptions, directly related to the structural and functional integrity of motor networks, and traceable beyond canonical movement disorders.

建立在神经退行性病变模型之上，运动接地中断假说 (DMGH) 假设运动系统的改变选择性地损害动作理解。然而，关于这种缺陷的可解离性、神经特征和病因普遍性仍存在重大疑问。很少有研究比较影响和保留运动电路的疾病之间的动作概念结果，也没有研究通过数据驱动的方法检查它们的多模式网络预测因子。在这里，我们首先评估了额叶癫痫 (FLE) 患者、后皮质癫痫 (PCE) 患者和健康对照组的动作和对象概念处理。然后，我们通过扩散张量成像和静息状态连接测量检查了结构和功能网络特征。最后，我们使用这些措施通过 XGBoost 机器学习回归算法来预测行为表现。相对于对照组，FLE（但不是 PCE）患者表现出选择性动作概念缺陷以及运动网络的结构和功能异常。XGBoost 模型仅对 FLE 中的动作概念结果达到显着大的影响大小，主要由结构（皮质脊髓束、前丘脑辐射、钩束）和功能（M1-顶叶/超边缘连接）运动网络预测。这些结果扩展了 DMGH，表明动作概念缺陷是额叶/运动（相对于后部）中断的可分离标记，与运动网络的结构和功能完整性直接相关，并且可以追溯到典型的运动障碍之外。