Intrinsic and extrinsic influences on self-recognition of actions
Despite minimal visual experience and unfamiliar third-person viewpoints, humans are able to recognize their own body movements even when actions are reduced to point-light displays. What factors influence visual self-recognition of own actions? To address this question, we recorded whole-body movements of a large sample of participants (N = 101) performing a range of actions. After a delay period, participants were tested in a self-recognition task: identifying own actions depicted in point-light displays amongst three other point-light actors performing identical actions. While participants showed above-chance accuracy on average for self-recognition, we found substantial differences in performance across actions and individuals. Self-recognition performance was modulated by interactions between extrinsic factors (associated with the degree of motor planning in performed actions) and intrinsic traits linked to individuals’ motor imagery ability and sensorimotor self-processing ability (autism and schizotypal traits). These interactions shed light on mechanistic possibilities for how the motor system may augment vision to construct the core of self-awareness.