scholarly journals Your move or mine? Music training and kinematic compatibility modulate synchronization with self- versus other-generated dance movement

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Huang Su ◽  
Peter E. Keller
Keyword(s):  
Action Observation ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Motor Simulation ◽  
Movement Kinematics ◽  
Dance Movement ◽  
Music Training ◽  
Action Simulation ◽  
Simulation Efficiency ◽  
Point Light ◽  
Published Paper

Note: This is a pre-print of an article published in the journal "Psychological Research". The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-018-0987-6.A full-text view-only version of the published paper can be freely accessed at: http://rdcu.be/FOZeAbstract:Motor simulation has been implicated in how musicians anticipate the rhythm of another musician’s action to achieve interpersonal synchronization. Here we investigated whether similar mechanisms govern a related form of rhythmic action: dance. We examined (1) whether synchronization with visual dance stimuli was influenced by movement agency, (2) whether music training modulated simulation efficiency, and (3) what cues were relevant for simulating the dance rhythm. Participants were first recorded dancing the basic Charleston steps paced by a metronome, and later in a synchronization task they tapped to the rhythm of their own point-light dance stimuli, stimuli of another physically-matched participant or one matched in movement kinematics, and a quantitative average across individuals. Results indicated that, while there was no overall “self advantage” and synchronization was generally most stable with the least variable (averaged) stimuli, motor simulation was driven – indicated by high tap-beat variability correlations – by familiar movement kinematics rather than morphological features. Furthermore, music training facilitated simulation, such that musicians outperformed non-musicians when synchronizing with others’ movements but not with their own movements. These findings support action simulation as underlying synchronization in dance, linking action observation and rhythm processing in a common motor framework.

scholarly journals Metrical congruency and kinematic familiarity facilitate temporal binding between musical and dance rhythms

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Huang Su
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Integration ◽  
Incongruent Condition ◽  
Lower Sensitivity ◽  
Dance Movement ◽  
Action Simulation ◽  
Self Recognition ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Audiovisual Stimuli ◽  
Point Light ◽  
Temporal Perturbation

Note: This is a pre-print of an article published in the journal "Psychonomic Bulletin & Review". The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-018-1480-3. A full-text view-only version of the published paper can be freely accessed at: https://rdcu.be/OoQz. Abstract: Although music and dance are often experienced simultaneously, it is unclear what modulates their perceptual integration. This study investigated how two factors related to music–dance correspondences influenced audiovisual binding of their rhythms: the metrical match between music and dance, and the kinematic familiarity of the dance movement. Participants watched a point-light figure dancing synchronously to a triple-meter rhythm they heard in parallel, whereby the dance communicated a triple (congruent) or a duple (incongruent) visual meter. The movement was either their own or that of another participant. Participants attended to both streams while detecting a temporal perturbation in the auditory beat. Results showed lower sensitivity to the auditory deviant when the visual dance was metrically congruent to the auditory rhythm, and when the movement was their own. This indicated stronger audiovisual binding and a more coherent bimodal rhythm in these conditions, thus making a slight auditory deviant less noticeable. Moreover, binding in the metrically incongruent condition involving self-generated visual stimuli was correlated with self recognition of the movement, suggesting that action simulation mediated the perceived coherence between one’s own movement and a mismatching auditory rhythm. Overall, mechanisms of rhythm perception and action simulation could inform the perceived compatibility between music and dance, thus modulating temporal integration of these audiovisual stimuli.

The McNorm Library: Creating and Validating a New Library of Emotionally Expressive Dance Movement

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Anne Smith ◽  
Emily S. Cross
Keyword(s):  
Body Movement ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Dance Movement ◽  
Affective Communication ◽  
Bodily Movement ◽  
Affective Cues ◽  
Point Light ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Accuracy Rates

The ability to exchange affective cues with others plays a key role in our ability to create and maintain meaningful social relationships. We express our emotions through a variety of socially salient cues, including facial expressions, the voice, and body movement. While significant advances have been made in our understanding of verbal and facial communication, to date, understanding of the role played by human body movement in our social interactions remains incomplete. To this end, here we describe the creation and validation of a new set of emotionally expressive whole-body dance movement stimuli, named the Motion Capture Norming (McNorm) Library, which was designed to reconcile a number of limitations associated with previous movement stimuli. This library comprises a series of point-light representations of a dancer’s movements, which were performed to communicate neutrality, happiness, sadness, anger, and fear to observers. Based on results from two validation experiments, participants could reliably discriminate the intended emotion to clips in this stimulus set, with accuracy rates up to 60% (chance = 20%). We further explored the impact of dance experience and trait empathy on emotion recognition and found that neither significantly impacted emotion discrimination. As all materials for presenting and analysing this movement library are openly available, we hope this resource will aid other researchers in further exploration of affective communication expressed by human bodily movement.

scholarly journals Weight estimations with time-reversed point-light displays

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Braun ◽  
Sebastian Fischer ◽  
Nils Eckardt
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Weak Version ◽  
Motor Simulation ◽  
Point Light ◽  
Goal Change ◽  
Reversed Order

AbstractInterpreting other’s actions is a very important ability not only in social life, but also in interactive sports. Previous experiments have demonstrated good estimation performances for the weight of lifted objects through point-light displays. The basis for these performances is commonly assigned to the concept of motor simulation regarding observed actions. In this study, we investigated the weak version of the motor simulation hypothesis which claims that the goal of an observed action strongly influences its understanding (Fogassi, Ferrari, Gesierich, Rozzi, Chersi, & Rizzolatti, 2005). Therefore, we conducted a weight judgement task with point-light displays and showed participants videos of a model lifting and lowering three different weights. The experimental manipulation consisted of a goal change of these actions by showing the videos normal and in a time-reversed order of sequence. The results show a systematic overestimation of weights for time-reversed lowering actions (thus looking like lifting actions) while weight estimations for time-reversed lifting actions did not differ from the original playback direction. The results are discussed in terms of motor simulation and different kinematic profiles of the presented actions.

Perception of another person’s maximum reach-with-jump height from walking kinematics

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (8) ◽  
pp. 2018-2031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie A Weast-Knapp ◽  
Kevin Shockley ◽  
Michael A Riley ◽  
Sarah Cummins-Sebree ◽  
Michael J Richardson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Principal Component Analysis ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Human Walking ◽  
Vertical Force ◽  
Jump Height ◽  
Body Segment ◽  
Movement Kinematics ◽  
Kinematic Data ◽  
Point Light ◽  
Kinematic Information

Humans can perceive affordances (possibilities for action) for themselves and others, including the maximum overhead height reachable by jumping (reach-with-jump height, RWJ). While observers can accurately perceive maximum RWJ for another person without previously seeing the person jump, estimates improve after viewing the person walk, suggesting there is structure in walking kinematics that is informative about the ability to produce vertical force for jumping. We used principal component analysis (PCA) to identify patterns in human walking kinematics that specify another person’s maximum RWJ ability, and to determine whether athletes are more sensitive than non-athletes to these patterns. Kinematic data during treadmill walking were collected and submitted to PCA to obtain loading values for the kinematic time series variables on the first principal component. Kinematic data were also used to create point-light (PL) displays, in which the movement kinematics of PL walkers were manipulated using the obtained PCA loading values to determine how changes in body-segment movements impacted perception of maximum RWJ height. While manipulating individual segmental loadings in the PL displays did not substantially affect RWJ estimates, PL displays created by replacing the PCA loadings of a high-jumper with those of a low-jumper, and vice versa, resulted in corresponding reversals of participants’ RWJ estimates, suggesting that the global structure of walking kinematics carries information about another’s maximum RWJ height. Athletes exhibited greater sensitivity than controls to the kinematic manipulations, indicating that they are better attuned to useful kinematic information as a result of their sport experience.

Sensory Effects of Action Observation

2013 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 335-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Thomas ◽  
Jill Sink ◽  
Patrick Haggard
Keyword(s):  
Action Observation ◽  
Sensorimotor Gating ◽  
Motor Preparation ◽  
Motor Simulation ◽  
Vibrotactile Stimulation ◽  
Motor Representation ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
Response Biases ◽  
External Stimuli

Recent neurophysiological and behavioral studies suggest that the brain simulates the sensorimotor processing of observed actions. The relative contributions of sensory and motor simulation in this process remain unclear. Here, we use the well-established phenomenon of sensorimotor gating as a hallmark of motor representation. Perceived intensities of external stimuli are routinely suppressed during motor preparation and execution. Therefore, motor simulation should result in reduced perceptual intensity of sensory stimuli delivered during action observation. We obtained magnitude estimates for vibrotactile stimulation of the upper lip during observation of silent speech (lip-reading). Perceptual enhancement was consistently found across three experiments. The effect appeared to be specific to the observed action, somatotopically organized, and distinct from general attentional and response biases. We conclude that action observation produces perceptual enhancement. The experience of observing others’ actions may be driven more by sensory simulation than by motor simulation.

scholarly journals Neural Suppression Elicited During Motor Imagery Following the Observation of Biological Motion From Point-Light Walker Stimuli

2022 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Grazia ◽  
Michael Wimmer ◽  
Gernot R. Müller-Putz ◽  
Selina C. Wriessnegger
Keyword(s):  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Mental Simulation ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Point Light

Introduction: Advantageous effects of biological motion (BM) detection, a low-perceptual mechanism that allows the rapid recognition and understanding of spatiotemporal characteristics of movement via salient kinematics information, can be amplified when combined with motor imagery (MI), i.e., the mental simulation of motor acts. According to Jeannerod’s neurostimulation theory, asynchronous firing and reduction of mu and beta rhythm oscillations, referred to as suppression over the sensorimotor area, are sensitive to both MI and action observation (AO) of BM. Yet, not many studies investigated the use of BM stimuli using combined AO-MI tasks. In this study, we assessed the neural response in the form of event-related synchronization and desynchronization (ERD/S) patterns following the observation of point-light-walkers and concordant MI, as compared to MI alone.Methods: Twenty right-handed healthy participants accomplished the experimental task by observing BM stimuli and subsequently performing the same movement using kinesthetic MI (walking, cycling, and jumping conditions). We recorded an electroencephalogram (EEG) with 32 channels and performed time-frequency analysis on alpha (8–13 Hz) and beta (18–24 Hz) frequency bands during the MI task. A two-way repeated-measures ANOVA was performed to test statistical significance among conditions and electrodes of interest.Results: The results revealed significant ERD/S patterns in the alpha frequency band between conditions and electrode positions. Post hoc comparisons showed significant differences between condition 1 (walking) and condition 3 (jumping) over the left primary motor cortex. For the beta band, a significantly less difference in ERD patterns (p < 0.01) was detected only between condition 3 (jumping) and condition 4 (reference).Discussion: Our results confirmed that the observation of BM combined with MI elicits a neural suppression, although just in the case of jumping. This is in line with previous findings of AO and MI (AOMI) eliciting a neural suppression for simulated whole-body movements. In the last years, increasing evidence started to support the integration of AOMI training as an adjuvant neurorehabilitation tool in Parkinson’s disease (PD).Conclusion: We concluded that using BM stimuli in AOMI training could be promising, as it promotes attention to kinematic features and imitative motor learning.

scholarly journals Transient disruption of the inferior parietal lobule impairs the ability to attribute intention to action

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-François Patri ◽  
Andrea Cavallo ◽  
Kiri Pullar ◽  
Marco Soriano ◽  
Martina Valente ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Inferior Parietal Lobule ◽  
Reach To Grasp ◽  
Movement Kinematics ◽  
Measured Activity ◽  
Parietal Lobule ◽  
Computational Analyses ◽  
Theta Burst

AbstractAlthough it is well established that fronto-parietal regions are active during action observation, whether they play a causal role in the ability to infer others’ intentions from visual kinematics remains undetermined. In experiments reported here, we combined offline continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) with computational modeling to reveal single-trial computations in the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Participants received cTBS over the left anterior IPL and the left IFG pars orbitalis, in separate sessions, before completing an intention discrimination task (discriminate intention of observed reach-to-grasp acts) or a kinematic discrimination task (discriminate peak wrist height of the same acts) unrelated to intention. We targeted intentions-sensitive regions whose fMRI-measured activity accurately discriminated intention from the same action stimuli. We found that transient disruption of activity of the left IPL, but not the IFG, impaired the observer’s ability to judge intention from movement kinematics. Kinematic discrimination unrelated to intention, in contrast, was largely unaffected. Computational analyses revealed that IPL cTBS did not impair the ability to ‘see’ changes in movement kinematics, nor did it alter the weight given to informative versus non-informative kinematic features. Rather, it selectively impaired the ability to link variations in informative features to the correct intention. These results provide the first causal evidence that left anterior IPL maps kinematics to intentions.

scholarly journals Uncertainty in contextual and kinematic cues jointly modulates motor resonance in primary motor cortex

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (4) ◽  
pp. 1451-1464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreea Loredana Cretu ◽  
Kathy Ruddy ◽  
Maria Germann ◽  
Nicole Wenderoth
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Motor Resonance ◽  
Movement Kinematics ◽  
Corticomotor Excitability ◽  
Movement Observation ◽  
Motor Representations

Contextual information accompanying others’ actions modulates “motor resonance”, i.e., neural activity within motor areas that is elicited by movement observation. One possibility is that we weigh and combine such information in a Bayesian manner according to their relative uncertainty. Therefore, contextual information becomes particularly useful when others’ actions are difficult to discriminate. It is unclear, however, whether this uncertainty modulates the neural activity in primary motor cortex (M1) during movement observation. Here, we applied single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) while subjects watched different grasping actions. We operationalized motor resonance as grip-specific modulation of corticomotor excitability measured in the index (FDI) versus the little finger abductor (ADM). We experimentally modulated either the availability of kinematic information ( experiment 1) or the reliability of contextual cues ( experiment 2). Our results indicate that even in the absence of movement kinematics, reliable contextual information is enough to trigger significant muscle-specific corticomotor excitability changes in M1, which are strongest when both kinematics and contextual information are available. These findings suggest that bottom-up mechanisms that activate motor representations as a function of the observed kinematics and top-down mechanisms that activate motor representations associated with arbitrary cues converge in M1. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Our study reveals new neurophysiological insights in support of the Bayesian account of action observation by showing that “motor resonance”, i.e., neural activity evoked by observing others’ actions, incorporates the uncertainty related to both contextual (prior beliefs) and kinematic (sensory evidence) cues. Notably, we show that muscle-specific modulation of M1 is strongest when context and movement kinematics are available, and it can be elicited even in the absence of movement kinematics.

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