scholarly journals Imitation or Polarity Correspondence? Behavioural and Neurophysiological Evidence for the Confounding Influence of Orthogonal Spatial Compatibility on Measures of Automatic Imitation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristína Czekóová ◽  
Daniel Joel Shaw ◽  
Martin Lamoš ◽  
Beáta Špiláková ◽  
Miguel Salazar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Action Observation ◽  
Methodological Issue ◽  
Spatial Compatibility ◽  
Spatial Effects ◽  
Action Execution ◽  
Automatic Imitation ◽  
Control Networks ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Polarity Correspondence ◽  
Hand Action

AbstractDuring social interactions, humans tend to imitate one another involuntarily. To investigate the neurocognitive mechanisms driving this tendency, researchers often employ stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) tasks to assess the influence that action observation has on action execution. This is referred to as automatic imitation (AI). The stimuli used frequently in SRC procedures to elicit AI often confound action-related with other nonsocial influences on behaviour; however, in response to the rotated hand-action stimuli employed increasingly, AI partly reflects unspecific up-right/down-left biases in stimulus-response mapping. Despite an emerging awareness of this confounding orthogonal spatial-compatibility effect, psychological and neuroscientific research into social behaviour continues to employ these stimuli to investigate AI. To increase recognition of this methodological issue, the present study measured the systematic influence of orthogonal spatial effects on behavioural and neurophysiological measures of AI acquired with rotated hand-action stimuli in SRC tasks. In Experiment 1, behavioural data from a large sample revealed that complex orthogonal spatial effects exert an influence on AI over and above any topographical similarity between observed and executed actions. Experiment 2 reproduced this finding in a more systematic, within-subject design, and high-density electroencephalography revealed that electrocortical expressions of AI elicited also are modulated by orthogonal spatial compatibility. Finally, source localisations identified a collection of cortical areas sensitive to this spatial confound, including nodes of the multiple-demand and semantic-control networks. These results indicate that AI measured on SRC procedures with the rotated hand stimuli used commonly might reflect neurocognitive mechanisms associated with spatial associations rather than imitative tendencies.

Prior action execution has no effect on corticospinal facilitation during action observation

2012 ◽  
Vol 231 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michela Loporto ◽  
Craig J. McAllister ◽  
Martin G. Edwards ◽  
David J. Wright ◽  
Paul S. Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Action Observation ◽  
Action Execution ◽  
Prior Action

Conscious and Unconscious Representations of Observed Actions in the Human Motor System

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 2028-2041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan D. A. Mattiassi ◽  
Sonia Mele ◽  
Luca F. Ticini ◽  
Cosimo Urgesi
Keyword(s):  
Motor System ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Single Pulse ◽  
Basic Mechanism ◽  
Perceptual Awareness ◽  
Unconscious Perception ◽  
Motor Resonance ◽  
Specific Increase ◽  
Human Motor ◽  
Hand Action

Action observation activates the observer's motor system. These motor resonance responses are automatic and triggered even when the action is only implied in static snapshots. However, it is largely unknown whether an action needs to be consciously perceived to trigger motor resonance. In this study, we used single-pulse TMS to study the facilitation of corticospinal excitability (a measure of motor resonance) during supraliminal and subliminal presentations of implied action images. We used a forward and backward dynamic masking procedure that successfully prevented the conscious perception of prime stimuli depicting a still hand or an implied abduction movement of the index or little finger. The prime was followed by the supraliminal presentation of a still or implied action probe hand. Our results revealed a muscle-specific increase of motor facilitation following observation of the probe hand actions that were consciously perceived as compared with observation of a still hand. Crucially, unconscious perception of prime hand actions presented before probe still hands did not increase motor facilitation as compared with observation of a still hand, suggesting that motor resonance requires perceptual awareness. However, the presentation of a masked prime depicting an action that was incongruent with the probe hand action suppressed motor resonance to the probe action such that comparable motor facilitation was recorded during observation of implied action and still hand probes. This suppression of motor resonance may reflect the processing of action conflicts in areas upstream of the motor cortex and may subserve a basic mechanism for dealing with the multiple and possibly incongruent actions of other individuals.

scholarly journals fMRI Adaptation between Action Observation and Action Execution Reveals Cortical Areas with Mirror Neuron Properties in Human BA 44/45

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan de la Rosa ◽  
Frieder L. Schillinger ◽  
Heinrich H. Bülthoff ◽  
Johannes Schultz ◽  
Kamil Uludag
Keyword(s):  
Action Observation ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Action Execution ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Fmri Adaptation

Matching action observation to action execution

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 372
Author(s):  
M. Soriano ◽  
A. Cavallo ◽  
C. Becchio
Keyword(s):  
Action Observation ◽  
Action Execution

scholarly journals An fMRI study of action observation and action execution in childhood

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 100655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago Morales ◽  
Lindsay C. Bowman ◽  
Kayla R. Velnoskey ◽  
Nathan A. Fox ◽  
Elizabeth Redcay
Keyword(s):  
Action Observation ◽  
Action Execution ◽  
Fmri Study

What happened to Homo habilis? (Language and mirror neurons)

1998 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 527-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Rizzolatti
Keyword(s):  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
Physiological Data ◽  
Action Execution ◽  
Homo Habilis ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Linguistic Functions ◽  
Evolutionary Continuity

The evolutionary continuity between the prespeech functions of premotor cortex and its new linguistic functions, the main thesis of MacNeilage's target article, is confirmed by the recent discovery of “mirror” neurons in monkeys and a corresponding action-observation/action-execution matching system in humans. Physiological data (and other considerations) appear to indicate, however, that brachiomanual gestures played a greater role in language evolution than MacNeilage would like to admit.

scholarly journals Emotional state dependence facilitates automatic imitation of visual speech

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (12) ◽  
pp. 2833-2847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasmine Virhia ◽  
Sonja A Kotz ◽  
Patti Adank
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Emotional State ◽  
Response Times ◽  
State Dependence ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Visual Speech ◽  
Automatic Imitation ◽  
Speech Stimuli ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
State Dependent

Observing someone speak automatically triggers cognitive and neural mechanisms required to produce speech, a phenomenon known as automatic imitation. Automatic imitation of speech can be measured using the Stimulus Response Compatibility (SRC) paradigm that shows facilitated response times (RTs) when responding to a prompt (e.g., say aa) in the presence of a congruent distracter (a video of someone saying aa), compared with responding in the presence of an incongruent distracter (a video of someone saying oo). Current models of the relation between emotion and cognitive control suggest that automatic imitation can be modulated by varying the stimulus-driven task aspects, that is, the distracter’s emotional valence. It is unclear how the emotional state of the observer affects automatic imitation. The current study explored independent effects of emotional valence of the distracter (Stimulus-driven Dependence) and the observer’s emotional state (State Dependence) on automatic imitation of speech. Participants completed an SRC paradigm for visual speech stimuli. They produced a prompt superimposed over a neutral or emotional (happy or angry) distracter video. State Dependence was manipulated by asking participants to speak the prompt in a neutral or emotional (happy or angry) voice. Automatic imitation was facilitated for emotional prompts, but not for emotional distracters, thus implying a facilitating effect of State Dependence. The results are interpreted in the context of theories of automatic imitation and cognitive control, and we suggest that models of automatic imitation are to be modified to accommodate for state-dependent and stimulus-driven dependent effects.

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