Neural mirroring during the observation of live and video actions in infants

Abstract

We thank the participating day-care centres and organizations, all the participating children and their parents.The procedure used in the current study was approved by the ethical committee of Ghent University. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects.The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.Keywords : neural mirroring, mu suppression, video, infants, EEG, imitation 2 Highlights:• We measured significant EEG mu suppression during the observation and imitation of live goal-directed and mimicked actions in 18-to 36-months olds.• In the video setting, where the goal-directed and mimicked actions were presented on video, no mu suppression was found during the observation conditions and less mu suppression was found during the action imitation condition compared to the live setting.• The findings indicate the use of live actions in the design of paradigms investigating neural mirroring in infants. 3 AbstractObjective: Previous infant studies investigated neural mirroring during the observation of live or video actions. However, both methods have their (dis)advantages and studies using one of these methods are not always directly comparable. Therefore, the present study directly compared neural mirroring activity in a video setting with a live setting in infants between 18 and 36 months old.Methods: Central mu rhythm suppression was measured through EEG recordings during the observation and imitation of the same goal-directed and mimicked actions presented either on video or live.Results: Results revealed significant mu suppression during action imitation in both settings but stronger mu suppression was observed in the live setting during this condition. Significant mu suppression during the observation of goal-directed actions and mimicked actions was only observed in the live setting. Conclusion:This study revealed a different influence of video and live actions on neural mirroring activity in infants.Significance: It is recommended to use live actions to investigate neural mirroring in young children.4

The Role of the Human Mirror Neuron System in Supporting Communication in a Digital World

“…Behaviorally, young children demonstrate poorer learning from screen media compared to live interactions (see DeLoache et al, 1998; Barr, 2010; and Dickerson et al, 2013 for descriptions of the video deficit effect ). Evidence of differential neural processing of video compared to live social demonstrations in infants (Shimada and Hiraki, 2006), toddlers (Ruysschaert et al, 2013), and children (Moriguchi and Hiraki, 2014) are consistent with research on the video deficit. Shimada and Hiraki (2006), for example, found that 6- to 7-month-olds observing live motor demonstrations involving objects had greater sensorimotor activation (measured via NIRS) during an observation that involved an actor manipulating the object compared to observation of the object moving independently of the demonstrator (i.e., object reenactment, “ghost” condition).…”

Predictive action tracking without motor experience in 8-month-old infants

“…However, as the sensorimotor alpha suppression during the observation of the upright stepping actions was not significantly different from baseline, the results of Experiment 2 need to be interpreted with caution. A possible explanation for the absence of significant suppression is that the actions were presented on video rather than live, as previous studies have found stronger sensorimotor alpha suppression for live presentations (Ruysschaert et al, 2013, Shimada and Hiraki, 2006). Nevertheless, the current findings are inconclusive, and do not allow us to draw firm conclusions about whether or not motor mechanisms play a functional role in the predictive tracking of human actions that are outside the infant’s motor repertoire.…”

“…However, as the sensorimotor alpha suppression in the upright condition was not significantly different from baseline, these results preclude us from drawing firm conclusions about the role of the motor system in predicting human actions outside the infant’s motor repertoire. A possible explanation for the absence of significant suppression from baseline is that fact that the stepping actions were presented as isolated limbs on a video display, as previous research has shown that actions observed in live settings elicit greater sensorimotor cortex activation (Ruysschaert et al, 2013, Shimada and Hiraki, 2006). Although previous sensorimotor alpha studies have successfully used video stimuli in which only a part of the actor’s body was visible (de Klerk et al, 2015, de Klerk et al, 2015, Southgate et al, 2009, Southgate et al, 2010, Southgate and Begus, 2013), it is possible that seeing the actor’s whole body is particularly important to obtain activation that is significantly different from baseline, and future studies are needed to investigate this possibility.…”

Examining ecological validity in social interaction: problems of visual fidelity, gaze, and social potential

“…Järveläinen et al (2001) found reduced primary motor cortex activation (as measured by magnetoencephalography) during the observation of video versus real life hand movements (see Ruysschaert et al 2013 for a similar effect in infants). Järveläinen et al (2001) posited that ecological validity was important in their findings.…”