Observing shadow motions: Resonant activity within the observer's motor system?

Alaerts, Kaat; Aggelpoel, Tinne Van; Swinnen, Stephan P.; Wenderoth, Nicole

doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2009.06.055

Cited by 20 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Particularly for experiment 2, we demonstrated a general significant facilitation of corticospinal excitability during movement observation, i.e. MEPs elicited during grasp observation were larger than during baseline measurements which is in line with previous studies Alaerts, Van Aggelpoel, Swinnen, & Wenderoth, 2009;Fadiga, Fogassi, Pavesi, & Rizzolatti, 1995 Lemon, 2009;Sartori, Betti, & Castiello, 2013). Accordingly, the general MEP facilitation is more pronounced for FDI than for ADM (as found in Exp.…”

Section: General Versus Grip Specific Changes Of Corticomotor Excitabsupporting

confidence: 92%

Uncertainty in contextual and kinematic cues jointly modulate motor resonance in primary motor cortex

Cretu

Ruddy

Germann

et al. 2018

Preprint

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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 weight and combine such information in a Bayesian manner according to their relative uncertainty. Therefore, contextual information becomes particularly useful when others' actions are ambiguous. 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 (Exp. 1) or the reliability of contextual cues (Exp. 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 (p<.0001) which are strongest when both kinematics and contextual information are available (p<.005). These findings suggest that bottom-up mechanisms that activate motor representations as a function of the observed kinematics, and top-down mechanisms which activate motor representations associated with arbitrary cues converge in M1 in a statistically optimal manner.

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Section: General Versus Grip Specific Changes Of Corticomotor Excitabsupporting

confidence: 92%

Uncertainty in contextual and kinematic cues jointly modulate motor resonance in primary motor cortex

Cretu

Ruddy

Germann

et al. 2018

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…First, results based on EEG signals do not reflect similar aspects of cortical activity obtained by other techniques, such as fMRI and TMS. For example, it is difficult to discuss the results of the present study in the same context as findings reported in Alaerts et al [76] since the techniques used, the areas investigated, and the motions observed, all differ: EEG vs TMS, all scalp areas vs primary motor cortex, whole body motions vs hand motions. Second, attention should also be paid to the experimental design.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 44%

Effects of Visual Context upon Functional Connectivity during Observation of Biological Motions

2011

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The aim of this study was to examine brain responses, in particular functional connectivity, to different visual stimuli depicting familiar biological motions. Ten subjects actively observed familiar biological motions embedded in point-light and video displays. Electroencephalograms were recorded from 64 electrodes. Activity was considered in three frequency bands (4–8 Hz, 8–10 Hz, and 10–13 Hz) using a non-linear measure of functional connectivity. In the 4–8 Hz and 8–10 Hz frequency bands, functional connectivity for the SMA was greater during the observation of biological motions presented in a point-light display compared to the observation of motions presented in a video display. The reverse was observed for the 4–8 Hz frequency band for the left temporal area. Explanations related to: (i) the task demands (i.e., attention and mental effort), (ii) the role(s) of theta and alpha oscillations in cognitive processes, and (iii) the function(s) of cortical areas are discussed. It has been suggested that attention was required to process human biological motions under unfamiliar viewing conditions such as point-light display.

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“…Wildschut (2010) found that dance spectators who sit further away are less emotionally and kinaesthetically absorbed in the movements they observe. However, the motor system is involved in mirroring observed actions even when the body is only sparsely (Alaerts, Van Aggelpoel, Swinnen, & Wenderoth, 2009) or not at all visible, as in point-light displays (see Jola et al, 2011). Also, the distance between spectators and stage was consistent throughout out the experiment, and thus cannot explain the changes we found in MEPs during action observation.…”

Section: Null-findingsmentioning

confidence: 75%

Arousal Decrease inSleeping Beauty: Audiences' Neurophysiological Correlates to Watching a Narrative Dance Performance of two-and-a-half hours

2011

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Watching dance is a multisensory experience. In dance, movements are intertwined with music and/or sound, costumes, the narrative, light and stage design. Recent studies have found neuroscientific evidence that a dance audience processes visual and auditory information, while mentally simulating and/or mirroring the movements. In other words, when spectators passively observe movements, their brain shows enhanced activity in areas that are also activated if they were executing the movements themselves. This paper presents an unusual exemplar of a scientific study in which motor simulation was measured in an emotionally and kinaesthetically loaded real life setting. The study illustrates two main points: 1) real-life conditions matter because they change the results and call into question the validity of laboratory based experimental conditions for research which is making claims about lived experience outside the laboratory and 2) new hypotheses emerged about the effects that the length of time spent watching dance can have on cortical excitability and action observation responses. The prevalent theory is that this mirroring process in action observation is automatic; however, it has been shown to increase with experience. It has been suggested that this mapping of observed movements onto one's own motor system helps in understanding the intention of the actions. A lot of effort is being put into gaining further insight into the role the mirror neuron system and motor simulation play in emotion regulation. One way of measuring motor simulation is by externally stimulating the motor cortex, which leads to small muscular responses that can be recorded in the form of motor evoked potentials (MEPs). Changes in the size of MEPs are an indirect measure for the level of motor corticospinal excitability and are thus used to indicate the level of subjects motor mapping simulation's in action observation. Even though the equipment to measure cortical excitability is mobile, most neuroscientific studies have been conducted in a laboratory setting that has little in common with real life – in particular a dance audience's experience in the theatre. Here, we challenged this approach by measuring spectators' brain responses in the theatre while they were watching a dress rehearsal of a commercial production of Sleeping Beauty, lasting 2.5 hours, performed by the Scottish Ballet. However high the ecological validity of this study, it is a small-scale exploratory and rather playful approach producing data that is not eligible for statistical hypothesis testing. Nevertheless, we provide a specific example of how the factors ‘time’ and ‘individuality’ can affect scientific results in artistic settings. We observed that the brain responses of our spectators in terms of cortical excitability decreased with time, were strongly individual, and did not conform to prevalent movement simulation hypotheses. The finding that motor simulation is not automatic during movement observation has important implications for the current understanding and research of mirror neuron activity. A contextual narrative may change the fronto-parietal mirror mechanism, which implies that previous findings based on controlled laboratory experiments could not automatically be transferred to real life. Interestingly though, the retrospectively reported emotional responses of one spectator partly matched his objective measures of cortical excitability attained during the dance performance. Hence, qualitative responses may be linked to quantitative responses more than one would expect, while laboratory findings may not be considered as substitutes for real life situations as previously assumed. However, this study simply highlights these points for future investigations. The observation of a decrease of cortical excitability over time could either indicate subjects' adaptation to the procedure and the consequent effects of muscle relaxation; or changes in their emotional and cognitive engagement when watching dance. In either case, in line with research in dance studies that highlights the importance of time as a relevant factor in dance performance, this study shows that time is a relevant factor in measuring spectators' responses to watching dance. This will require future attention.

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Observing shadow motions: Resonant activity within the observer's motor system?

Cited by 20 publications

References 19 publications

Uncertainty in contextual and kinematic cues jointly modulate motor resonance in primary motor cortex

Uncertainty in contextual and kinematic cues jointly modulate motor resonance in primary motor cortex

Effects of Visual Context upon Functional Connectivity during Observation of Biological Motions

Arousal Decrease inSleeping Beauty: Audiences' Neurophysiological Correlates to Watching a Narrative Dance Performance of two-and-a-half hours

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