Online prediction of others’ actions: the contribution of the target object, action context and movement kinematics

Stapel, Janny C.; Hunnius, Sabine; Bekkering, Harold

doi:10.1007/s00426-012-0423-2

Cited by 59 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 55 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The remaining 20 infants were excluded because they became excessively fussy early in the experiment ( n = 2), they did not act on the object during execution trials ( n = 1), or they had an insufficient number of trials (less than 3) that were free of movement and EEG artifact in one or more test conditions ( n = 17). This rate of data loss is similar to other studies of the infant mu rhythm involving multiple within-subjects conditions (e.g., Reid, Striano, & Iacoboni, 2011; Stapel, Hunnius, & Bekkering, 2012). …”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 86%

Imitation and the developing social brain: infants’ somatotopic EEG patterns for acts of self and other

Marshall

Saby

Meltzoff

2013

Int. j. psychol. res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A leading question in developmental social-cognitive neuroscience concerns the nature and function of neural links between action perception and production in early human development. Here we document a somatotopic pattern of activity of the sensorimotor EEG mu rhythm in 14-month-old infants. EEG was recorded during interactive trials in which infants activated a novel object using their own hands or feet (“execution” trials) and watched an experimenter use her hands or feet to achieve the same goal (“observation” trials). At central electrodes overlying sensorimotor hand areas (C3/C4), mu rhythm power was reduced (indicating greater cortical activation) during infants' execution of hand acts compared to foot acts. For the central electrode overlying the sensorimotor foot area (Cz), mu power was reduced during the execution of foot versus hand acts. Strikingly similar somatotopic patterns were found in both the action execution and observation conditions. We hypothesize that these somatotopic patterns index an intercorporeal mapping of corresponding body parts between self and other. We further propose that infants' ability to identify self-other equivalences at the level of body parts underlies infant imitation and is an ontogenetic building block for the feelings of intersubjectivity we experience when socially engaged with other people.

show abstract

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 86%

Imitation and the developing social brain: infants’ somatotopic EEG patterns for acts of self and other

Marshall

Saby

Meltzoff

2013

Int. j. psychol. res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Notably, TMS was delivered at the very same time point in all conditions, that is at the moment of maximum leg extension of the soccer player after kicking the ball, right before the second step (i.e., stopping or continuing to run). This suggests a motor activation in line with the predicted movement (Kilner et al, 2004;Knoblich & Flach, 2001), finely tuned to early cues in the observed actions (Aglioti et al, 2008;Sartori et al, 2011a;Makris & Urgesi, 2014;Stapel, Hunnius, & Bekkering, 2012). Predicting another person's behavior has immediate implications for one's own action selection system because, depending on the output of action simulation, a suitable action can be selected from a multiplicity of possible alternatives (Bekkering et al, 2009;Sartori et al, 2012c).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The multiform motor cortical output: Kinematic, predictive and response coding

Sartori

Betti

Chinellato

et al. 2015

Cortex

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Observing actions performed by others entails a subliminal activation of primary motor cortex reflecting the components encoded in the observed action. One of the most debated issues concerns the role of this output: Is it a mere replica of the incoming flow of information (kinematic coding), is it oriented to anticipate the forthcoming events (predictive coding) or is it aimed at responding in a suitable fashion to the actions of others (response coding)? The aim of the present study was to disentangle the relative contribution of these three levels and unify them into an integrated view of cortical motor coding. We combined transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electromyography recordings at different timings to probe the excitability of corticospinal projections to upper and lower limb muscles of participants observing a soccer player performing:(i) a penalty kick straight in their direction and then coming to a full stop, (ii) a penalty kick straight in their direction and then continuing to run, (iii) a penalty kick to the side and then continuing to run. The results show a modulation of the observer's corticospinal excitability in different effectors at different times reflecting a multiplicity of motor coding. The internal replica of the observed action, the predictive activation, and the adaptive integration of congruent and non-congruent responses to the actions of others can coexist in a not mutually exclusive way. Such a view offers reconciliation among different (and apparently divergent) frameworks in action observation literature, and will promote a more complete and integrated understanding of recent findings on motor simulation, motor resonance and automatic imitation.

show abstract

“…[71]), observers are better at predicting the outcome of actions [72] and at estimating the duration [73] of motorically familiar actions when they watch them performed by others. Moreover, experienced adults tend to outperform novices when asked to recognize, categorize and recall observed actions [74][75][76][77].…”

Section: (A) Action Experience and Action Understanding In Adultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What are you doing? How active and observational experience shape infants' action understanding

Hunnius

Bekkering

2014

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

Self Cite

100

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

From early in life, infants watch other people's actions. How do young infants come to make sense of actions they observe? Here, we review empirical findings on the development of action understanding in infancy. Based on this review, we argue that active action experience is crucial for infants' developing action understanding. When infants execute actions, they form associations between motor acts and the sensory consequences of these acts. When infants subsequently observe these actions in others, they can use their motor system to predict the outcome of the ongoing actions. Also, infants come to an understanding of others' actions through the repeated observation of actions and the effects associated with them. In their daily lives, infants have plenty of opportunities to form associations between observed events and learn about statistical regularities of others' behaviours. We argue that based on these two forms of experience-active action experience and observational experience-infants gradually develop more complex action understanding capabilities.

show abstract

Online prediction of others’ actions: the contribution of the target object, action context and movement kinematics

Cited by 59 publications

References 55 publications

Imitation and the developing social brain: infants’ somatotopic EEG patterns for acts of self and other

Imitation and the developing social brain: infants’ somatotopic EEG patterns for acts of self and other

The multiform motor cortical output: Kinematic, predictive and response coding

What are you doing? How active and observational experience shape infants' action understanding

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About