Top-down social modulation of perception-action coupling

Cracco, Emiel; Genschow, Oliver; Baess, Pamela

doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103481

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 51 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The same point can also be made for the broader literature on social modulation of automatic imitation. Indeed, although it has often been theorized (e.g., Stel et al, 2016; Wang & Hamilton, 2012), evidence for social modulation so far has been inconsistent (e.g., Carr et al, 2021; Cracco & Brass, 2019; Cracco et al, 2022; Cracco, Genschow, et al, 2018; Farmer et al, 2016; Genschow et al, 2022; Nevejans & Cracco, 2022; Ramsey, 2018; Souter et al, 2021; Wang et al, 2011). Based on our results, a possible reason for this pattern could be that the manipulations used in the literature differ in the extent to which they influence self-other similarity and that these differences explain part of the variability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Top-Down Modulation of Motor Priming by Belief About Animacy

Cracco,

Liepelt,

Brass

et al. 2023

Experimental Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research has shown that people automatically imitate others and that this tendency is stronger when the other person is a human compared with a nonhuman agent. However, a controversial question is whether automatic imitation is also modulated by whether people believe the other person is a human. Although early research supported this hypothesis, not all studies reached the same conclusion and a recent meta-analysis found that there is currently neither evidence in favor nor against an influence of animacy beliefs on automatic imitation. One of the most prominent studies supporting such an influence is the study by Liepelt and Brass (2010) , who found that automatic imitation was stronger when participants believed an ambiguous, gloved hand to be human, as opposed to wooden. In this registered report, we provide a high-powered replication of this study ( N = 199). In contrast to Liepelt and Brass (2010) , we did not find an effect of animacy beliefs on automatic imitation. However, we did find a correlation between automatic imitation and perceived self-other similarity. Together, these results suggest that the gloved hand procedure does not reliably influence automatic imitation, but interindividual differences in perceived similarity do.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Top-Down Modulation of Motor Priming by Belief About Animacy

Cracco,

Liepelt,

Brass

et al. 2023

Experimental Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Several studies showed that participants perceive point‐light agents as biological motion (Giese & Poggio, 2003; Grossman et al, 2000; Neri et al, 1998; Peuskens et al, 2005). However, our brains do not only process bottom‐up sensory information, but our perception and actions are influenced by our prior experience and might be modulated by social factors (Cracco et al, 2022). Our brain forms expectations and predicts mental states (Thornton et al, 2019), intentions (Kilner et al, 2007) and actions (Neri et al, 2006) of others.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio‐temporal dynamics of oscillatory brain activity during the observation of actions and interactions between point‐light agents

Friedrich

Zillekens

Biel

et al. 2023

Eur J of Neuroscience

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Predicting actions from non-verbal cues and using them to optimise one's response behaviour (i.e. interpersonal predictive coding) is essential in everyday social interactions. We aimed to investigate the neural correlates of different cognitive processes evolving over time during interpersonal predictive coding. Thirty-nine participants watched two agents depicted by moving point-light stimuli while an electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. One well-recognizable agent performed either a 'communicative' or an 'individual' action. The second agent either was blended into a cluster of noise dots (i.e. present) or was entirely replaced by noise dots (i.e. absent), which participants had to differentiate. EEG amplitude and coherence analyses for theta, alpha and beta frequency bands revealed a dynamic pattern unfolding over time: Watching communicative actions was associated with enhanced coupling within medial anterior regions involved in social and mentalising processes and with dorsolateral prefrontal activation indicating a higher

show abstract

“…For example, automatic imitation is reported to increase following the prior exposure to pro-social cues (e.g., friend), while it decreases following the presence of anti-social cues (e.g., alone) [ 22 , 23 ] (for similar findings, see [ 24 – 27 ]) (cf. [ 28 , 29 ]). This modulation is suggested to unfold courtesy of a separate, but interacting, neural network that is synonymous with social cognition, including the anterior medial frontal cortex (aFMC) and temporoparietal junction (TPJ) [ 30 – 33 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does the threat of COVID-19 modulate automatic imitation?

Roberts

Bennett

2023

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The tendency to involuntarily imitate the actions of others (automatic imitation) can be modulated by social affiliative cues. Here, we explored whether the disruption to our social lives caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may subsequently influence automatic imitation. Three groups were initially presented a sentence comprehension task that featured either neutral (control), safe or unsafe primes to COVID-19 infection. They then completed an automatic imitation task, where a numeric cue was presented alongside apparent motion of an index or middle finger, which was either compatible or incompatible with the required response. Reaction times were longer for the incompatible compared to compatible trials, and thus demonstrated automatic imitation. However, there was no influence of the primes indicating that automatic imitation was unaffected by the risk of COVID-19. The potential theoretical explanations and practical implications of pathogen avoidance and social bonding incentives are discussed with reference to pandemic events.

show abstract

Top-down social modulation of perception-action coupling

Cited by 8 publications

References 51 publications

Top-Down Modulation of Motor Priming by Belief About Animacy

Top-Down Modulation of Motor Priming by Belief About Animacy

Spatio‐temporal dynamics of oscillatory brain activity during the observation of actions and interactions between point‐light agents

Does the threat of COVID-19 modulate automatic imitation?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About