grounded cognition: motor resonance
DESCRIPTION
lecture from Grounded Cognition course at Faculty of Mathematics, Physics, and Informatics, Comenius University in BratislavaTRANSCRIPT
Motor Resonance
Kristína Rebrová[Grounded Cognition 2011]
Kristína Rebrová [Grounded Cognition 2011] Motor Resonance
Motor Resonance
partial activation of motor circuits without any (apparent)motor activity
triggered by various modalities: visual, auditory, linguistic
might provide us with a simulation mechanism -understanding, prediction, empathy
Kristína Rebrová [Grounded Cognition 2011] Motor Resonance
Ideomotor Theory
William James (1980) [originally developed by Germanscholars in early 19th century, see Stock and Stock, 2004]
there are many behavioral routines we execute subconsciously,for instance when we eat raisins out of a cake, fully engaged ina conversation, without noticing...
actions are results of ideas about actions, triggered by theperception of the action or its image in mind
ideomotor reaction happens �unhesitatingly and immediately�
the e�ect induced during sole observation of the movementmight not necessarily lead to action (might be suppressed)
Kristína Rebrová [Grounded Cognition 2011] Motor Resonance
Common Coding Theory
Prinz (1997), Hommel et al. (2001)
the perception of action automatically activates its motorcomponent and vice versa
an action and its perceptual aspects are (on a higher level)represented within common domain (common codes)
a mean for sensorimotor simulation (Barsalou, 1999;Jeannerod, 2001; Wolpert et al., 2003)
same neural mechanisms are involved in mental imagery of amotor act as in its execution
Kristína Rebrová [Grounded Cognition 2011] Motor Resonance
Motor resonance and the EEG mu-rhythm
mu-rhytm:
EEG oscillation with dominant frequencies in the 8�13 and15�25 Hz bands (alpha like)typical for motor restdesynchronizes/supresses not only when subject produces,but also observes action
�rst indirect evidence of mirror neurons in humans
Kristína Rebrová [Grounded Cognition 2011] Motor Resonance
Motor Resonance and EEG mu-rhythm
motor resonance is a partial activation of motor areas during asole observation of a movement
Cohen-Seat et al. (1954), Gastaut and Bert (1954)
mu rhythm
an EEG oscillation in 8 to 13 Hz and 20 Hz bandstypical for motor restgets desynchronized, diminished, or vanishes when the subjectobserves motor acts
the magnitude of the desynchronization points to the degree ofunderstanding or "reliving" the observed movement
Kristína Rebrová [Grounded Cognition 2011] Motor Resonance
Motor Resonance and E�ectors
caused also by non-human, but human-like e�ectors, like arobotic arm (Oberman and Ramachandran, 2007)
Kristína Rebrová [Grounded Cognition 2011] Motor Resonance
Motor Resonance and Motor Repertoire
motor resonance appears even in infants Van Elk et al. (2008)
it is selective to the movements inside the motor repertoire
responses of infants of 14-16 months of age were signi�cantlyhigher when observing crawling in comparison to walking
Kristína Rebrová [Grounded Cognition 2011] Motor Resonance
Guess Who's Doing That
people have better judgment about the outcome of an actionwhen observing themselves
Knoblich and Flach (2001): experiments with throwing darts(video paradigm)
Knoblich et al. (2002): experiments with writing digits(�nished and un�nished digits)
Kristína Rebrová [Grounded Cognition 2011] Motor Resonance
E�ects of Pro�ciency
Repp and Knoblich (2007): pianists judge sequences ofambiguous tones (Tritone paradox) according to the directionof the produced movement (from left to right and vice versa)
Aglioti et al. (2008): professional sportsmen judge better theoutcome of the action even compared skilled observers(couches, journalists)
However, this principle does not apply when viewing staticimages (Sebanz and Shi�rar ,2009)(mirror neurons are not triggered by static images as well)
Cross et al. (2006): when professional dancers learned a newmovement the activity triggered by the observation of thismovement in IPL and frontal premotor cortex graduallyincreased
Kristína Rebrová [Grounded Cognition 2011] Motor Resonance
Motor Resonance and Ideomotor Theory: Conclusions
the more closely the observed action maps onto the observer'sown motor repertoire, the more accurate will be the observer'sprediction of the course and the result of the action
motor preparation enhances the performance in perceptualtasks
stimulus-response compatibility (facilitation of reaction on thebasis of congruence with the stimulus)
ideomotor action: involuntary movement that tends to arisewhen observing another's performance
in�uence of familiarity
in�uence of pro�ciency and praxis
in�uence of training
various motor laws imply for perception and imagery of action
Kristína Rebrová [Grounded Cognition 2011] Motor Resonance
Forward and Inverse Models
Wolpert and Kawato (1998), Wolpert et al. (2003)
forward: to generate predictions about the next state of theworld
inverse: reversely activating actions that could possibly lead tothe observed situation
work together
a possible solution to the problem of agency: "who does theaction?"
Kristína Rebrová [Grounded Cognition 2011] Motor Resonance
The End
Thank you for your attention
Kristína Rebrová [Grounded Cognition 2011] Motor Resonance