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Dynamic Simulation and Static Matching for Action Prediction : evidence from Body Part Priming
(2013)
Accurately predicting other people's actions may involve two processes: internal real-time simulation (dynamic updating) and matching recently perceived action images (static matching). Using a priming of body parts, this study aimed to differentiate the two processes. Specifically, participants played a motion-controlled video game with either their arms or legs. They then observed arm movements of a point-light actor, which were briefly occluded from view, followed by a static test pose. Participants judged whether this test pose depicted a coherent continuation of the previously seen action (i.e., action prediction task). Evidence of dynamic updating was obtained after compatible effector priming (i.e., arms), whereas incompatible effector priming (i.e., legs) indicated static matching. Together, the results support action prediction as engaging two distinct processes, dynamic simulation and static matching, and indicate that their relative contributions depend on contextual factors like compatibility of body parts involved in performed and observed action.
The notion of action simulation refers to the ability to re-enact foreign actions (i.e., actions observed in other individuals). Simulating others’ actions implies a mirroring of their activities, based on one’s own sensonmotor competencies. Here, we discuss theoretical and experimental approaches to action simulation and the study of its representational underpinnings. One focus of our discussion is on the timing of internal simulation and its relation to the timing of external action, and a paradigm that requires participants to predict the future course of actions that are temporarily occluded from view. We address transitions between perceptual mechanisms (referring to action representation before and after occlusion) and simulation mechanisms (referring to action representation during occlusion). Findings suggest that action simulation runs in real-time; acting on newly created action representations rather than relying on continuous visual extrapolations. A further focus of our discussion pertains to the functional characteristics of the mechanisms involved in predicting other people’s actions. We propose that two processes are engaged, dynamic updating and static matching, which may draw on both semantic and motor information. In a concluding section, we discuss these findings in the context of broader theoretical issues related to action and event representation, arguing that a detailed functional analysis of action simulation in cognitive, neural, and computational terms may help to further advance our understanding of action cognition and motor control.
The social modulation of pain - others as predictive signals of salience ; a systematic review
(2013)
Several studies in cognitive neuroscience have investigated the cognitive and affective modulation of pain. By contrast, fewer studies have focused on the social modulation of pain, despite a plethora of relevant clinical findings. Here we present the first review of experimental studies addressing how interpersonal factors, such as the presence, behavior, and spatial proximity of an observer, modulate pain. Based on a systematic literature search, we identified 26 studies on experimentally induced pain that manipulated different interpersonal variables and measured behavioral, physiological, and neural pain-related responses. We observed that the modulation of pain by interpersonal factors depended on (1) the degree to which the social partners were active or were perceived by the participants to possess possibility for action; (2) the degree to which participants could perceive the specific intentions of the social partners; (3) the type of pre-existing relationship between the social partner and the person in pain, and lastly, (4) individual differences in relating to others and coping styles. Based on these findings, we propose that the modulation of pain by social factors can be fruitfully understood in relation to a recent predictive coding model, the free energy framework, particularly as applied to interoception and social cognition. Specifically, we argue that interpersonal interactions during pain may function as social, predictive signals of contextual threat or safety and as such influence the salience of noxious stimuli. The perception of such interpersonal interactions may in turn depend on (a) prior beliefs about interpersonal relating and (b) the certainty or precision by which an interpersonal interaction may predict environmental threat or safety.
Predicting the actions of other individuals is crucial for our daily interactions. Recent evidence suggests that the prediction of object-directed arm and full-body actions employs the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd). Thus, the neural substrate involved in action control may also be essential for action prediction. Here, we aimed to address this issue and hypothesized that disrupting the PMd impairs action prediction. Using fMRI-guided coil navigation, rTMS (five pulses, 10Hz) was applied over the left PMd and over the vertex (control region) while participants observed everyday actions in video clips that were transiently occluded for 1s. The participants detected manipulations in the time course of occluded actions, which required them to internally predict the actions during occlusion. To differentiate between functional roles that the PMd could play in prediction, rTMS was either delivered at occluder-onset (TMS-early), affecting the initiation of action prediction, or 300 ms later during occlusion(TMS-late), affecting the maintenance of anongoing prediction. TMS-early over the left PMd produced more prediction errors than TMS-early over the vertex. TMS-late had no effect on prediction performance, suggesting that the left PMd might be involved particularly during the initiation of internally guided action prediction but may play a subordinate role in maintaining ongoing prediction. These findings open a new perspective on the role of the left PMd in action prediction which is in line with its functions in action control and in cognitive tasks. In the discussion, there levance of the left PMd for integrating external action parameters with the observer's motor repertoire is emphasized. Overall, the results are in line with the notion that premotor functions are employed in both action control and action observation.
It has often been shown that independent self-construals (emphasizing personal uniqueness) coincide with an analytic, context-independent style of information processing whereas interdependent self-construals (emphasizing relatedness with others) promote holistic, context-dependent processing. The present study suggests that these cognitive variations between different self-construals can be accounted for by higher order cognitive functions for the control of ongoing mental operations (i.e., executive functions). Using an experimental paradigm, we showed naturalistic pictures displaying a face and a place superimposed on each other. On each trial, one of these dimensions served as a target (depicted in magenta), while the other served as a distractor (depicted in gray). The results showed that independency primed participants were less affected by distractors appearing in the presence of a target (i.e., smaller interference effect) than interdependency primed participants. Importantly, the independency primed participants revealed evidence of mental inhibition of distractors, showing longer reaction times when previously ignored distractors subsequently became targets (i.e., a negatively signed priming effect). Thus, our study is the first to suggest that differences in fundamental processes of cognitive control, namely, the inhibition of automatically triggered (but inappropriate) response tendencies, are the driving force behind the many previously reported differences between individuals primed for independency versus interdependency.
Both mimicking and being mimicked induces preference for a target. The present experiments investigate the minimal sufficient conditions for this mimicry-preference link to occur. We argue that mere effector matching between one's own and the other person's movement is sufficient to induce preference, independent of which movement is actually performed. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants moved either their arms or legs, and watched avatars that moved either their arms or legs, respectively, without any instructions to mimic. The executed movements themselves and their pace were completely different between participants (fast circular movements) and targets (slow linear movements). Participants preferred avatars that moved the same body part as they did over avatars that moved a different body part. In Experiment 3, using human targets and differently paced movements, movement similarity was manipulated in addition to effector overlap (moving forward-backward or sideways with arms or legs, respectively). Only effector matching, but not movement matching, influenced preference ratings. These findings suggest that mere effector overlap is sufficient to trigger preference by mimicry. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Movement kinematics affect action prediction comparing human to non-human point-light actions
(2012)
The influence of movement kinematics on the accuracy of predicting the time course of another individual's actions was studied. A human point-light shape was animated with human movement (natural condition) and with artificial movement that was more uniform regarding velocity profiles and trajectories (artificial condition). During brief occlusions, the participants predicted the actions in order to judge after occlusion whether the actions were continued coherently in time or shifted to an earlier or later frame. Error rates and reaction times were increased in the artificial compared to the natural condition. The findings suggest a perceptual advantage for movement with a human velocity profile, corresponding to the notion of a close interaction between observed and executed movement. The results are discussed in the framework of the simulation account and alternative interpretations are provided on the basis of correlations between the velocity profiles of natural and artificial movements with prediction performance.
The detailed dynamics of action simulation was investigated using the occluder paradigm: a point light actor (PLA) was shown, then briefly occluded from view, during which period action simulation was generated. Following occlusion, the PLA reappeared, either a progression of the motion as it should be post-occlusion or temporally shifted earlier/later. Participants made judgements on whether the reappearing PLA was too early or too late to be a correct continuation (Experiments 1 and 3) or whether it was a veridical continuation or not (Experiment 2). Over three experiments we asked how action simulation is affected by motion information before, during and after occlusion. Reducing motion presented before occlusion retained the accuracy of action simulation judgements. Presenting 4 frames (67 ms) of PLA motion during the occluder duration dynamically updates or altogether regenerates the action simulation. Reducing the duration of the test motion after the occluder decreases judgement precision, which we interpret as a limitation in the process of postdictive motion judgments. Overall, this is further evidence that the action simulation process is remarkably adapted to making human motion predictions.