Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Interaction effects in simultaneous motor control and movement perception tasks

  • Published:
Artificial Intelligence Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Recent findings in neuroscience suggest an overlap between those brain regions involved in the control and execution of movement and those activated during the perception of another’s movement. This so called ‘mirror neuron’ system is thought to underlie our ability to automatically infer the goals and intentions of others by observing their actions. Kilner et al. (Curr Biol 13(6):522–525, 2003) provide evidence for a human ‘mirror neuron’ system by showing that the execution of simple arm movements is affected by the simultaneous perception of another’s movement. Specifically, observation of ‘incongruent’ movements made by another human, but not by a robotic arm, leads to greater variability in the movement trajectory than observation of movements in the same direction. In this study we ask which aspects of the observed motion are crucial to this interference effect by comparing the efficacy of real human movement to that of sparse ‘point-light displays’. Eight participants performed whole arm movements in both horizontal and vertical directions while observing either the experimenter or a virtual ‘point-light’ figure making arm movements in the same or in a different direction. Our results, however, failed to show an effect of ‘congruency’ of the observed movement on movement variability, regardless of whether a human actor or point-light figure was observed. The findings are discussed, and future directions for studies of perception-action coupling are considered.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Blakemore SJ and Frith C (2005). The role of motor contagion in the prediction of action. Neuropsychologia 43(2): 260–267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brass M, Bekkering H, Wohlschlager A and Prinz W (2000). Compatibility between observed and executed finger movements: comparing symbolic, spatial, and imitative cues. Brain Cogn 44(2): 124–143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brass M, Bekkering H and Prinz W (2001). Movement observation affects movement execution in a simple response task. Acta Psychol 106: 3–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buccino G, Binkofski F, Fink GR, Fadiga L, Fogassi L, Gallese V, Seitz RJ, Zilles K, Rizzolatti G and Freund H-J (2001). Action observation activates premotor and parietal areas in a somatotopic manner: an fMRI study. Eur J Neurosci 13: 400–404

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cochin S, Barthelemy C, Lejeune B, Roux S and Martineau J (1998). Perception of motion and qEEG activity in human adults. Electroenceph Clin Neurophysiol 107: 287–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craighero L, Fadiga L, Rizzolatti G and Umilta C (1998). Visuomotor priming. Visual Cogn 5(1): 109–125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craighero L, Bello A, Fadiga L and Rizzolatti G (2002). Hand action preparation influences the responses to hand pictures. Neuropsychologia 40: 492–502

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cutting JE (1978). A biomechanical invariant of gait perception. J Exp Psychol: Hum Percept Perform 4: 357–372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dekeyser M, Verfaillie K and Vanrie J (2002). Creating stimuli for the study of biological-motion perception. Behav Res Methods, Instrum Comput 34: 375–382

    Google Scholar 

  • Fadiga L, Fogassi L, Gallese V, Rizzolatti G and Pelligrino G (1992). Understanding motor events: a neurophysiological study. Exp Brain Res 91: 176–180

    Google Scholar 

  • Fadiga L, Fogassi L, Pavesi G and Rizzolatti G (1995). Motor facilitation during action observation: a magnetic stimulation study. J Neurophysiol 73: 2608–2611

    Google Scholar 

  • Flash T and Hogan N (1985). The coordination of arm movements: an experimentally confirmed mathematical model. J Neurosci 5(7): 1688–1703

    Google Scholar 

  • Grafton ST, Arbib MA, Fadiga L and Rizzolatti G (1996). Localization of grasp representations in humans by positron emission tomography: 2. Observation compared with imagination. Exp Brain Res 112: 103–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heyes C, Bird G, Johnson H and Haggard P (2005). Experience modulates automatic imitation. Cogn Brain Res 22: 233–240

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holden MK and Dyar T (2002). Virtual environment training: a new tool for rehabilitation. Neurol Rep 26(2): 62–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Iacoboni M, Woods RP, Brass M, Bekkering H, Mazziotta JC and Rizzolatti G (1999). Cortical mechanisms of human imitation. Science 286: 2526–2528

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs A and Shiffrar M (2005). Walking perception by walking observers. J Exp Psychol: Hum Percept Perform 31: 157–169

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jeannerod M (1994). The representing brain: neural correlates of motor intention and imagery. Behav Brain Sci 17(2): 187–245

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johansson G (1973). Visual perception of biological motion and a model for its analysis. Percept Psychophys 14: 201–211

    Google Scholar 

  • Kilner JM, Paulignan Y and Blakemore SJ (2003). An interference effect of observed biological movement on action. Curr Biol 13(6): 522–525

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyons DE, Santos LR and Keil FC (2006). Reflections of other minds: how primate social cognition can inform the function of mirror neurons. Curr Opin Neurobiol 16(2): 230–239

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ma YL, Paterson H and Pollick FE (2006). A motion-capture library for the study of identity, gender, and emotion perception from biological motion. Behav Res Methods, Instrum Comput 38(1): 134–141

    Google Scholar 

  • Mather G and Murdoch L (1994). Gender discrimination in biological motion displays based on dynamic cues. Proc Royal Soc Lond B 258: 273–279

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oberman LM, Hubbard EM, McCleery JP, Altschuler EL, Ramachandran VS and Pineda JA (2005). EEG evidence for mirror neuron dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders. Cogn Brain Res 24(2): 190–198

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pollick FE, Paterson HM, Bruderlin A and Sanford AJ (2001). Perceiving affect from arm movement. Cogn 82: B51–B61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Press C, Bird G, Flach R and Heyes C (2005). Robotic movement elicits automatic imitation. Cogn Brain Res 25(3): 632–640

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rizzolatti G and Craighero L (2004). The mirror-neuron system. Annu Rev Neurosci 27: 169–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rizzolatti G, Fadiga L, Gallese V and Fogassi L (1996a). Premotor cortex and the recognition of motor actions. Cogn Brain Res 3(2): 131–141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rizzolatti G, Fadiga L, Matelli M, Bettinardi V, Paulesu E, Perani D and Fazio F (1996b). Localization of grasp representation in humans by PET: 1. Observation versus execution. Exp Brain Res 111(2): 246–252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Runeson S and Frykholm G (1981). Visual perception of lifted weight. J Exp Psychol: Hum Percept Perform 7(4): 733–740

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Runeson S and Frykholm G (1983). Kinematic specification of dynamics as an informational basis for person and action perception: Expectation, gender recognition and deceptive intention. J Exp Psychol: General 112: 585–615

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sakreida K, Schubotz RI, Wolfenstellar U and von Cramon DY (2005). Motion class dependency in observer’s motor areas revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. J Neurosci 25(6): 1335–1342

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shiffrar M and Pinto J (2002). The visual analysis of bodily motion. In: Prinz, W and Hommel, B (eds) Common mechanisms in perception and action: attention and performance, vol. XIX, pp 381–399. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Stefan K, Cohen LG, Duque J, Mazzocchio R, Celnik P, Sawaki L, Ungerleider L and Classen J (2005). Formation of a motor memory by action observation. J Neurosci 25(41): 9339–9346

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Troje NF (2002). Decomposing biological motion: a framework for the analysis and synthesis of human gait patterns. J Vision 2: 371–387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Troje NF, Westhoff C and Lavrov M (2005). Person identification from biological motion: effects of structural and kinematic cues. Percept Psychophys 67(4): 667–675

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheaton KJ, Thompson JC, Syngeniotis A, Abbott DF and Puce A (2004). Viewing the motion of human body parts activates different regions of premotor, temporal, and parietal cortex. Neuroimage 22: 277–288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Viviani P and Stucchi N (1992). Biological movements look uniform: evidence of motor-perceptual interactions. J Exp Psychol: Hum Percept Perform 18(3): 603–623

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stuart Jackson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jackson, S., Brady, N., Cummins, F. et al. Interaction effects in simultaneous motor control and movement perception tasks. Artif Intell Rev 26, 141–154 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-007-9035-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-007-9035-4

Keywords

Navigation