8- Perception of Action 1 Flashcards
do humans have an extensive repertoire of body movements - Hands, face, legs, gesture, mouth
yes
do we intuitively know we have the capacity to recognise and imitate other peoples actions
yes
what is cross modal transfer
We can seamlessly map visual representations of actions onto our motor systems (crossmodal transfer) to produce a copy of the action
what do investigators think about perception-action mapping
Humans (unlike other species) are very good at this, so good some investigators think this ability is innate
developmental evidence for perception action mapping
infants can imitate caregiver’s facial expressions, hand and mouth movements, head turns, etc
Babies must build up a representation of the visual image of the caregiver’s face/mouth and map this onto their own motor representation of the movement
what did piaget think about perception-action mapping
Piaget thought this ability occurred no earlier than 1 year
meltzoff and moore 1977
Babies aged 12 – 21 days could imitate certain facial expressions
• Imitate specific acts (i.e., lip protrusion vs. tongue protrusion) not just whole body parts even after a delay
what is evidence against neonate imitation
Recent more rigorous study challenges previous evidence (Oostenbroek et al., 2016)
• Longitudinal study - 1, 3, 6, and 9 weeks
• Large number of alternative control model behaviours
• Behaviour matching model more likely compared to some but not other control behaviours
-tongue protrusion may be elicited by observing faces
true imiatation may emerge late (6-9 months) as proposed by Piaget
what is intermodal matching
- Neonates recognise equivalences between body transformations they see and those of their own body that they ‘feel’ themselves make
- Baby’s emotional expressionsinduce adults to produce similar expressions, which provides the infant with a visual input to match his motor output
what is the model of active intermodal matching
visual perception of target adult facial acts - supramodel representation of acts equivalence detector - infant motor acts - proprioceptive information
what does active intermodal matching (AIM) include
AIM involves
perception and action having independent coding/representation
a specialist module for imitation
learning to associate things together
Other theories (IM and ASL) involve
• Common coding for perception and action
• Imitation part of “generalist” processes for motor control and learning
learning process is a more general thing
Ideomotor (IM) theory
motor evoked potentials
Associative Sequence Learning (ASL) – emphasises learning through experience; e.g. see consequence of own hand action
See a finger moving upwards - represent visually - if making same movement yourself - easier
nothing intrinsically special about association
what is the dual route model of imitation
- Incorporates aspects of the other models
- Semantic – meaningful actions, stored in repetoire
- Visuomotor/direct – meaningless actions – mirror neurones
(Rumiati & Tessari, 2002)
what happens in the dual route model of imitation
input action - visual analysis - long term semantic memory - st/wm - output action
what are mirror neurons
Same neuronesfound to be active when the monkey performed and watched an action
what did Ramachandran say about mirror neurons
“I predict that mirror neurons will do for psychology what DNA did for biology: they will provide a unifying framework and help explain a host of mental abilities that have hitherto remained mysterious and inaccessible to experiments”.
what are mirror neurons general properties
bimodal
Discharge when individual performs an action and when they observe the same
action performed by another individual
bimodal
visuo-motor neurons (i.e., respond to both visual and motor stimuli)
do mirror neurons underpin action understanding
Umiltà et al. (2001) Mirror neurons active during observation of partially hidden
actions (predicts action outcome even in absence of complete visual information)
• Kohler et al. (2002) Audio- visual mirror neurons respond to the sound typically produced
by the action
where are mirror neurons found in monkeys
Found in monkey area F5 of premotor cortex and inferior parietal lobe
where are mirror neurons found in humans
Human homologue in Broca’s area (BA44), ventral inferior frontal gyrus (BA6), posterior parietal lobe and superior temporal lobe
how are mirror neurons organised
somatotopically organised
what are the anatomical properties of mirror neurons
what are the 3 types of neurons
F5 contains 3-types of neurons (direct evidence from monkeys):
– ‘action observation-related’ visuomotor neurons (mirror neurons)
– motor neurons
– Canonical visuomotor neurons (also called ‘object observation-related’
neurons)
what are indirect evidence of human mirror neurons
Indirect Evidence
• Close link between perception and action
• Behavioural
• Brain Imaging (fMRI)
• Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
what is the direct evidence of human mirror neurons
recording from neurones
human mirror neurons - behavioural
- Faster responses when compatibility between observed and executed movements (Brass et al, 2000, 2001)
- Known as ‘automatic imitation’ – lab analogue of mimicry
when do mirror neurons respond faster
when compatibility between observed and executed movement known as automatic imitation
what is an example of automatic imitation
observe upwards movemet
own action - faster to lift finger up - slower to press finger down
brain imaging of mirror neurons
Somatotopic activation of pre- motor and parietal cortex (Buccino et al, 2001)
area correspond to observation of actions of different body parts
what does TMS show about mirror neurons
Use motor evoked potentials to show that observing an action produces increased motor excitability
what does dierct recording show about mirror neurons
Recorded from 1177 neurons in 21 patients undergoing surgery for intractable epilepsy
• They observed and executed grasping actions and facial gestures
• Action observation-related (‘mirror’) neurons found in medial frontal lobe (supplementary
motor area; SMA) and medial temporal lobe (hippocampus)
how do cells repond in excecution and observation
Some cells respond with excitation during action execution during action observation,
• Others respond with inhibition
what are the similarities across species in regard to mirror neurons
Human, monkey and dog actions
• Same areas activated to movements common to all three species i.e., biting
(Buccino et al., 2007)
• Speech and lip-smacking activates same area in human and monkey but dog barking
does not
what area is related to speech and motor representation of hand and mouth movement
area 44
which area is related to arm and head movements
BA6
in monkeys what happens in mirror neurons
Lateral part of F5 80% of mirror neurons related to observation of ingestive behaviours (i.e., grasping food with mouth, biting, sucking)
• Remaining 20% communicative (lip-smacking)
in humans do actions need to be goal directed or contain an object
no
- Action does not need to be goal-directed or contain an object
• Meaningless movements are represented
in monkeys do actions need to be goal directed or contain an object
yes
• Action must be goal-directed (often involve actual object)
• Cannot learn novel and complex acts (involve BA46 not present in monkey)
what is puzzling in monkeys
Despite the presence of mirror neurons in monkey premotor cortex they do not imitate
if monkeys dont imitate what are mirror neurons for?
Mirror neurons enable non-human primates to infer intention of action (goal-directed) but not low-level kinematic description of movement needed for imitation (Lynons et al., 2006)
