8- Perception of Action 1

Question 1

do humans have an extensive repertoire of body movements - Hands, face, legs, gesture, mouth

Answer 1

yes

Question 2

do we intuitively know we have the capacity to recognise and imitate other peoples actions

Answer 2

yes

Question 3

what is cross modal transfer

Answer 3

We can seamlessly map visual representations of actions onto our motor systems (crossmodal transfer) to produce a copy of the action

Question 4

what do investigators think about perception-action mapping

Answer 4

Humans (unlike other species) are very good at this, so good some investigators think this ability is innate

Question 5

developmental evidence for perception action mapping

Answer 5

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

Question 6

what did piaget think about perception-action mapping

Answer 6

Piaget thought this ability occurred no earlier than 1 year

Question 7

meltzoff and moore 1977

Answer 7

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

Question 8

what is evidence against neonate imitation

Answer 8

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

Question 9

what is intermodal matching

Answer 9

• 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

Question 10

what is the model of active intermodal matching

Answer 10

visual perception of target
adult facial acts
-
supramodel representation of acts
equivalence detector
-
infant motor acts
-
proprioceptive information

Question 11

what does active intermodal matching (AIM) include

Answer 11

AIM involves
perception and action having independent coding/representation
a specialist module for imitation
learning to associate things together

Question 12

Other theories (IM and ASL) involve

Answer 12

• Common coding for perception and action
• Imitation part of “generalist” processes for motor control and learning
learning process is a more general thing

Question 13

Ideomotor (IM) theory

Answer 13

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

Question 14

what is the dual route model of imitation

Answer 14

• Incorporates aspects of the other models
• Semantic – meaningful actions, stored in repetoire
• Visuomotor/direct – meaningless actions – mirror neurones

(Rumiati & Tessari, 2002)

Question 15

what happens in the dual route model of imitation

Answer 15

input action
-
visual analysis
-
long term semantic memory
-
st/wm
- 
output action

Question 16

what are mirror neurons

Answer 16

Same neuronesfound to be active when the monkey performed and watched an action

Question 17

what did Ramachandran say about mirror neurons

Answer 17

“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”.

Question 18

what are mirror neurons general properties

Answer 18

bimodal
Discharge when individual performs an action and when they observe the same
action performed by another individual

Question 19

bimodal

Answer 19

visuo-motor neurons (i.e., respond to both visual and motor stimuli)

Question 20

do mirror neurons underpin action understanding

Answer 20

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

Question 21

where are mirror neurons found in monkeys

Answer 21

Found in monkey area F5 of premotor cortex and inferior parietal lobe

Question 22

where are mirror neurons found in humans

Answer 22

Human homologue in Broca’s area (BA44), ventral inferior frontal gyrus (BA6), posterior parietal lobe and superior temporal lobe

Question 23

how are mirror neurons organised

Answer 23

somatotopically organised

Question 24

what are the anatomical properties of mirror neurons

what are the 3 types of neurons

Answer 24

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)

Question 25

what are indirect evidence of human mirror neurons

Answer 25

Indirect Evidence
• Close link between perception and action
• Behavioural
• Brain Imaging (fMRI)
• Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

Question 26

what is the direct evidence of human mirror neurons

Answer 26

recording from neurones

Question 27

human mirror neurons - behavioural

Answer 27

• Faster responses when compatibility between observed and executed movements (Brass et al, 2000, 2001)
• Known as ‘automatic imitation’ – lab analogue of mimicry

Question 28

when do mirror neurons respond faster

Answer 28

when compatibility between observed and executed movement known as automatic imitation

Question 29

what is an example of automatic imitation

Answer 29

observe upwards movemet

own action - faster to lift finger up - slower to press finger down

Question 30

brain imaging of mirror neurons

Answer 30

Somatotopic activation of pre- motor and parietal cortex (Buccino et al, 2001)
area correspond to observation of actions of different body parts

Question 31

what does TMS show about mirror neurons

Answer 31

Use motor evoked potentials to show that observing an action produces increased motor excitability

Question 32

what does dierct recording show about mirror neurons

Answer 32

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)

Question 33

how do cells repond in excecution and observation

Answer 33

Some cells respond with excitation during action execution during action observation,
• Others respond with inhibition

Question 34

what are the similarities across species in regard to mirror neurons

Answer 34

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

Question 35

what area is related to speech and motor representation of hand and mouth movement

Answer 35

area 44

Question 36

which area is related to arm and head movements

Answer 36

BA6

Question 37

in monkeys what happens in mirror neurons

Answer 37

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)

Question 38

in humans do actions need to be goal directed or contain an object

Answer 38

no
- Action does not need to be goal-directed or contain an object
• Meaningless movements are represented

Question 39

in monkeys do actions need to be goal directed or contain an object

Answer 39

yes
• Action must be goal-directed (often involve actual object)
• Cannot learn novel and complex acts (involve BA46 not present in monkey)

Question 40

what is puzzling in monkeys

Answer 40

Despite the presence of mirror neurons in monkey premotor cortex they do not imitate

Question 41

if monkeys dont imitate what are mirror neurons for?

Answer 41

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)