8. Perception of Action Flashcards

1
Q

Define Cross-modal Transfer.

A
  • Recognition of an object through a sense other than the sense through which the object was originally encountered.
  • We can seamlessly map visual representations of actions onto our motor systems (crossmodal transfer) to produce a copy of the action
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2
Q

What is the developmental evidence for PAM?

A
  • 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
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3
Q

PAM

A

Perception-action mapping

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4
Q

What did Meltzoff and Moore (1977) find when investigating PAM?

A
  • Piaget thought this ability occurred no earlier than 1 year
  • 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
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5
Q

What is the evidence against neonate imitation?

A

(Oostenbroek et al., 2016)

  • Recent more rigorous study challenges previous evidence
  • 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 imitation may emerge later (6-9 months) as proposed by Piaget
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6
Q

Define Active Intermodal Matching (AIM).

A
  • The proposed mechanism by which newborn infants are able to imitate the movements they observe.
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7
Q

Describe Active Intermodal Matching (AIM).

A
  • Neonates recognise equivalences between body transformations they see and those of their own body that they ‘feel’ themselves make
  • Baby’s emotional expressions induce adults to produce similar expressions, which provides the infant with a visual input to match his motor output
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8
Q

Describe the Active Intermodal Matching (AIM) model pathway stages.

A
  1. Visual perception of target adult facial acts
  2. Supramodel representations of acts
  3. Equivalence detector
  4. Infant motor acts
  5. Proprioceptive information links back to the equivalence detector
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9
Q

What does the Active Intermodal Matching (AIM) model involve.

A
  • perception and action having independent coding/representation
  • A “specialist” module for imitation
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10
Q

What do other theories (IM and ASL) of Action-perception movement involve?

A
  • Common coding for perception and action

- Imitation part of “generalist” processes for motor control and learning

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11
Q

Describe the Ideomotor Theory (IM)

A

The ideomotor phenomenon is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously.

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12
Q

Describe the Associative Sequence Learning (ASL) Theory.

A

Emphasises learning through experience; e.g. see consequence of own hand action

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13
Q

Describe the Dual route model of imitation.

A
  • Suggests that meaningful and meaningless actions are processed through either an indirect or a direct route, respectively.
  • Incorporates aspects of the other models
  • Semantic – meaningful actions, stored in repetoire
  • Visuomotor/direct – meaningless actions – mirror neurones
    (Rumiati & Tessari, 2002)
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14
Q

What are the stages of the Dual route model of imitation?

A
  1. Input Action
  2. Visual analysis
  3. Long-Term Semantic Memory
  4. ST/WM
  5. Output Action

semantic route 1 –>5
direct route 2 –>4

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15
Q

What are the 2 routes in the Dual route model of imitation?

A
  • Semantic Route follows the model from Input Action to 5. Output Action linearly.
  • Direct Route goes from the visual analysis to the ST/WM stage.
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16
Q

What are the general properties of Mirror Neurons?

A
  • Bimodal, visuo-motor neurons
  • Discharge when individual performs an action and when they observe the same action performed by another individual
  • They don’t respond to mimicked action in the absence of an object, or if the object moves robotically without an external agent.
17
Q

What did Umiltà et al. (2001) conclude?

A

Mirror neurons active during observation of partially hidden actions (predicts action outcome even in absence of complete visual information)

18
Q

What did Kohler et al. (2002) conclude?

A

Audiovisual mirror neurons respond to the sound typically produced by the action

19
Q

Where are mirror neurons located in monkeys?

A
  • Found in monkey area F5 of premotor cortex and inferior parietal lobe
  • Somatotopically organised
20
Q

Where are mirror neurons located in humans?

A
  • Human homologue in Broca’s area (BA44), ventral inferior frontal gyrus (BA6), posterior parietal lobe and superior temporal lobe
  • Somatotopically organised
21
Q

What are the 3-types of neurons in Monkey F5 ?

A
  • ‘action observation-related’ visuomotor neurons (mirror neurons)
  • motor neurons
  • Canonical visuomotor neurons (also called ‘object observation-related’ neurons)
22
Q

What is the indirect evidence of mirror neurones in humans?

A

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

23
Q

What is the direct evidence of mirror neurones in humans?

A

Recording from neurones

- often in surgery due to epilepsy.

24
Q

What is the behavioural evidence for the presence of mirror neurones in humans?

A
  • Faster responses when compatibility between observed and executed movements (Brass et al, 2000, 2001)
  • Known as ‘automatic imitation’ – lab analogue of mimicry
  • if you observe a finger move upwards you are faster to move finger upwards and slower to press finger down.
25
Q

What is the Brain imaging evidence for the presence of mirror neurones in humans?

A
  • Somatotopic activation of premotor and parietal cortex (Buccino et al, 2001) - fMRI
  • Areas correspond to observations of actions of different body parts
26
Q

What is the TMS evidence for the presence of mirror neurones in humans?

A

Fadiga et al. (2005)

- Use motor evoked potentials to show that observing an action produces increased motor excitability
- This suggests that action observation biases activity in the primary Motor area itself.
27
Q

What is the direct recording evidence for the presence of mirror neurones in humans?

A

(Mukamel et al., 2010)

  • 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)
28
Q

What did Buccino et al., (2007) find when investigating the similarities in motor neurons across species?

A
  • Looked at Humans, Monkeys and Dogs
  • Same areas activated to movements common to all three species i.e., biting
  • Speech and lip-smacking activates same area in human and monkey but dog barking does not
29
Q

Do Monkeys immitate?

A

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

If not imitation, 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)

30
Q

Role of Area 44 in humans?

A

Area 44 related to speech and motor representation of hand and mouth movements

31
Q

Role of Area BA6 in humans?

A

BA6 related to arm and head movements

32
Q

What is the Role of BA46?

A

Involved in learning of novel and complex acts.

- monkeys don’t have this area so they cannot learn novel and complex acts

33
Q

Do human actions need to be goal directed?

A

No

  • Action does not need to be goal-directed or contain an object
  • Meaningless movements are represented
34
Q

Do monkey actions need to be goal directed?

A

Yes

- Action must be goal-directed (often involve actual object)

35
Q

Explain the roles of area F5 in monkeys.

A
  • 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)
36
Q

What does the AIM model suggest?

A

AIM suggests that we have a specific module for imitation.