Perception of Action 1 Flashcards

1
Q

What do we map visual representation of our actions onto?

A

Our motor systems

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2
Q

What does it mean that mirror neurons are bimodal, visuo-motor neurons?

A

They respond to both visual and motor stimuli

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3
Q

When do mirror neurons discharge?

A

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

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4
Q

What is the indirect evidence for human mirror neurons?

A
  • close link between perception and action
  • behavioural
  • brain imaging (fMRI): premotor cortex (involved in the planning of your own actions)
  • Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS): motor system response is greater is we see someone else performing an action
  • This is indirect evidence because it doesn’t have to be explained by mirror neurons
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5
Q

What is direct evidence for human mirror neurons?

A

Recording from neurons (people undergoing brain surgery from epilepsy)

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6
Q

Intuitively what do humans know we have the capacity to do?

A

Recognise and imitate other peoples actions

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7
Q

What is cross modal transfer?

A

The mapping of visual representations of actions onto our motor systems to produce a copy of the action

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8
Q

Why do some investigators think that cross-modal transfer abilities are innate?

A

Because unlike other species humans are very good at it

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9
Q

What is developmental evidence for perception action mapping?

A
  • infants can imitate caregiver’s facial expressions, hand and mouth movements, head turns ect
  • meaning 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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10
Q

When did Piaget think the perception action mapping ability occurs in development?

A

No earlier than a year old

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11
Q

What evidence is there from Meltzoff and Moore (1977) that suggests that babies younger than a year are able to perform perception action mapping?

A
  • 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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12
Q

What is the evidence against neonate imitation from Oostenbroek et al., 2016?

A
  • They performed a longitudinal study looking at babies - 1, 3, 6 and 9 weeks
  • Large number of alternative control model behaviours
  • Behaviour matching model was found to be more likely compared to some but not other control behaviours
  • tongue protrusion may have been elicited by observing faces
  • thought that true imitation may emerge later (6-9 months) as proposed by Piaget
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13
Q

What is Active intermodal matching (AIM) - Meltzoff & Moore (1997)?

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 their motor output
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14
Q

What does AIM (active intermodal matching) involve?

A
  • perception and action having independent coding/ representation
  • A ‘specialist’ module for imitation
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15
Q

What are other theories about neonate imitation?

A
  • IM (ASL)
  • common coding for perception and action
  • imitation part of ‘generalist’ processes for motor control and learning
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16
Q

What is the ideomotor (IM) theory

A
  • associative sequence learning (ASL) emphasises learning through experience e.g. see consequence of own hand action
17
Q

What is the dual route model of imitation?

A
  • incorporates aspects of the other models
  • semantic - meaningful actions, stores in repertoire
  • visuomotor/ direct - meaningless actions - mirror neurons)
  • two routes: direct (mirror neurons) and semantic route
18
Q

What is the direct route in the dual route model of imitation?

A

Input action -> visual analysis -> short term working memory -> output action

19
Q

What is the semantic route in the dual route model of imitation?

A

Input action -> visual analysis -> long-term semantic memory short term/ working memory -> output action

20
Q

Who came up with the dual route model of imitation?

A

Rumiati & Tessari, 2002

21
Q

In monkeys when were mirror neurons found to be active?

A

The same neurons were found to be active when the monkey performed and watched an action

22
Q

How do mirror neurons underpin action understanding according to Umilta et al. (2001)?

A

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

23
Q

How do mirror neurons underpin action understanding according to Kohler et al. (2002)?

A

Audio visual mirror neurons respond to the sound typically produced by the action

24
Q

Where are mirror neurons found in monkeys brains?

A

In monkey area F5 of the premotor cortex and inferior parietal lobe

25
Q

Where is the human homologue of mirror neurons in our brains?

A
  • In Broca’s area (BA44)
  • ventral inferior frontal gyrus (BA6)
  • posterior parietal lobe
  • superior temporal lobe
26
Q

How are mirror neurons organised?

A

Somatotopically

27
Q

What 3 type of neurons does F-5 contain (direct evidence from monkeys)?

A
  • ‘action observation-related’ visuomotor neurons (mirror neurons)
    Motor neurons
    Canonical visuomotor neurons (also called object observation- related neurons)
28
Q

What is indirect behavioural evidence for mirror neurons?

A
  • faster responses when there is compatibility between observed and executed movements (Brass et al., 2000, 2001)
  • known as ‘automatic imitation’ - lab analogue of mimicry
  • E.g. when we observe an upward movement we are faster to lift our finger up and slower to press our finger down
29
Q

What indirect brain imaging evidence has provided evidence for mirror neurons (Buccino et al, 2001)?

A
  • There is somatotopic activation of the pre-motor and parietal cortex
  • these areas correspond to observations of actions of different body parts
30
Q

What indirect TMS evidence is there for mirror neurons (Fadiga et al., 2005)?

A

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

31
Q

What is direct recording evidence for mirror neurons? (Mukamel et al., 2010)

A
  • 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)
32
Q

Why does TMS not provide direct evidence for mirror neurons?

A

Because the increased motor excitability is not necessarily to do with mirror neurons and could have been produced by something else in the brain

33
Q

According to Mukamel et al., 2010 are mirror neurons excitatory, inhibitory or both during action observation?

A

Some are excitatory whereas others are inhibitory

34
Q

What are the similarities in mirror neurons between species (buccino et al., 2007)?

A
  • the same areas activated to movements are common to human, monkeys and dogs, e.g. biting
  • speech and lip smacking activates the same area in humans and monkeys but dog barking does not
35
Q

What are the differences between humans and monkeys in terms of location of mirror neurons and actions?

A

Humans:
- Area 44 is related to speech and motor representation of hand and mouth movements
- Ba6 is related to arm and head movements
Monkeys:
- lateral part of F5 contains 80% of mirror neurons which are related to observation of ingestive behaviours (i.e. grasping food with mouth, biting, sucking)
- remaining 20% communicative (lip-smacking)

36
Q

What is the difference in monkeys and humans between perception and action mapping?

A

Human:
- action does not need to be goal directed or contain an object
- meaningless movements are represented
Monkey:
- action must be goal-directed (often involve actual object)
- cannot learn novel and complex acts (involve BA46 which is not present in monkeys)

37
Q

What is the end of this puzzling fact. Despite the presence of mirror neurons in monkey premotor cortex they do not….

A

imitate

38
Q

What did Lynons et al, 2006 say about why non human primates don’t imitate?

A

Their mirror neurons enable them to infer intention of action (goal directed) but not low level kinematic description of movement needed for imitation