Perception of Action 1 Flashcards
What do we map visual representation of our actions onto?
Our motor systems
What does it mean that mirror neurons are bimodal, visuo-motor neurons?
They respond to both visual and motor stimuli
When do mirror neurons discharge?
When an individual performs an action and when they observe the same action performed by another individual
What is the indirect evidence for human mirror neurons?
- 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
What is direct evidence for human mirror neurons?
Recording from neurons (people undergoing brain surgery from epilepsy)
Intuitively what do humans know we have the capacity to do?
Recognise and imitate other peoples actions
What is cross modal transfer?
The mapping of visual representations of actions onto our motor systems to produce a copy of the action
Why do some investigators think that cross-modal transfer abilities are innate?
Because unlike other species humans are very good at it
What is developmental evidence for perception action mapping?
- 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
When did Piaget think the perception action mapping ability occurs in development?
No earlier than a year old
What evidence is there from Meltzoff and Moore (1977) that suggests that babies younger than a year are able to perform perception action mapping?
- 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 the evidence against neonate imitation from Oostenbroek et al., 2016?
- 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
What is Active intermodal matching (AIM) - Meltzoff & Moore (1997)?
- 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
What does AIM (active intermodal matching) involve?
- perception and action having independent coding/ representation
- A ‘specialist’ module for imitation
What are other theories about neonate imitation?
- IM (ASL)
- common coding for perception and action
- imitation part of ‘generalist’ processes for motor control and learning
What is the ideomotor (IM) theory
- associative sequence learning (ASL) emphasises learning through experience e.g. see consequence of own hand action
What is the dual route model of imitation?
- 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
What is the direct route in the dual route model of imitation?
Input action -> visual analysis -> short term working memory -> output action
What is the semantic route in the dual route model of imitation?
Input action -> visual analysis -> long-term semantic memory short term/ working memory -> output action
Who came up with the dual route model of imitation?
Rumiati & Tessari, 2002
In monkeys when were mirror neurons found to be active?
The same neurons were found to be active when the monkey performed and watched an action
How do mirror neurons underpin action understanding according to Umilta et al. (2001)?
Mirror neurons are active during observation of partially hidden actions (predicts action outcome even in absence of complete visual information)
How do mirror neurons underpin action understanding according to Kohler et al. (2002)?
Audio visual mirror neurons respond to the sound typically produced by the action
Where are mirror neurons found in monkeys brains?
In monkey area F5 of the premotor cortex and inferior parietal lobe
Where is the human homologue of mirror neurons in our brains?
- In Broca’s area (BA44)
- ventral inferior frontal gyrus (BA6)
- posterior parietal lobe
- superior temporal lobe
How are mirror neurons organised?
Somatotopically
What 3 type of neurons does F-5 contain (direct evidence from monkeys)?
- ‘action observation-related’ visuomotor neurons (mirror neurons)
Motor neurons
Canonical visuomotor neurons (also called object observation- related neurons)
What is indirect behavioural evidence for mirror neurons?
- 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
What indirect brain imaging evidence has provided evidence for mirror neurons (Buccino et al, 2001)?
- There is somatotopic activation of the pre-motor and parietal cortex
- these areas correspond to observations of actions of different body parts
What indirect TMS evidence is there for mirror neurons (Fadiga et al., 2005)?
They used motor evoked potentials to show that observing an action produces increased motor excitability
What is direct recording evidence for mirror neurons? (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)
Why does TMS not provide direct evidence for mirror neurons?
Because the increased motor excitability is not necessarily to do with mirror neurons and could have been produced by something else in the brain
According to Mukamel et al., 2010 are mirror neurons excitatory, inhibitory or both during action observation?
Some are excitatory whereas others are inhibitory
What are the similarities in mirror neurons between species (buccino et al., 2007)?
- 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
What are the differences between humans and monkeys in terms of location of mirror neurons and actions?
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)
What is the difference in monkeys and humans between perception and action mapping?
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)
What is the end of this puzzling fact. Despite the presence of mirror neurons in monkey premotor cortex they do not….
imitate
What did Lynons et al, 2006 say about why non human primates don’t imitate?
Their mirror neurons enable them to infer intention of action (goal directed) but not low level kinematic description of movement needed for imitation
