Weeks 8-11 Perception of Action & Motor Control (ellen Poliakoff) Flashcards
What is crossmodal transfer?
Humans can seamlessly map visual representations of actions onto our motor systems to produce a copy of the action
Why is it thought that crossmodal transfer/perception-action mapping is innate?
Humans, unlike other species, are very good at this
What are two pieces of developmental evidence for perception-action mapping?
- Infants can imitate caregiver’s facial expressions, hand and mouth movements and 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
At what age did Piaget state that imitation occurs?
No earlier than 1 year old
At what age did Meltzoff and Moore state that babies could imitate?
12-21 days old
What actions did Meltzoff and Moore find that babies imitate?
- Babies aged 12-21 days could imitate certain facial expressions
- Imitated specific acts such as lip protrusion and tongue (not whole body parts)
What is a study done by Oostenbroek et al that contradicted Metlzoff and Moores findings on infant imitation?
METHOD
- Conducted a longitudinal study on babies aged: 1, 3, 6 and 9 weeks old
- Provided a large number of alternative control model behaviours to the infants as well as the lip and tongue protrusion
RESULTS
- The tongue and lip protrusion occured better than chance in comparison to some control behaviours but not others
CONCLUSION
- Tongue protrusion may be elcicted by seeing faces and learning instead of direct imitation
- True imitation may emerge later (6-9 months)
What is the Active Intermodal Matching Model? Use the example of Neonates.
- Neonates recognise equivalences between body transformations they see and those of their own body that they ‘feel’ themselves make and learn to match the two
- Baby’s emotional expressions induce adults to produce similar expressions, which in turn provides the infants with a visual input to match the motor output
What are the different stages of the Active Intermodal Matching model?
- Visual perception of target/adult face acts
- Supramodal represntation of acts (equivalence detector)
- Proprioceptive information
- Infant motor acts
Give an example of the Active Intermodal Matching model (Baby example)
- Adult sticks out their tongue
- Baby sticks out their tongue
- Can feel the action through proprioceptive information
- Can then match their own tongue sticking out to that of the adults
What does the Active Intermodal Matching model claim about perception and action that disagrees with other theories?
- AIM suggests that perception and action have independent coding/representation and have a specialised module for imitation
- Other theories instead suggest common coding for perception and action and that imitation is part of a generalist process for motor control and learning
What is the Ideomotor theory? (Give Example)
- See someone moving something (finger)
- Have sensory representation (visual) on what this looks like
- This sensory input is linked with the motor representation (commands the muscles)
- This leads to the matching of the action (motor program)
What is an example of a study to show the ideomotor theory in action?
- Sensory information of someone frowning
- Motor representation is primed to frown
- Is then harder to smile because we a programmed to frown.
What is the Associative Sequence Learning theory?
- Emphasises learning through experience
- For example see consequence of own hand action
What is Rumiati and Tessari’s Dual Route Model of imitation?
- Incorporates aspects of the other models
- Has a semantic route if we have done an action before it is stored in a repetoire to be done again
- Has a visuomotor/direct route where new or meaningless actions require direct imitation to learn
What are the steps of the dual route model of imitation?
- Input action
- Visual analysis
- Long-term/semantic memory
or
- Short term/working memory
- Output action
Give an example of the semantic route of the dual model of imitation
- See someone waving
- Visually analyse and understand we have done this type of action before
- Wave in our own way back
What is an example of the visuomotor or direct route of the dual route model of imitation?
- Someone is teaching you a dance move
- We visually analyse the move and know we have not done it before
- Engage working and short term memory to learn and imitate the gesture
- Do the dance move
How were mirror neurons discovered?
The same premotor neurons were found to be active when the monkey performed an action and when they watched an action
What are the general properties of mirror neurons?
- Bimodal visuo-motor neurons (respond to both visual and motor stimuli)
- Discharge when individual perfors an action and when they observe the same aciton performed by another individual
What did Umilta et al find about mirror neurons and understanding?
Mirror neurons were active during observation of a partially hidden outcome (food hidden behind a screen)
They can predict an action outcome even in the abscence of complete visual information
What did Kohler et al find about audition and vision in terms of mirror neuron action?
- Audio-visual mirror neurons respond to the sound typically produced by the action
- When a monkey hears a nut being snapped and when the monkey is snapping the nut, the same component is active
- Also if can see the nut being snapped but cannot hear it, there is also activation
Where are mirror neurons found in monkeys?
Area F5 of premotor cortex and inferior parietal lobe
How are mirror neurons organised in the brain?
Somatotopically
How many types of neurons are found in monkeys F5?
3
What are the three types of neurons found in the monkeys F5?
- ‘Action observatoin related’ visuomotor neurons (mirror neurons)
- Motor neurons
- Canonical visuomotor neurons (object observation-related neurons)
What do canonical visuomotor neurons do?
Code associations with objects and specific actions such as a door handle being used to open a door
What is a behavioural study done into mirror neurons by Brass et al?
METHOD
- Participants observe an action being performed such as a finger moving up or down
- They are then told that when they see a yellow flash, they must press a button
RESULTS
- If observed finger movement was going down, they were faster at pressing the button compared to the incongruent action of the finger moving upwards
CONCLUSION
- Faster responses when compatibility between observed and executed movements
What is the lab analogue of mimicry as found in human behavioural studies called?
Automatic imitation
What is a study done by Buccino into human mirror neuron brain imaging?
METHOD
- Participants watched videos of people executing different movements
RESULTS
- Areas active in the premotor and parietal cortex of participants brain corresponded to obervations of actoins of different body parts
What did a meta-analysis by Hardwick et al onto the overlapping of perception and action in the brain discover?
METHOD
- Conducted a meta-analysis across different studies where brain activation was measured
RESULTS
- Found a prefrontal and parietal overlap in brain activity between action observation, movement execution and motor imagery (imagined movement)
What is a study conducted by Fadiga et al using transcranial magnetic stimulation on mirror neurons?
METHOD
- It is possible using TMS on the surface of the motor cortex of the brain to elicit a twitch of the corresponding muscle when the current is high enough
- Here, they turned down the intensity of the TMS so it wasn’t enough to trigger a muscle movement
- The participant then watched someone making a movement of the same area the TMS is applied to their own brain
RESULTS
- The combination of low TMS and observation of muscle action caused a muscle twitch
CONCLUSION
- Shows that the use of motor evoked potentials can show that observing an action produces increased motor excitability
What is a study by Buccino et al into similarities across species and mirror neuron activity?
METHOD
- Humans watched three actions:
- Lipreading (human)
- Lipsmacking (monkey)
- Barking (dog)
RESULTS
- Speech and lip-smacking activated the same premotor areas in human and monkey but the dog barking does not
What are the main two differences between humans and monkeys when it comes to mirror neurons?
Humans
- Action does not need to be goal-directed or contain an object (meaningless movements are represented)
Monkeys
- Action must be goal-directed (often involved an actual object)
- Cannot learn novel and complex acts through imitation, mirror neurons may instead underpin understanding and intentions
What 3 things allow us to predict the behaviours of others?
- Imitation
- Empathy
- Intention
What does social cognition require according to Gallese?
Analogy between self and others (embodied simulation)
What are two components of empathy?
Emotional
Sensorily
Explain the sensorily component of empathy
When you see someone hurt themselves, you’ll often move that part of your own body, as if you felt the pain also
Where in the brain was there a mapping of witnessing pain and experiencing it? (Morrison et al)
Anterior Cingulate Cortex
What is a study done by Morrison et al into motor empathy?
METHOD
- Presented one of 4 videos to the ppts
- One with a needle going into the hand, one with a cotton bud touching a hand, one with a needle into a sponge and one with a cotton touching a sponge
- The participant was instructed to press a button when they see a certain coloured shape and then release when they see the same shape
RESULTS
- In the majorty of the conditions, there was a faster press of the button than the release
- In the needle-hand condition people were slower to press and faster to release
CONCLUSION
- The automatic taking on of the movement is correlating to the emotional empathy which correlated to their self-report empathy
What is the Chameleon effect?
Empathetic individuals often exhibit non-conscious mimicry of postures, mannerisms and facial expressions of others
What is the correlation between high scores in empathy measures and the chameleon effect?
If you score high on empathy measures, you’re more likely to show an increased chameleon effect and have more social interactions
What are the triad of impairments in Autism?
- Social Interaction- solitary, withdrawn, little eye contact
- Communication- language impairment, difficulty understanding others (especially indirect meaning)
- Restricted and repetitive interests
What are three major theories of autism?
- Theory of Mind defecit (difficulty mentalizing that other people know different things to themselves)
- Weak central coherence (focus on detail at the expense of bigger picture)
- Broken mirror theory (issue with the mirror neurons)
What 3 problems could the broken mirror theory explain for those with autism?
- Problems imitation
- Difficulties with empathy/social cognition
- Difficulties with metaphor and indirect meaning
What is a study on action observation in autism?
METHOD
- Looked at the observation of actions in autistic children
- Watch a person with a pot on their shoulder and they reach forward picking up a piece of food or paper
- If food- infer that it will go in mouth, if paper- infer that it will go in the pot
- Also carry out the actions
RESULTS
- Recorded muscles from the face to do with openinig the mouth
- In controls if there is paper, there is no opening of the mouth and if there is food there is predicor mouth opening before food reaches
- In autisitc children, they do not open their mouth for food in advance
- When observing, the controls open their mouth slightly when watching someone else put food in their mouth
- In autistic children there is no opening of the mouth when watching others do the task
What are Dinstein et al’s points of critique for the mirror neuron system?
- How ‘selective’ are MNs for different types of action?
- Limitations of evidence from primates
- Limitations of evidence in humans
What are the limitations in primate data that Dinstein et al claims?
- Small number of examples
- Often qualitative rather than quantitative
- Need more studies to ask how well cells can distinguish pairs of movement
- Need evidence of MNs firing in spontaneous social interaction
What are the limitations in human data that Dinstein et al claims? (MN)
- Many areas outside of ‘MN’ areas are activated during action
- Are the same neurons firing? Adaptation protocols
- TMS effects could be produced by areas outside of MN
What is the adaptation task?
METHOD
- If use the same neurons several times, there will be adaptation and a reduction in response
- Repeated the action of rock paper or scizzors and measured to see if observing the same action or a different one would cause a different neural response both observed and actually doing it
RESULTS
- Overlapping areas showed adaptation for observed and executed
- No evidence for adaptation across modalities
What are three problems for the MN theory in monkeys and humans according to Hickok?
- Motor theories of perception are not new
- Do mirror neurons go beyond other sensory-motor neurons?
- Over-emphasis on ‘action understanding’ function
What is the support for Hickok’s claim that “There is no evidence in monkeys that MNs support action understanding”
- Inactivation of F5 disrupted grasping but not perception
- Kohler et al- sound of action evidence could just be an association so might not mean the sound helps the monkeys understand
- Umilta et al- hidden actions evidence could just be about working memory
- Researchers have inferred that monkeys are understanding the action but have not actually measured it
What is a study conducted by Fogassi et al onto distinguishing two actions with different roles in monkeys?
METHOD
- Looked at distinguishing between two actions with different roles, grasping to eat and grasping to place
RESULTS
- Found that some cells respond more to one action than the other action
- Cells in the inferior parietal lobule respond to the goal of the action (grasping to eat versus place
- Same reference is observed when the action is exectutes compared to observed
What is the supporting evidence for Hickok’s claim: “action understanding can be achieved without MNs”?
- F5 also responds to objects, but it is not argued to underpin understanding of objects
- Another region such as Superior Temporal Sulcus may be more critical for action understanding