Wk5 Action Observation

Question 1

what famous thing did William james say about action observation in 1890?

Answer 1

’ .. every mental representation of a movement awakens to some degree the actual movement which it is object’

Question 2

def ideomotor priming

Answer 2

motor system activation through observing actions

Question 3

describe a task used to demonstrate ideomotor priming with response time measures?

Answer 3

an image of a hand showed was used to signal pressing a button with the index finger, the signal could be at once either congruent/incongruent and spatial(‘x’) or finger.

Question 4

in an ideomotor priming reponse time task, describe the congruence and cue type (spatial or finger) if the cue to press a key with your index finger came from seeing a picture with a lifted index finger and an ‘x’ on the middle finger?

Answer 4

incongruent spatial cue

Question 5

in an ideomotor priming reponse time task, describe the congruence and cue type (spatial or finger) if the cue to press a key with your index finger came from seeing a picture with a lifted index finger and no x marks?

Answer 5

congruent finger cue

Question 6

in an ideomotor priming reponse time task, describe the congruence and cue type (spatial or finger) if the cue to press a key with your index finger came from seeing a picture with an x mark on the middle finger and no index fingers raised?

Answer 6

incongruent spatial cue

Question 7

how was movement congruence manipulated by van Leeuwen et al.?

Answer 7

the target movement was to press a key with the index finger. the cue could be either the same finger or a different finger

Question 8

what are the results of van Leeuwen et al. using a response time measure to assess ideomotor priming with finger stimuli? 2

Answer 8

responses incongruent to the cue were slower than congruent responses

response to spatial (symbol) cue slower than finger/biological cue

Question 9

what did Kilner et al. find about movement error with regard to (cartoons of) humans and robots? how?

Answer 9

viewing two humans make opposing (incongruent) movement cues interfered with Px movement, but not when the opposing movement was from a robot source.
movement tracking in response to robot/human cues.

Question 10

what could be an effect of observing a biological, compared to robot, model displaying a movement which is opposite to the one you have to make?

Answer 10

taking in an opposing movement will produce more errors in your movement than if it was a robot.

Question 11

what are mu waves?

Answer 11

8-13hz synchronised eeg oscillations over the motor cortex

Question 12

when are mu rhythms seen?

Answer 12

when the Px is at rest

Question 13

how do mu rhythms indicate an action? and what types of actions?

Answer 13

resting mu is suppressed

when an action is either performed, imagined, or observed

Question 14

what evidence shows that mu rhythm desynchronisation is sensitive to different forms of observed behaviour?

Answer 14

mu amplitude decreases further as you observe movements going from a flat hand, to mimicking a movement, to enacting that movement on an object.

Question 15

looking at what type of stimuli shows we can decode rich information from biological movement?

Answer 15

point light displays

Question 16

what are some types of info that can be decoded from biological movement? 4

Answer 16

gender, weight, affective state (relaxation and happiness)

Question 17

what brain areas appear to specialised in decoding biological motion? 2

Answer 17

lateral and inferior temporal cortex

inferior frontal cortex

Question 18

motion selective sites are distinct from __ 2

Answer 18

body form sites (motionless body parts)

face sites

Question 19

what is a body and motion selective activation area?

Answer 19

posterior inferior temporal sulcus

Question 20

what is a body and face selective activation area?

Answer 20

posterior fusiform gyrus

Question 21

what are three sub areas that resonate to biological agents and their associated domains?

Answer 21

biological motion: posterior superior temporal sulcus
extrastriate body area: inferior temporal sulcus (EBA)
fusiform body area: lateral fusiform gyrus (FBA)

Question 22

which area appears to be most selective to biological motion?

Answer 22

posterior superior temporal sulcus

Question 23

what other non-biological factors affect action observation? 3

Answer 23

role of experience
visual features/shape
meaning of action

Question 24

how did Press et al. 2005 show that robotic movements can elicit automatic imitation? what does this mean?

Answer 24

when Px came back on day 2, there was more interference from incongruent robot hands than was found on day 2.
with experience, non-human stimulus can be interpreted as meaningful in the same way human/bio stimuli are.

Question 25

explain task and DV of reach paradigms for testing influence of biological movement. what does the DV represent?

Answer 25

the Px always attempts to reach in a straight line while a curved reach is modelled to them by another person. DV is the deviation from vertical, representing the interference from modelled, incongruent action.

Question 26

findings of Sparks et al. 2016 find about motor contagion? conclusion?

Answer 26

direct reaches were influenced by a modelled curved reach, regardless of whether the person follow the curve cue (ball) or performed a straight reach superimposed on a curve cue.
the mere presence of a human is enough to suggest agency and interfere with the observers movement.

Question 27

what did bayliss et al find about affective signals in the endogenous spatial cueing paradigm? 2

Answer 27

happy faces sped RTs for both congruent and incongruent cues, compared to disgust faces.
after trials, targets cued with a happy face were liked more than targets (e.g. mugs) cued with disgust faces)

Question 28

what did original mirror neurone work by rizzolatti examine?

Answer 28

populations of neurones that resopnd to different grasp shapes, in macaques.

Question 29

which brain area was first suspected to be the site for mirror neurones?

Answer 29

macaque analogs suggested brocas area (44) - syntactical processing

Question 30

what 4 things did Rizzolatti et al. believe mirror neurones responded to?

Answer 30

sight of goal-directed actions
the goal being achieved, even out of sight
sound of an action (multimodal)
action is performed by an agent

Question 31

what showed task dependency in motor neurone studies with macaques? what did this show?

Answer 31

when the task involved eating food there was greater activation of suspected mirror neurones than for putting the food in a cup
eating is more ecologically relevant

Question 32

a monkey seeing food picked up with a pair of pliers would __

Answer 32

not show increased neuronal firing rate, compared to themselves picking up the food or seeing another hand pick it up

Question 33

in a mirror neurone study, what factor influences whether mirror neurones fire when viewing an action where the end is hidden from sight?

Answer 33

whether the monkey knows that the goal is present or absent

Question 34

what evidence suggests there are subpopulations of mirror neurones, specific to tasks? what brain area was examined?

Answer 34

in macaques, there is preferential spiking for grasping to eat vs grasping to place item in a cup on their shoulder.
parietal lobe

Question 35

is there a neuronal basis for peri- / extra-personal space? What evidence?

Answer 35

yes, a monkey viewing a human grasp an object will show doubly dissociated neurones that are sensitive exclusively to either within or without the monkey’s grasp.

Question 36

what two systems (and 3 areas) are important for a developmental perspective of mirror neurones?

Answer 36

visual and execution responses (F5c, PFG)

purely visual responses - no execution (STS)

Question 37

what changes are thought to happen in the development of the mirror neuron system?
what enacts this change?

Answer 37

two different systems for representing actions are wired together to become cohesive
repeated synchronous coactivations of motor and visual representations

Question 38

what are the stages of developing a mirror neuron system? 3 what happens at each?

Answer 38

observation:
- unaware of what other’s actions will do

mimicking -coupling:
- recognising doing the action

generalisation:
- coherence between your actions and viewing other’s action

Question 39

what type of muscles would you place EMG onto to test whether intentional action to eat food is different from intentional action to place it on the shoulder? where are these?

Answer 39

mylohyoid

under the mouth

Question 40

what activity is found for people who reach for a piece of food but know they will place it on their shoulder instead of eat it? what does this suggest?

Answer 40

reduced EMG of mouth muscles

changes in activation can differentiate different intentions of one’s actions

Question 41

what was found about the actions of children with autism in a reaching study?
what does this suggest about autism?

Answer 41

compared with controls, they don’t display anticipatory muscle activation that differentiates the intention of their action.
so they may have difficulty discerning the intentions of others due to lacking insight into their own action intentions.