The role of the motor system in the perception of visual art remains to be better understood. Earlier studies on the visual perception of abstract art (from Gestalt theory, as in Arnheim, 1954 and 1988, to balance preference studies as in Locher and Stappers, 2002, and more recent work by Locher et al., 2007; Redies, 2007, and Taylor et al., 2011), neglected the question, while the field of neuroesthetics (Ramachandran and Hirstein, 1999; Zeki, 1999) mostly concentrated on figurative works. Much recent work has demonstrated the multimodality of vision, encompassing the activation of motor, somatosensory, and viscero-motor brain regions. The present study investigated whether the observation of high-resolution digitized static images of abstract paintings by Lucio Fontana is associated with specific cortical motor activation in the beholder's brain. Mu rhythm suppression was evoked by the observation of original art works but not by control stimuli (as in the case of graphically modified versions of these works). Most interestingly, previous visual exposure to the stimuli did not affect the mu rhythm suppression induced by their observation. The present results clearly show the involvement of the cortical motor system in the viewing of static abstract art works.

Emotional facial expression is an important low-level mechanism contributing to the experience of empathy, thereby lying at the core of social interaction. Schizophrenia is associated with pervasive social cognitive impairments, including emotional processing of facial expressions. In this study we test a novel paradigm in order to investigate the evaluation of the emotional content of perceived emotions presented through dynamic expressive stimuli, facial mimicry evoked by the same stimuli, and their functional relation. Fifteen healthy controls and 15 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia were presented with stimuli portraying positive (laugh), negative (cry) and neutral (control) emotional stimuli in visual, auditory modalities in isolation, and congruently or incongruently associated. Participants where requested to recognize and quantitatively rate the emotional value of the perceived stimuli, while electromyographic activity of Corrugator and Zygomaticus muscles was recorded. All participants correctly judged the perceived emotional stimuli and prioritized the visual over the auditory modality in identifying the emotion when they were incongruently associated (Audio-Visual Incongruent condition). The neutral emotional stimuli did not evoke any muscle responses and were judged by all participants as emotionally neutral. Control group responded with rapid and congruent mimicry to emotional stimuli, and in Incongruent condition muscle responses were driven by what participants saw rather than by what they heard. Patient group showed a similar pattern only with respect to negative stimuli, whereas showed a lack of or a non-specific Zygomaticus response when positive stimuli were presented. Finally, we found that only patients with reduced facial mimicry (Internalizers) judged both positive and negative emotions as significantly more neutral than controls. The relevance of these findings for studying emotional deficits in schizophrenia is discussed.

When making decisions in groups, the outcome of one’s decision often depends on the decisions of others, and there is a tradeoff between short-term incentives for an individual and long-term incentives for the groups. Yet, little is known about the neurocomputational mechanisms at play when weighing different utilities during repeated social interactions. Here, using model-based fMRI and Public-good-games, we find that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex encodes immediate expected rewards as individual utility while the lateral frontopolar cortex encodes group utility (i.e., pending rewards of alternative strategies beneficial for the group). When it is required to change one’s strategy, these brain regions exhibited changes in functional interactions with brain regions engaged in switching strategies. Moreover, the anterior cingulate cortex and the temporoparietal junction updated beliefs about the decision of others during interactions. Together, our findings provide a neurocomputational account of how the brain dynamically computes effective strategies to make adaptive collective decisions.

Does the comprehension of both action-related and abstract verbs rely on motor simulation? In a behavioral experiment, in which a semantic task was used, response times to hand-action-related verbs were briefer than those to abstract verbs and both decreased with repetition of presentation. In a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) experiment, single-pulse stimulation was randomly delivered over hand motor area of the left primary motor cortex to measure cortical-spinal excitability at 300 or 500 ms after verb presentation. Two blocks of trials were run. In each block, the same verbs were randomly presented. In the first block, stimulation induced an increase in motor evoked potentials only when TMS was applied 300 ms after action-related verb presentation. In the second block, no modulation of motor cortex was found according to type of verb and stimulation-delay. These results confirm that motor simulation can be used to understand action rather than abstract verbs. Moreover, they suggest that with repetition, the semantic processing for action verbs does not require activation of primary motor cortex anymore.

Facial expression of emotions is a powerful vehicle for communicating information about others’ emotional states and it normally induces facial mimicry in the observers. The aim of this study was to investigate if early aversive experiences could interfere with emotion recognition, facial mimicry, and with the autonomic regulation of social behaviors. We conducted a facial emotion recognition task in a group of “street-boys” and in an age-matched control group. We recorded facial electromyography (EMG), a marker of facial mimicry, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of the recruitment of autonomic system promoting social behaviors and predisposition, in response to the observation of facial expressions of emotions. Results showed an over-attribution of anger, and reduced EMG responses during the observation of both positive and negative expressions only among street-boys. Street-boys also showed lower RSA after observation of facial expressions and ineffective RSA suppression during presentation of non-threatening expressions. Our findings suggest that early aversive experiences alter not only emotion recognition but also facial mimicry of emotions. These deficits affect the autonomic regulation of social behaviors inducing lower social predisposition after the visualization of facial expressions and an ineffective recruitment of defensive behavior in response to non-threatening expressions.

To make decisions in a social context, humans have to predict the behavior of others, an ability that is thought to rely on having a model of other minds known as "theory of mind." Such a model becomes especially complex when the number of people one simultaneously interacts with is large and actions are anonymous. Here, we present results from a group decision-making task known as the volunteer's dilemma and demonstrate that a Bayesian model based on partially observable Markov decision processes outperforms existing models in quantitatively predicting human behavior and outcomes of group interactions. Our results suggest that in decision-making tasks involving large groups with anonymous members, humans use Bayesian inference to model the "mind of the group," making predictions of others' decisions while also simulating the effects of their own actions on the group's dynamics in the future.

Age-group membership effects on explicit emotional facial expressions recognition have been widely demonstrated. In this study we investigated whether Age-group membership could also affect implicit physiological responses, as facial mimicry and autonomic regulation, to observation of emotional facial expressions. To this aim, facial Electromyography (EMG) and Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) were recorded from teenager and adult participants during the observation of facial expressions performed by teenager and adult models. Results highlighted that teenagers exhibited greater facial EMG responses to peers' facial expressions, whereas adults showed higher RSA-responses to adult facial expressions. The different physiological modalities through which young and adults respond to peers' emotional expressions are likely to reflect two different ways to engage in social interactions with coetaneous. Findings confirmed that age is an important and powerful social feature that modulates interpersonal interactions by influencing low-level physiological responses.

Schizophrenia has been described as a psychiatric condition characterized by deficits in one's own and others' face recognition, as well as by a disturbed sense of body-ownership. To date, no study has integrated these two lines of research with the aim of investigating Enfacement Illusion (EI) proneness in schizophrenia. To accomplish this goal, the classic EI protocol was adapted to test the potential plasticity of both Self-Other and Other-Other boundaries. Results showed that EI induced the expected malleability of Self-Other boundary among both controls and patients. Interestingly, for the first time, the present study demonstrates that also the Other-Other boundary was influenced by EI. Furthermore, comparing the two groups, the malleability of the Other-Other boundary showed an opposite modulation. These results suggest that, instead of greater Self-Other boundary plasticity, a qualitative difference can be detected between schizophrenia patients and controls in the malleability of the Other-Other boundary. The present study points out a totally new aspect about body-illusions and schizophrenia disorder, demonstrating that EI is not only confined to self-sphere but it also affects the way we discriminate others, representing a potential crucial aspect in the social domain.