Contextual modulation of motor resonance during the observation of everyday actions

Amoruso, Lucía; Urgesi, Cosimo

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.03.060

Cited by 51 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Here we found a selective increase of the observers’ corticospinal excitability for the FDI muscle only when the dot was presented on the hand in the No-Request condition. Notably, FDI muscle is specifically involved in both the execution [65] and observation [66] of precision grips. The short-term appearance of a dot in the contralateral space with respect to the moving hand significantly diminished the matching muscular activation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overt orienting of spatial attention and corticospinal excitability during action observation are unrelated

et al. 2017

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Observing moving body parts can automatically activate topographically corresponding motor representations in the primary motor cortex (M1), the so-called direct matching. Novel neurophysiological findings from social contexts are nonetheless proving that this process is not automatic as previously thought. The motor system can flexibly shift from imitative to incongruent motor preparation, when requested by a social gesture. In the present study we aim to bring an increase in the literature by assessing whether and how diverting overt spatial attention might affect motor preparation in contexts requiring interactive responses from the onlooker. Experiment 1 shows that overt attention—although anchored to an observed biological movement—can be captured by a target object as soon as a social request for it becomes evident. Experiment 2 reveals that the appearance of a short-lasting red dot in the contralateral space can divert attention from the target, but not from the biological movement. Nevertheless, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over M1 combined with electromyography (EMG) recordings (Experiment 3) indicates that attentional interference reduces corticospinal excitability related to the observed movement, but not motor preparation for a complementary action on the target. This work provides evidence that social motor preparation is impermeable to attentional interference and that a double dissociation is present between overt orienting of spatial attention and neurophysiological markers of action observation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overt orienting of spatial attention and corticospinal excitability during action observation are unrelated

et al. 2017

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“…Single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (spTMS) studies show that observing others' movements covertly facilitates the observers' motor system in a selective manner, mapping the effector that would be actually involved in the execution of the perceived movement (Fadiga et al, 2005;Alaerts et al, 2009;Urgesi et al, 2010). Most previous studies, however, have used movements detached from background as visual stimuli.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking the Time Course of Top-Down Contextual Effects on Motor Responses during Action Comprehension

2016

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Context plays a key role in coding high-level components of others' behavior, including the goal and the intention of an observed action. However, little is known about its possible role in shaping lower levels of action processing, such as simulating action kinematics and muscular activity. Furthermore, there is no evidence regarding the time course and the neural mechanisms subserving this modulation. To address these issues, we combined single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation and motor-evoked potentials while healthy humans watched videos of everyday actions embedded in congruent, incongruent, or ambiguous contexts. Video endings were occluded from view and participants had to predict action unfolding. Transcranial magnetic stimulation was delivered at 80, 240, and 400 ms after action onset. An earlier selective facilitation of motor resonance occurring at 240 ms was observed for actions embedded in congruent contexts, compared with those occurring in incongruent and ambiguous ones. Later on, at 400 ms, a selective inhibition of motor resonance was found for actions embedded in incongruent contexts, compared with those taking place in congruent and ambiguous ones. No modulations were observed at 80 ms. Together, these findings indicate that motor resonance can be modulated by contextual information with different timings, depending on the (in)congruency between the different levels of action representation. Furthermore, the different time course of these effects suggests that they stem from partially independent mechanisms, with the early facilitation directly involving M1, and the later inhibition recruiting high-level structures outside the motor system.

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“…Nevertheless, actions are not perceived in isolation but are context-embedded with objects and actors that create an environment. Recent evidence supported the idea that the comprehension of actions requires a high level codification triggered not only by components of motor behavior, but also by the environment where the action is embedded ( Iacoboni et al, 2005 ; Sartori et al, 2011 ; Liuzza et al, 2015 ; Amoruso and Urgesi, 2016 ). As an example, observing a grasping movement embedded in a context related to movement intention leads to a stronger activation of the MNS when compared to observing the same movement detached from the context or the context alone ( Iacoboni et al, 2005 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

An Emotion-Enriched Context Influences the Effect of Action Observation on Cortical Excitability

Lagravinese

Bisio

Ferrari

et al. 2017

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Observing other people in action activates the “mirror neuron system” that serves for action comprehension and prediction. Recent evidence suggests that this function requires a high level codification triggered not only by components of motor behavior, but also by the environment where the action is embedded. An overlooked component of action perceiving is the one related to the emotional information provided by the context where the observed action takes place. Indeed, whether valence and arousal associated to an emotion might exert an influence on motor system activation during action observation has not been assessed so far. Here, cortico-spinal excitability of the left motor cortex was recorded in three groups of subjects. In the first condition, motor-evoked potential (MEPs) were recorded from a muscle involved in the grasping movement (i.e., abductor pollicis brevis, APB) while participants were watching the same reach-to-grasp movement embedded in contexts with negative emotional valence, but different levels of arousal: sadness (low arousal), and disgust (high arousal) (“Context plus Movement-APB” condition). In the second condition, MEPs were recorded from APB muscle while participants were observing static images representing the contexts in which the movement observed by participants in “Context plus Movement-APB” condition took place (“Context Only-APB” condition). Finally, in the third condition, MEPS were recorded from a muscle not involved in the grasping action, i.e., abductor digiti minimi, ADM, while participants were watching the same videos shown during the “Context plus Movement-APB” condition (“Context plus Movement-ADM” condition). Results showed a greater increase of cortical excitability only during the observation of the hand moving in the context eliciting disgust, and these changes were specific for the muscle involved in the observed action. Our findings show that the emotional context in which a movement occurs modulates motor resonance and that the combination of negative valence/high arousal drives the greater response in the observer’s mirror neuron system in a strictly muscle specific fashion.

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Contextual modulation of motor resonance during the observation of everyday actions

Cited by 51 publications

References 55 publications

Overt orienting of spatial attention and corticospinal excitability during action observation are unrelated

Overt orienting of spatial attention and corticospinal excitability during action observation are unrelated

Tracking the Time Course of Top-Down Contextual Effects on Motor Responses during Action Comprehension

An Emotion-Enriched Context Influences the Effect of Action Observation on Cortical Excitability

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