Nonvisual Motor Training Influences Biological Motion Perception

Abstract

Experimental evidence suggests a link between perception and the execution of actions . In particular, it has been proposed that motor programs might directly influence visual action perception . According to this hypothesis, the acquisition of novel motor behaviors should improve their visual recognition, even in the absence of visual learning. We tested this prediction by using a new experimental paradigm that dissociates visual and motor learning during the acquisition of novel motor patterns. The visual recognition of gait patterns from point-light stimuli was assessed before and after nonvisual motor training. During this training, subjects were blindfolded and learned a novel coordinated upper-body movement based only on verbal and haptic feedback. The learned movement matched one of the visual test patterns. Despite the absence of visual stimulation during training, we observed a selective improvement of the visual recognition performance for the learned movement. Furthermore, visual recognition performance after training correlated strongly with the accuracy of the execution of the learned motor pattern. These results prove, for the first time, that motor learning has a direct and highly selective influence on visual action recognition that is not mediated by visual learning.

Automatic imitation of biomechanically possible and impossible actions: Effects of priming movements versus goals.

“…On the one hand, the behavioral results from Experiment 1 dovetail with recent fMRI (Costantini et al, 2005) and TMS findings that biomechanically possible and impossible actions are coded similarilysimilarly by mirror/common coding mechanisms; on the other, the results of Experiment 2 are consistent with recent behavioral (Casile & Giese, 2006), developmental Sommerville, Woodward, & Needham, 2005), and neuroimaging (Buccino et al, 2004;Calvo-Merino et al, 2005Costantini et al, 2005) studies relating the representation of perceived actions to the observer's own ability to perform the action. Calvo-Merino and colleagues (2006), for example, presented expert ballet dancers with examples of dance moves that either were in their own motor repertoire or were performed only by opposite-gender dancers, finding increased activation in mirror circuits for the samegender moves.…”

Preference for biological motion in domestic chicks: sex-dependent effect of early visual experience

“…The preference for BM may could occur via specific learning through the chick's own locomotion, as has been reported in humans (Casile & Giese 2006). However, this is not plausible in the present case, because the males trained with random motion walked a considerable distance but did not show a preference for W-hen stimuli (Fig.…”

“…These animal studies commonly report that many training trials were needed to reach the criteria, suggesting that the learned discrimination may be based on memorized elements of the animation. Furthermore, the human capability to discriminate motion in BM images can be enhanced without visual stimulation, because the ability to discriminate motion in BM animations is specifically enhanced by acquiring the novel motor patterns that correspond to the BM (Casile & Giese 2006).…”

Knowing beans: human mirror mechanisms revealed through motor adaptation

“…Casile and Giese (2006) do show a causal effect of motor training on action recognition. In their research, blindfolded participants were asked to make novel upper body movements.…”