Photographs of Actions: What Makes Them Special Cues to Social Perception

Abstract

I have reviewed studies on neural responses to pictured actions in the action observation network (AON) and the cognitive functions of these responses. Based on this review, I have analyzed the specific representational characteristics of action photographs. There has been consensus that AON responses provide viewers with knowledge of observed or pictured actions, but there has been controversy about the properties of this knowledge. Is this knowledge causally provided by AON activities or is it dependent on conceptual processing? What elements of actions does it refer to, and how generalized or specific is it? The answers to these questions have come from studies that used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to stimulate motor or somatosensory cortices. In conjunction with electromyography (EMG), TMS allows researchers to examine changes of the excitability in the corticospinal tract and muscles of people viewing pictured actions. The timing of these changes and muscle specificity enable inferences to be drawn about the cognitive products of processing pictured actions in the AON. Based on a review of studies using TMS and other neuroscience methods, I have proposed a novel hypothetical account that describes the characteristics of action photographs that make them effective cues to social perception. This account includes predictions that can be tested experimentally.

Actions are characterised by ‘canonical moments’ in a sequence of movements

“…Importantly, these canonical moments lead to ease of name verification and to better recognition memory. These findings should benefit emerging research in social cognition on the neural substrates of action recognition and discrimination, (de Gelder & Poyo Solanas, 2021;Orban et al, 2021;Wurm & Lingnau, 2015), and resonate with older (Cutting, 2002) and newer (Kislinger, 2021) considerations of how motion is conveyed by artists and photographers. While there was variability in how concentrated in time participants' judgements of the most representative stills were across the individual actions we studied, this variability seems to reflect the structure of the actions themselves.…”

“…For some of the actions studied here participants' choices of the most representative still clustered narrowly around a single still, consistent with the findings of Hafri et al (2013) who show that simple, well defined two person interactions can be discerned from very brief exposure to still images. A recent review of research using static images of actions considers the power of photographs of actions as cues to social perception (Kislinger, 2021). Among the interesting observations made in that review is that photographs of actions which capture a single moment in time -perhaps 1/1000 secare effective in that they offer the viewer the opportunity to extend the duration of this moment by continuous viewing.…”

An action-observation network in the common marmoset identified by ultra-high field fMRI

“…This network shows strong correspondences with the AON in macaques and humans. The first (mirror) neurons in macaques responding to the observation of others' actions have been observed in areas F5 and 45 (6,7,(57)(58)(59), and regions with similar properties have also been found with fMRI in homologous brain areas in humans (5,17,30,71,72,(75)(76)(77)(78)(79). Our results show that large parts of the bilateral marmoset area 6V (likely corresponding to macaque's area F5 and human area PMv) and of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (area 45 bilaterally, plus right areas 47 and 13) are part of this AON.…”

ERP responses to sexual cues among young women attracted to men

“…With respect to rapid neural processing, one important difference between the constrained comparison of erect and flaccid penises, outside of their differences in sexual relevance, is that erect penises are in an active state in which they are poised for relevant activity, whereas flaccid penises are not. Some recent work has shown that there is a distinct set of neural processes that are engaged to predict others' intentional actions (see Hughes et al, 2013, for a review), and that such predictions about intentional actions can be based on evidence of “readiness” to act (see Kislinger, 2021). Thus, even if there are differences in the ERPs elicited by erect versus flaccid penises, it is not clear whether those differences are owed to their differences in sexual relevance or to their readiness for action.…”