The representational space of observed actions

Tucciarelli, Raffaele; Wurm, Moritz F.; Baccolo, Elisa; Lingnau, Angelika

doi:10.7554/elife.47686

Cited by 47 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…The latter studies also found that frontoparietal and medial OTC regions capture person-and object-directedness of actions. However, only left LOTC is sensitive to semantic action dimensions when perceptual factors that typically covary with object-and person-directedness, such as reaching/grasping movements and presence of persons and objects, are explicitly modeled and thus controlled for [24,25]. These findings suggest that conceptual action representations are restricted to left LOTC, whereas frontoparietal areas and medial OTC encode stimulus-specific aspects.…”

Section: Conceptual Action Representationsmentioning

confidence: 88%

Two "what" pathways for action and object recognition

Wurm¹,

Caramazza²

2021

Preprint

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The ventral visual stream is conceived as a pathway for object recognition. However, we also recognize the actions an object can be involved in. Here, we show that action recognition relies on a pathway in lateral occipitotemporal cortex, partially overlapping and topographically aligned with object representations that are precursors for action recognition. By contrast, object features that are more relevant for object recognition, such as color and texture, are restricted to medial areas of the ventral stream. We argue that the ventral stream bifurcates into lateral and medial pathways for action and object recognition, respectively. This account explains a number of observed phenomena, such as the duplication of object domains and the specific representational profiles in lateral and medial areas.

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Section: Conceptual Action Representationsmentioning

confidence: 88%

Two "what" pathways for action and object recognition

Wurm¹,

Caramazza²

2021

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…Considerable evidence points to the involvement of regions in lateral occipito-temporal cortex (LOTC), posterior parietal cortex (PPC), and premotor cortex in action observation (Caspers, Zilles, Laird, & Eickhoff, 2010;Cross, Kraemer, Hamilton, Kelley, & Grafton, 2009;Jastorff, Begliomini, Fabbri-Destro, Rizzolatti, & Orban, 2010;Lingnau & Downing, 2015;Wurm & Lingnau, 2015). Categorical distinctions of observed actions (OAs) have been found in LOTC, in particular the abstract action categories transitivity and sociality (Wurm, Caramazza, & Lingnau, 2017), and more recently, the action components such as body parts, scenes, movements, objects, sociality, and transitivity (Tucciarelli, Wurm, Baccolo, & Lingnau, 2019). On the other hand, recent evidence (Lanzilotto et al, 2019(Lanzilotto et al, , 2020 indicates that PPC regions process the visual identity of OAs, in a similar way to the processing by the ventral pathway of the visual identity of objects (Hung, Kreiman, Poggio, & DiCarlo, 2005), and in particular of faces (Chang & Tsao, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A parietal region processing numerosity of observed actions: An FMRI study

Sawamura

Ürgen

Corbo

et al. 2020

Eur J of Neuroscience

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“…Also, while we presume it is the tool representation that has changed in the experts, perhaps it is the representation of the tool action that has changed. Recent work has highlighted the role of occipitotemporal cortex in processing observed actions (Tucciarelli et al, 2019). This would explain why experts show greater dissimilarity between hands and both their expert tool (litter picker) and a similar grasping tool on which they did not have prior expertise (tongs).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expert Tool Users Show Increased Differentiation between Visual Representations of Hands and Tools

et al. 2021

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The idea that when we use a tool we incorporate it into the neural representation of our body (embodiment) has been a major inspiration for philosophy, science and engineering. While theoretically appealing, there is little direct evidence for tool embodiment at the neural level. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in male and female human subjects, we investigated whether expert tool users (London litter pickers: n=7) represent their expert tool more like a hand (neural embodiment) or less like a hand (neural differentiation), as compared to a group of tool novices (n=12). During fMRI scans, participants viewed first-person videos depicting grasps performed by either a hand, litter picker or a non-expert grasping tool. Using representational similarity analysis, differences in the representational structure of hands and tools were measured within occipitotemporal (OTC). Contrary to the neural embodiment theory, we find that the experts group represent their own tool less like a hand (not more) relative to novices. Using a case-study approach, we further replicated this effect, independently, in 5 of the 7 individual expert litter pickers, as compared to the novices. An exploratory analysis in left parietal cortex, a region implicated in visuomotor representations of hands and tools, also indicated that experts do not visually represent their tool more similar to hands, compared to novices. Together, our findings suggest that extensive tool use leads to an increased neural differentiation between visual representations of hands and tools. This evidence provides an important alternative framework to the prominent tool embodiment theory. 3 Significance Statement It is commonly thought that tool use leads to assimilation of the tool into the neural representation of the body, a process referred to as embodiment. Here, we demonstrate that expert tool users (London litter pickers) neurally represent their own tool less like a hand (not more), compared to novices. Our findings advance our current understanding for how experience shapes functional organisation in high-order visual cortex. Further, this evidence provides an alternative framework to the prominent tool embodiment theory, suggesting instead that experience with tools leads to more distinct, separable hand and tool representations.

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The representational space of observed actions

Cited by 47 publications

References 67 publications

Two "what" pathways for action and object recognition

Two "what" pathways for action and object recognition

A parietal region processing numerosity of observed actions: An FMRI study

Expert Tool Users Show Increased Differentiation between Visual Representations of Hands and Tools

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