Eye-movements during transitive action observation: How does it inform us about the origin of the action priming effect?

Field: Neuroscience (Life Sciences)

Event Abstract Back to Event Eye-movements during transitive action observation: How does it inform us about the origin of the action priming effect? Clement Letesson1 and Martin G. Edwards1* 1 université catholique de louvain, IPSY, Belgium Research has demonstrated that the observation of action can prime subsequent execution responses (see for example, Edwards, Humphreys & Castiello, 2003; Hardwick & Edwards, 2011). The priming was suggested to be caused by the observed action being automatically represented in the same areas of the brain as that used for execution; the Mirror Neuron System (Rizzolatti, 2004), and that this shared use of brain areas allowed for priming between congruent observation and subsequent execution neural processes. One problem with the behavioral priming research is that often, the observation of action conditions also contains the eye-gaze of the agent, allowing for the possibility that shared or cued attention between the agent and the participant could also lead to primed action execution (see for example, Castiello, 2003). In the current study, we investigated the relative role of the two sources of visual information that could explain the prime effects: (i) the agent’s gaze and (ii) the observed action. To do so, we used eye-gaze tracking methods to measure where participants looked during the observation condition. In each condition, the participant viewed a scene where they were sat on a table, opposite to the agent, and there were two objects, one on the left and one on the right (a small and a large object; their position counterbalanced). We modified the observation conditions by manipulating the availability of the agent’s gaze and the observed reach-to-grasp action. Replicating the previous studies, full availability conditions consisted of the agent both looking at and acting to one of two objects. In the modified availability conditions, either the agent’s eyes were covered and only the reach-to-grasp action presented, or the agent looked at the target object but no action was performed. In the baseline condition, the agent neither made an eye-gaze or a reach-to-grasp action. By analyzing the time series of the eye-gaze during the observation conditions, we predicted that the comparison of modified availability conditions compared to the full availability condition would show which information is naturally selected during action observation conditions (i.e., the agent’s eye gaze or the action observation). The results showed that agent’s eye-gaze appeared to be the most important cue during the observation condition. In the full availability condition, participants typically looked at the agent’s eyes first and then at the object to be grasped, remaining fixated on the object both before and during the observed action. The same eye-gaze behavior was shown in the modified observation condition where only eye-gaze information was shown. In the modified observation condition were only the observed action was shown, participants tended to first look in the region where the eyes would normally be presented, and then waited for the agent’s action to initiate, before selecting the object that the action was directed towards. Therefore, these data appeared to show that the selection of the object to be acted towards was the most important cue during the observation condition. Furthermore, it seems that the participants rarely looked at the action, suggesting some doubt that the observation of action causes the prime effects reported in the literature. These data are discussed in terms of whether or not different gaze patterns during action observation will lead to specific kinematical patterns during action execution. References Castiello, U. (2003). Understanding other people’s actions: Intention and attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 29(2), 416-430. Edwards, M. G., Humphreys, G. W., & Castiello, U. (2003). Motor facilitation following action observation: A behavioural study in prehensile action. Brain and Cognition, 53(3), 495-502. Hardwick, R. M., & Edwards, M. G. (2011). Observed reach trajectory influences executed reach kinematics in prehension. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006), 64(6), 1082-93. Rizzolatti, G., & Craighero, L. (2004). The mirror-neuron system. Annual review of neuroscience, 27, 169-92. Keywords: mirror neuron system, action priming, action observation, Eye Movement Measurements, Cued attention Conference: Belgian Brain Council, Liège, Belgium, 27 Oct - 27 Oct, 2012. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Other basic/clinical neurosciences topic Citation: Letesson C and Edwards MG (2012). Eye-movements during transitive action observation: How does it inform us about the origin of the action priming effect?. Conference Abstract: Belgian Brain Council. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.210.00001 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 11 Sep 2012; Published Online: 12 Sep 2012. * Correspondence: Dr. Martin G Edwards, université catholique de louvain, IPSY, louvain la neuve, 1348, Belgium, martin.edwards@uclouvain.be Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Clement Letesson Martin G Edwards Google Clement Letesson Martin G Edwards Google Scholar Clement Letesson Martin G Edwards PubMed Clement Letesson Martin G Edwards Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.