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de’Sperati C, Granato M, Moretti M. If You Are Old, Videos Look Slow. The Paradoxical Effect of Age-Related Motor Decline on the Kinematic Interpretation of Visual Scenes. Front Hum Neurosci 2022; 15:783090. [PMID: 35069153 PMCID: PMC8766849 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.783090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2021] [Accepted: 12/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Perception and action are tightly coupled. However, there is still little recognition of how individual motor constraints impact perception in everyday life. Here we asked whether and how the motor slowing that accompanies aging influences the sense of visual speed. Ninety-four participants aged between 18 and 90 judged the natural speed of video clips reproducing real human or physical motion (SoS, Sense-of-Speed adjustment task). They also performed a finger tapping task and a visual search task, which estimated their motor speed and visuospatial attention speed, respectively. Remarkably, aged people judged videos to be too slow (speed underestimation), as compared to younger people: the Point of Subjective Equality (PSE), which estimated the speed bias in the SoS task, was +4% in young adults (<40), +12% in old adults (40–70) and +16% in elders. On average, PSE increased with age at a rate of 0.2% per year, with perceptual precision, adjustment rate, and completion time progressively worsening. Crucially, low motor speed, but not low attentional speed, turned out to be the key predictor of video speed underestimation. These findings suggest the existence of a counterintuitive compensatory coupling between action and perception in judging dynamic scenes, an effect that becomes particularly germane during aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudio de’Sperati
- Laboratory of Action, Perception and Cognition, School of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
- *Correspondence: Claudio de’Sperati
| | - Marco Granato
- Laboratory of Action, Perception and Cognition, School of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
- Department of Computer Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Michela Moretti
- Laboratory of Action, Perception and Cognition, School of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
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2
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Garofalo G, Marino BFM, Bellelli S, Riggio L. Adjectives Modulate Sensorimotor Activation Driven by Nouns. Cogn Sci 2021; 45:e12953. [PMID: 33755244 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12953] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2019] [Revised: 01/27/2021] [Accepted: 02/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
We performed three experiments to investigate whether adjectives can modulate the sensorimotor activation elicited by nouns. In Experiment 1, nouns of graspable objects were used as stimuli. Participants had to decide if each noun referred to a natural or artifact, by performing either a precision or a power reach-to-grasp movement. Response grasp could be compatible or incompatible with the grasp typically used to manipulate the objects to which the nouns referred. The results revealed faster reaction times (RTs) in compatible than in incompatible trials. In Experiment 2, the nouns were combined with adjectives expressing either disadvantageous information about object graspability (e.g., sharp) or information about object color (e.g., reddish). No difference in RTs between compatible and incompatible conditions was found when disadvantageous adjectives were used. Conversely, a compatibility effect occurred when color adjectives were combined with nouns referring to natural objects. Finally, in Experiment 3 the nouns were combined with adjectives expressing tactile or shape proprieties of the objects (e.g., long or smooth). Results revealed faster RTs in compatible than in incompatible condition for both noun categories. Taken together, our findings suggest that adjectives can shape the sensorimotor activation elicited by nouns of graspable objects, highlighting that language simulation goes beyond the single-word level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gioacchino Garofalo
- Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Industries, University of Parma.,Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma
| | | | | | - Lucia Riggio
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma
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3
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Qu F, Wang J, Zhong Y, Ye H. Postural Effects on the Mental Rotation of Body-Related Pictures: An fMRI Study. Front Psychol 2018; 9:720. [PMID: 29875713 PMCID: PMC5975102 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00720] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2018] [Accepted: 04/24/2018] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
This study investigated the embodied effects involved in the mental rotation of pictures of body parts (hands and feet). Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals were collected from 18 healthy volunteers who performed mental rotation tasks of rotated drawings of hands under different arm postures. Congruent drawings of hands (those congruent with left-hand posture) evoked stronger activation in the left supplementary motor area (SMA), left precentral gyrus, and left superior parietal lobule (SPL) than did incongruent drawings of hands. Congruent drawings of hands (those congruent with right-hand posture) evoked significant activation in the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL), right SMA, bilateral middle frontal gyrus (MFG), left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and bilateral superior frontal gyrus (SFG) compared to that evoked by the incongruent drawings of hands. Similar methodology was implemented with drawings of feet. However, no significant differences in brain activation were observed between congruent and incongruent drawings of feet. This finding suggests that body posture influences body part-related mental rotation in an effector-specific manner. A direct comparison between the medially and laterally rotated drawings revealed activation in the right IPL, left precentral gyrus, bilateral IFG, and bilateral SFG. These results suggest that biomechanical constraints affect the cognitive process of mental rotation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fangbing Qu
- College of Preschool Education, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Jianping Wang
- College of Preschool Education, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Yuan Zhong
- Department of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China
| | - Haosheng Ye
- Center for Mind and Brain Science, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China
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4
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Rossi F, Montanaro E, de'Sperati C. Speed Biases With Real-Life Video Clips. Front Integr Neurosci 2018; 12:11. [PMID: 29615875 PMCID: PMC5864902 DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2018.00011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2017] [Accepted: 02/28/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
We live almost literally immersed in an artificial visual world, especially motion pictures. In this exploratory study, we asked whether the best speed for reproducing a video is its original, shooting speed. By using adjustment and double staircase methods, we examined speed biases in viewing real-life video clips in three experiments, and assessed their robustness by manipulating visual and auditory factors. With the tested stimuli (short clips of human motion, mixed human-physical motion, physical motion and ego-motion), speed underestimation was the rule rather than the exception, although it depended largely on clip content, ranging on average from 2% (ego-motion) to 32% (physical motion). Manipulating display size or adding arbitrary soundtracks did not modify these speed biases. Estimated speed was not correlated with estimated duration of these same video clips. These results indicate that the sense of speed for real-life video clips can be systematically biased, independently of the impression of elapsed time. Measuring subjective visual tempo may integrate traditional methods that assess time perception: speed biases may be exploited to develop a simple, objective test of reality flow, to be used for example in clinical and developmental contexts. From the perspective of video media, measuring speed biases may help to optimize video reproduction speed and validate "natural" video compression techniques based on sub-threshold temporal squeezing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federica Rossi
- Laboratory of Action, Perception and Cognition, Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
| | - Elisa Montanaro
- Department of Neuroscience Rita Levi Montalcini, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Claudio de'Sperati
- Laboratory of Action, Perception and Cognition, Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy.,Experimental Psychology Unit, Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy
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5
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Abstract
An object's perceived readiness-for-action (e.g., its size, the degree of rotation from its canonical position, the user's viewpoint) can influence semantic knowledge retrieval. Yet, the organization of object knowledge may also be affected by body-specific sensorimotor experiences. Here, we investigated whether people's history of performing motor actions with their hands influences the knowledge they store and retrieve about graspable objects. We compared object representations between healthy right- and left-handers (Experiment 1), and between unilateral stroke patients, whose motor experience was changed by impairment of either their right or left hand (Experiment 2). Participants saw pictures of graspable everyday items with the handles oriented toward either the left or right hand, and they generated the type of grasp they would employ (i.e., clench or pinch) when using each object, responding orally. In both experiments, hand dominance and object orientation interacted to predict response times. In Experiment 1, judgments were fastest when objects were oriented toward the right hand in right-handers, but not in left-handers. In Experiment 2, judgments were fastest when objects were oriented toward the left hand in patients who had lost the use of their right hand, even though these patients were right-handed prior to brain injury. Results suggest that at least some aspects of object knowledge are determined by motor experience, and can be changed by new patterns of motor experience. People with different bodily characteristics, who interact with objects in systematically different ways, form correspondingly different neurocognitive representations of the same common objects. (PsycINFO Database Record
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Daniel Casasanto
- Department of Psychology, Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, University of Chicago
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Yamani Y, Ariga A, Yamada Y. Object Affordances Potentiate Responses but Do Not Guide Attentional Prioritization. Front Integr Neurosci 2016; 9:74. [PMID: 26793077 PMCID: PMC4709760 DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2015.00074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2015] [Accepted: 12/21/2015] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Handled objects automatically activate afforded responses. The current experiment examined whether objects that afford a response are also prioritized for attentional processing in visual search. Targets were pictures of coffee cups with handles oriented either to the right or the left. Subjects searched for a target, a right-handled vs. left-handled coffee cup, among a varying number of distractor cups oriented in the opposite direction. Responses were faster when the direction of target handle and the key press were spatially matched than mismatched (stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) effect), but object affordance did not moderate slopes of the search functions, indicating the absence of attentional prioritization effect. These findings imply that handled objects prime afforded responses without influencing attentional prioritization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yusuke Yamani
- Department of Psychology, Old Dominion UniversityNorfolk, VA, USA
| | | | - Yuki Yamada
- Faculty of Arts and Science, Kyushu UniversityFukuoka, Japan
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7
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Declerck G. How we remember what we can do. SOCIOAFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE & PSYCHOLOGY 2015; 5:24807. [PMID: 26507953 PMCID: PMC4623285 DOI: 10.3402/snp.v5.24807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2015] [Revised: 09/14/2015] [Accepted: 09/28/2015] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
According to the motor simulation theory, the knowledge we possess of what we can do is based on simulation mechanisms triggered by an off-line activation of the brain areas involved in motor control. Action capabilities memory does not work by storing some content, but consists in the capacity, rooted in sensory-motor systems, to reenact off-line action sequences exhibiting the range of our powers. In this paper, I present several arguments from cognitive neuropsychology, but also first-person analysis of experience, against this hypothesis. The claim that perceptual access to affordances is mediated by motor simulation processes rests on a misunderstanding of what affordances are, and comes up against a computational reality principle. Motor simulation cannot provide access to affordances because (i) the affordances we are aware of at each moment are too many for their realization to be simulated by the brain and (ii) affordances are not equivalent to currently or personally feasible actions. The explanatory significance of the simulation theory must then be revised downwards compared to what is claimed by most of its advocates. One additional challenge is to determine the prerequisite, in terms of cognitive processing, for the motor simulation mechanisms to work. To overcome the limitations of the simulation theory, I propose a new approach: the direct content specification hypothesis. This hypothesis states that, at least for the most basic actions of our behavioral repertoire, the action possibilities we are aware of through perception are directly specified by perceptual variables characterizing the content of our experience. The cognitive system responsible for the perception of action possibilities is consequently far more direct, in terms of cognitive processing, than what is stated by the simulation theory. To support this hypothesis I review evidence from current neuropsychological research, in particular data suggesting a phenomenon of ‘fossilization’ of affordances. Fossilization can be defined as a gap between the capacities that are treated as available by the cognitive system and the capacities this system really has at its disposal. These considerations do not mean that motor simulation cannot contribute to explain how we gain perceptual knowledge of what we can do based on the memory of our past performances. However, when precisely motor simulation plays a role and what it is for exactly currently remain largely unknown.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gunnar Declerck
- Sorbonne universités, Université de technologie de Compiègne, EA 2223 Costech (Connaissance, Organisation et Systèmes Techniques), Centre Pierre Guillaumat - CS 60 319 - 60 203 Compiègne cedex, France;
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8
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Makris S, Grant S, Hadar AA, Yarrow K. Binocular vision enhances a rapidly evolving affordance priming effect: behavioural and TMS evidence. Brain Cogn 2013; 83:279-87. [PMID: 24121305 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2013.09.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2013] [Revised: 06/27/2013] [Accepted: 09/13/2013] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Extensive research has suggested that simply viewing an object can automatically prime compatible actions for object manipulation, known as affordances. Here we explored the generation of covert motor plans afforded by real objects with precision ('pinchable') or whole-hand/power ('graspable') grip significance under different types of vision. In Experiment 1, participants viewed real object primes either monocularly or binocularly and responded to orthogonal auditory stimuli by making precision or power grips. Pinchable primes facilitated congruent precision grip responses relative to incongruent power grips, and vice versa for graspable primes, but only in the binocular vision condition. To examine the temporal evolution of the binocular affordance effect, participants in Experiment 2 always viewed the objects binocularly but made no responses, instead receiving a transcranial magnetic stimulation pulse over their primary motor cortex at three different times (150, 300, 450ms) after prime onset. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) recorded from a pinching muscle were selectively increased when subjects were primed with a pinchable object, whereas MEPs from a muscle associated with power grips were increased when viewing graspable stimuli. This interaction was obtained both 300 and 450ms (but not 150ms) after the visual onset of the prime, characterising for the first time the rapid development of binocular grip-specific affordances predicted by functional accounts of the affordance effect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stergios Makris
- Dipartimento di Scienze Umane, Universita degli Studi di Udine, Italy.
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9
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Papadatou-Pastou M, Martin M, Munafò MR. Measuring hand preference: A comparison among different response formats using a selected sample. Laterality 2013; 18:68-107. [DOI: 10.1080/1357650x.2011.628794] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
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10
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Le projet SimAction. Ing Rech Biomed 2011. [DOI: 10.1016/j.irbm.2011.01.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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Abstract
Movement imagery has become an important tool in a variety of fields but individual differences in imagery ability mean that some participants, with weak imagery abilities, may not be able to engage in imagery tasks or programs. In this article we present an evaluation of a training scheme designed to improve movement imagery ability. The scheme lasted 4 weeks, involving four individual training sessions lasting 1–1 1/2 hours each and homework. The scheme emphasized relaxation and kinaesthetic awareness, external and internal perspective movement imagery, prospective action judgments, and motorically driven perceptual decisions. Ten participants, of mean age 35 ( SD = 11.97), participated in the training scheme and 12 participants, of mean age 35.33 ( SD = 13.38), participated in the control group. The performance of the trainee group was compared to the performance of the control group on a series of visual and movement imagery measures, completed before and after training. In comparison to controls, trainees improved significantly on a number of key measures of movement imagery ability but did not improve on any measure of visual imagery ability. The results demonstrated that explicit and implicit aspects of movement imagery ability can be improved through imagery training.
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12
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Abstract
The effects of handedness on directionality in drawing are already well documented in the literature, at least as far as adults are concerned. The present study investigates the impact of manual preference on directionality as seen in the drawing product and drawing process, from a developmental point of view. A total of 120 children aged 5 to 9, both right and left-handed drawers, volunteered for the study. Children were asked to draw twice from memory a set of six common objects. Results indicate that directionality in drawing product varies significantly according to manual preference in the 9-year-old children, but not in the younger age groups. The concomitant increase between 7 and 9 years of age in the use of preferred stroke directions and the impact of manual preference in the drawing process suggests that biomechanical factors might play an important role in behavioural asymmetries in drawing.
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14
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Poliakoff E, Galpin A, Dick J, Moore P, Tipper SP. The effect of viewing graspable objects and actions in Parkinson's disease. Neuroreport 2007; 18:483-7. [PMID: 17496808 DOI: 10.1097/wnr.0b013e32805867a1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Viewing action-relevant stimuli such as a graspable object or another person moving can affect the observer's own motor system. Evidence exists that external stimuli may facilitate or hinder movement in Parkinson's disease, so we investigated whether action-relevant stimuli would exert a stronger influence. We measured the effect of action-relevant stimuli (graspable door handles and finger movements) on reaction times compared with baseline stimuli (bars and object movements). Parkinson's patients were influenced by the location of the baseline stimuli, but unlike healthy controls, action-relevant stimuli did not exert a stronger influence. This suggests that external cues exert their influence in Parkinson's disease through lower-level visual processes and the influence of action-relevant stimuli on the motor system is disrupted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellen Poliakoff
- School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, and Greater Manchester Neurosciences Unit, Hope Hospital, Salford, UK.
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15
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Petit LS, Pegna AJ, Harris IM, Michel CM. Automatic motor cortex activation for natural as compared to awkward grips of a manipulable object. Exp Brain Res 2005; 168:120-30. [PMID: 16041509 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-005-0092-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2004] [Accepted: 05/20/2005] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
It has been suggested that, relative to natural objects, man-made object representations in the brain are more specifically defined by functional properties that reflect how an object is used and/or what it is used for (Warrington and Shallice 1984). We recorded 123-channel event-related potentials (ERP) in healthy participants during a mental rotation task involving a manipulable (hammer) and a non-manipulable (church) object. Both stimuli had standard and mirror-image versions rotated in four different orientations, resulting for the manipulable object in some natural and some awkward grips. Using spatial cluster analysis, time periods were determined during which the ERP maps differed between stimulus conditions. Specific maps appeared for natural versus awkward grips with the manipulable object at a very early stage (60-116 ms) as well as during a later stage (180-280 ms). Source estimations derived from the topographic data indicated that during the second time window the left motor cortex was significantly activated in the case of natural grips. We argue that the motor programs that are semantically associated with the object are automatically activated when it is presented in graspable orientations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leila S Petit
- Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
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16
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Abstract
The authors review studies of mentally simulated movements. In automatic or cyclical movements, actual and motor imagery (MI) durations are similar. When athletes simulate only dynamic phases of movement or perform MI just before competing, however, environmental and time constraints lead to an underestimation of actual duration. Conversely, complex attention-demanding movements take longer to image. Finally, participants can modify the speed of MI voluntarily when they receive specific instructions. To complete the available data, the authors compared imagined and actual durations in tennis and gymnastics. Results showed systematic and disproportionate overestimation of actual duration. The authors found a relationship between complex motor skills and MI duration. They discuss the factors leading to over- and underestimation and the hypotheses that could be tested.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Guillot
- Centre de Recherche et d'Innovation sur le Sport, Université Claude Bernard Lyon I-UFR STAPS, 27-29 boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France.
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17
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de'Sperati C. Precise Oculomotor Correlates of Visuospatial Mental Rotation and Circular Motion Imagery. J Cogn Neurosci 2003; 15:1244-59. [PMID: 14709240 DOI: 10.1162/089892903322598184] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Visual imagery is a basic form of cognition central to activities such as problem solving or creative thinking. Phenomena such as mental rotation, in which mental images undergo spatial transformations, and motion imagery, in which we imagine objects in motion, are very elusive. For example, although several aspects of visual imagery and mental rotation have been reconstructed through mental chronometry, their instantaneous evolution has never been directly observed. We paired mental chronometry to eye movement recording in subjects performing a visuospatial mental rotation task and an instructed circular motion imagery task. In both tasks, sequences of spontaneous saccades formed curved trajectories with a regular spatio-temporal evolution. In the visuospatial mental rotation task, saccadic amplitude decreased progressively within each sequence, resulting in an average gaze rotation with a bell-shaped asymmetrical angular velocity profile whose peak and mean increased with the amount of the to-be-performed rotation, as in reaching movements. In the second task, the average gaze rotation reproduced faithfully the to-be-imagined constant-velocity circular motion, thus excluding important distortions in the oculomotor performance. These findings show for the first time the instantaneous spatio-temporal evolution of mental rotation and motion imagery. Moreover, the fact that visuospatial mental rotation is modeled as a reaching act suggests that reaching pertains to the realm of visuospatial thinking, rather than being restricted to the motor domain. This approach based on eye movement recording can be profitably coupled to methods such as event-related potentials, transcranial magnetic stimulation, or functional magnetic resonance to study the precise neuronal dynamics associated with an ongoing mental activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudio de'Sperati
- Visuo-Motor Functions Lab, Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy.
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18
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Grèzes J, Tucker M, Armony J, Ellis R, Passingham RE. Objects automatically potentiate action: an fMRI study of implicit processing. Eur J Neurosci 2003; 17:2735-40. [PMID: 12823480 DOI: 10.1046/j.1460-9568.2003.02695.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 268] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Behavioural data have shown that the perception of an object automatically potentiates motor components (affordances) of possible actions toward that object, irrespective of the subject's intention. We carried out an event-related fMRI study to investigate the influence of the intrinsic properties of an object on motor responses which were either compatible or incompatible with the action that the object affords. The subjects performed power or precision grip responses based on the categorization of objects into natural or man-made. The objects were either 'small' (usually grasped with a precision grip) or 'large' (usually grasped with a power grip). As expected, the motor responses were fastest to objects that afforded the same grip (congruent) and slowest to objects that afforded the other grip (incongruent). Imaging revealed activations which covaried with compatibility in the parietal, dorsal premotor and inferior frontal cortex. We suggest that the greater the difference in reaction times between congruent and incongruent trials, the greater the competition between the action afforded by the object and the action specified by the task, and thus the greater the activation within this network.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Grèzes
- Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, London, UK.
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19
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Petit LS, Pegna AJ, Mayer E, Hauert CA. Representation of anatomical constraints in motor imagery: mental rotation of a body segment. Brain Cogn 2003; 51:95-101. [PMID: 12633591 DOI: 10.1016/s0278-2626(02)00526-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Classically, the mental rotation paradigm has shown that when subjects are asked to judge whether objects that differ in orientation are spatially congruent, reaction times increase with angular discrepancy, although some reports have shown that this is not always the case. Would similar results be obtained with realistic figures of body segments? In this work, the mental rotation of a hand attached to its forearm and arm in anatomically possible and impossible starting positions is compared with the mental rotation of a hammer. The main results show that reaction times increase monotonically with the angle of discrepancy for both stimuli and that the speed of rotation is higher for anatomically possible orientations in the case of the hand. Thus, mental rotation of body segments follows the same empirical rules as objects of another nature, and biomechanical constraints imposed to the motility of these segments can be considered as attributes of the mental representation.
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Affiliation(s)
- L S Petit
- Neuropsychology Unit, Neurology Clinic, Geneva University Hospital, 24 Micheli-du-Crest, 1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland.
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20
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Vingerhoets G, de Lange FP, Vandemaele P, Deblaere K, Achten E. Motor imagery in mental rotation: an fMRI study. Neuroimage 2002; 17:1623-33. [PMID: 12414300 DOI: 10.1006/nimg.2002.1290] [Citation(s) in RCA: 195] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Twelve right-handed men performed two mental rotation tasks and two control tasks while whole-head functional magnetic resonance imaging was applied. Mental rotation tasks implied the comparison of different sorts of stimulus pairs, viz. pictures of hands and pictures of tools, which were either identical or mirror images and which were rotated in the plane of the picture. Control tasks were equal except that stimuli pairs were not rotated. Reaction time profiles were consistent with those found in previous research. Imaging data replicate classic areas of activation in mental rotation for hands and tools (bilateral superior parietal lobule and visual extrastriate cortex) but show an important difference in premotor area activation: pairs of hands engender bilateral premotor activation while pairs of tools elicit only left premotor brain activation. The results suggest that participants imagined moving both their hands in the hand condition, while imagining manipulating objects with their hand of preference (right hand) in the tool condition. The covert actions of motor imagery appear to mimic the "natural way" in which a person would manipulate the object in reality, and the activation of cortical regions during mental rotation seems at least in part determined by an intrinsic process that depends on the afforded actions elicited by the kind of stimuli presented.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guy Vingerhoets
- Laboratory for Neuropsychology, Department of Internal Medicine--Section Neurology, Ghent University, Belgium
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21
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Abstract
The ability to perceive self-produced movements and to correctly attribute an action to its proper agent is a natural task and a basic requirement to human social communication. Recent experiments suggest that this apparently simple phenomenon is related to the mechanisms of motor production, raising the question whether recognition of self-produced movement is affected by asymmetries similar to those present in motor skills. In this study, right- and left-handed subjects decided whether a moving hand presented on a screen was the image of their own hand or of that of another person. Two experimental conditions were tested: either subjects saw their own moving hand (subject condition) or they were shown the experimenter's hand pantomiming their movement (experimenter condition); a glove masked morphological differences between the two hands. Verbal responses and response times were analysed. Results showed that all subjects were more accurate in recognising their preferred hand with respect to their non-preferred hand. Right-handers responded faster than left-handers did, the latter group being especially slowed down in the experimenter condition. On the contrary, in the right-handers group, response times did not differ among conditions. The present data indicate that the ability to recognise self-generated movements is affected by motor dominance, thus suggesting that conscious knowledge of self-produced movements is closely related to the motor system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Daprati
- Institut des Sciences Cognitives, 67 Bd Pinel, 69675 Bron, France.
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22
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Viggiano MP, Vannucci M. Drawing and identifying objects in relation to semantic category and handedness. Neuropsychologia 2002; 40:1482-7. [PMID: 11931952 DOI: 10.1016/s0028-3932(01)00196-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
We investigated whether the directionality of different objects and participants' handedness affected drawing and visual object identification performance. In Experiment 1, 190 participants were asked to draw 246 pictures of objects belonging to different semantic categories. Results showed a preferential direction (leftward, rightward, or frontal view) for most of pictures. In Experiment 2, the directionality patterns found in Experiment 1 were verified in a visual identification task. Sixty participants were requested to identify pictures presented leftward or rightward. For some categories, the speed of responses was greater for pictures having the directionality assessed in the previous experiment. The effect of handedness emerged for two categories of objects (animals and vehicles) characterised by two properties: asymmetry and motion. Findings were discussed in relation to the Motor Image Theory on the isomorphism between motor (drawing) and visual (identification) processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Pia Viggiano
- Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, Università degli Studi di Firenze, via san Niccolò 93, 50125 Florence, Italy.
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23
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Creem SH, Wraga M, Proffitt DR. Imagining physically impossible self-rotations: geometry is more important than gravity. Cognition 2001; 81:41-64. [PMID: 11525481 DOI: 10.1016/s0010-0277(01)00118-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies found that it is easier for observers to spatially update displays during imagined self-rotation versus array rotation. The present study examined whether either the physics of gravity or the geometric relationship between the viewer and array guided this self-rotation advantage. Experiments 1-3 preserved a real or imagined orthogonal relationship between the viewer and the array, requiring a rotation in the observer's transverse plane. Despite imagined self-rotations that defied gravity, a viewer advantage remained. Without this orthogonal relationship (Experiment 4), the viewer advantage was lost. We suggest that efficient transformation of the egocentric reference frame relies on the representation of body-environment relations that allow rotation around the observer's principal axis. This efficiency persists across different and conflicting physical and imagined postures.
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Affiliation(s)
- S H Creem
- University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA.
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24
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Wohlschläger A. Mental object rotation and the planning of hand movements. PERCEPTION & PSYCHOPHYSICS 2001; 63:709-18. [PMID: 11436739 DOI: 10.3758/bf03194431] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Recently, we showed that the simultaneous execution of rotational hand movements interferes with mental object rotation, provided that the axes of rotation coincide in space. We hypothesized that mental object rotation and the programming of rotational hand movements share a common process presumably involved in action planning. Two experiments are reported here that show that the mere planning of a rotational hand movement is sufficient to cause interference with mental object rotation. Subjects had to plan different spatially directed hand movements that they were asked to execute only after they had solved a mental object rotation task. Experiment 1 showed that mental object rotation was slower if hand movements were planned in a direction opposite to the presumed mental rotation direction, but only if the axes of hand rotation and mental object rotation were parallel in space. Experiment 2 showed that this interference occurred independent of the preparatory hand movements observed in Experiment 1. Thus, it is the planning of hand movements and not their preparation or execution that interferes with mental object rotation. This finding underlines the idea that mental object rotation is an imagined (covert) action, rather than a pure visual-spatial imagery task, and that the interference between mental object rotation and rotational hand movements is an interference between goals of actions.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Wohlschläger
- Max-Planck-Institut für Psychologische Forschung, Amalienstrasse 33, D-80799 München, Germany.
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25
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Abstract
Motor imagery corresponds to a subliminal activation of the motor system, a system that appears to be involved not only in producing movements, but also in imagining actions, recognising tools and learning by observation, as well as in understanding the behaviour of other people. Recent advances in the field include the use of techniques for mapping brain activity and probing cortical excitability, as well as observation of brain lesioned patients during imaging tasks; these advances provide new insights into the covert aspects of motor activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Jeannerod
- Institut des Sciences Cognitives, Bron, 69675, France.
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