Motor-cortical beta oscillations are modulated by correctness of observed action

Contains fulltext : 73550.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access)How humans understand the intention of others’ actions remains controversial. Some authors have suggested that intentions are recognized by means of a motor simulation of the observed action with the mirror-neuron system [1–3]. Others emphasize that intention recognition is an inferential process, often called ‘‘mentalizing’’ or employing a ‘‘theory of mind,’’ which activates areas well outside the motor system [4–6]. Here, we assessed the contribution of brain regions involved in motor simulation and mentalizing for understanding action intentions via functional brain imaging. Results show that the inferior frontal gyrus (part of the mirror-neuron system) processes the intentionality of an observed action on the basis of the visual properties of the action, irrespective of whether the subject paid attention to the intention or not. Conversely, brain areas that are part of a ‘‘mentalizing’’ network become active when subjects reflect about the intentionality of an observed action, but they are largely insensitive to the visual properties of the observed action. This supports the hypothesis that motor simulation and mentalizing have distinct but complementary functions for the recognition of others’ intentions

Population genomics approach identifies recent adaptation in invasive fire ants

Mental imagery of one's body moving through space is important for imagining changing visuospatial perspectives, as well as for determining how we might appear to other people. Previous neuroimaging research has implicated the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) in this process. It is unclear, however, how neural activity in the TPJ relates to the rotation perspectives from which mental spatial transformation (MST) of one's own body can take place, i.e. from an egocentric or an allocentric perspective. It is also unclear whether TPJ involvement in MST is self-specific or whether the TPJ may also be involved in MST of other human bodies. The aim of the current study was to disentangle neural processes involved in egocentric versus allocentric MSTs of human bodies representing self and other. We measured functional brain activity of healthy participants while they performed egocentric and allocentric MSTs in relation to whole-body photographs of themselves and a same-sex stranger. Findings indicated higher blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response in bilateral TPJ during egocentric versus allocentric MST. Moreover, BOLD response in the TPJ during egocentric MST correlated positively with self-report scores indicating how awkward participants felt while viewing whole-body photos of themselves. These findings considerably advance our understanding of TPJ involvement in MST and its interplay with self-awareness

Goals and means in action observation : a computational approach

Many of our daily activities are supported by behavioural goals that guide the selection of actions, which allow us to reach these goals effectively. Goals are considered to be important for action observation since they allow the observer to copy the goal of the action without the need to use the exact same means. The importance of being able to use different action means becomes evident when the observer and observed actor have different bodies (robots and humans) or bodily measurements (parents and children), or when the environments of actor and observer differ substantially (when an obstacle is present or absent in either environment). A selective focus on the action goals instead of the action means furthermore circumvents the need to consider the vantage point of the actor, which is consistent with recent findings that people prefer to represent the actions of others from their own individual perspective. In this paper, we use a computational approach to investigate how knowledge about action goals and means are used in action observation. We hypothesise that in action observation human agents are primarily interested in identifying the goals of the observed actor’s behaviour. Behavioural cues (e.g. the way an object is grasped) may help to disambiguate the goal of the actor (e.g. whether a cup is grasped for drinking or handing it over). Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience are cited in support of the model’s architecture

Inhibitory control moderates the relation between advertising literacy activation and advertising susceptibility

This study aimed to investigate whether children’s advertising literacy activation affects their susceptibility to advertising and if this relationship is moderated by inhibitory control. In an experiment among 48 children aged 10–13 years old, we made a distinctio

Transcranial direct current stimulation of the right temporoparietal junction impairs third-person perspective taking

Contains fulltext : 166289.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Given the current debates about the precise functional role of the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) in egocentric and exocentric perspective taking, in the present study we manipulated activity in the rTPJ to investigate the effects on a spatial perspective-taking task. Participants engaged in a mental body transformation task, requiring them to mentally rotate their own body to the position of an avatar, while undergoing anodal, cathodal, or sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the rTPJ. As a control task, participants judged the laterality of a stimulus feature with respect to a fixation cross on the screen. For the first half of the experiment (only during online tDCS), a task-selective effect of tDCS was observed, reflected in slower reaction times following anodal than following cathodal and sham tDCS for the mental body transformation task, but not for the control task. The effects of tDCS were most pronounced for stimuli implying a more difficult mental body transformation. No effects of tDCS were observed during the second half of the experiment. The effects of tDCS were most pronounced for participants scoring low on aberrant perceptual beliefs and spiritual transcendence, suggesting a relation between third-person perspective taking and bodily and perceptual experiences. The finding that anodal stimulation of the rTPJ impairs third-person perspective taking indicates a key role of this region in exocentric spatial processing.15 p

Neural mechanisms underlying immediate and final action goals in object use reflected by slow wave brain potentials

Event-related brain potentials were used to study the neural mechanisms underlying goal-directed object use distinguishing between processes supporting immediate and final action goals during action planning and execution. Subjects performed a grasping and transportation task in which actions were cued either with the immediate action goal (the part of the object to grasp) or with the final action goal of the movement (the end position for transportation). Slow wave potentials dissociated between processes supporting immediate and final goals: reaching for the object was accompanied by the development of a parietal–occipital slow wave that peaked in congruency with the grasping event, whereas transport of the object towards the final goal location was found accompanied by slow wave components developing over left frontal regions with a peak towards the movement end. Source localization of cueing differences indicated activation centered around the parieto-occipital sulcus during reaching of the immediate action goal, followed by enhanced activation in the anterior prefrontal cortex during transport to the final action goal. These results suggest the existence of separate neural controllers for immediate and final action goals during the execution of goal-directed actions with objects