Action processing under attentional load

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Action processing under attentional load Veronika Halász1*, Jason B. Mattingley1, 2 and Ross Cunnington1, 2 1 The University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Australia 2 The University of Queensland, School of Psychology, Australia Understanding other's actions is an important skill in life; we are quick to make predictions about goals and intentions or predict the short-term consequences of actions, often without seeming to pay attention. Indeed, action processing used to be considered an automatic process, and it is only recently that studies showing attentional modulation are emerging in the literature. Here we investigated how high and low attentional load tasks modulate the processing of actions that are outside our attentional focus. Participants counted target objects in left and right rapid visual streams while videos of simple, object directed hand actions were concurrently presented in the centre. Crucially, videos were presented in a repetition suppression paradigm, with successive hand actions being either novel or repeated with respect to action goals, kinematics, or agency. Our data indicated that even under high load there is a widespread network of brain areas that are dedicated to the processing of actions. Interestingly, repetition suppression was even greater under high attentional load compared to low load. Our results suggest that neither repetition suppression, nor action processing are fully automatic processes. Moreover, the processing of novel actions seemed to be prioritized under high attentional load and was correlated with an increased bilateral activity in the inferior frontal and inferior parietal lobule. Our study demonstrates that action processing is not an automatic function of the brain, although a very important one. An extensive brain network is involved to process observed actions, even when our attention is directed elsewhere. Keywords: action observation, Attentional load, fMRI, repetition suppression, visual load Conference: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 29 Nov - 2 Dec, 2012. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Motor Citation: Halász V, Mattingley JB and Cunnington R (2012). Action processing under attentional load. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.208.00040 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: 25 Oct 2012; Published Online: 07 Nov 2012. * Correspondence: Ms. Veronika Halász, The University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Brisbane, Australia, veronika.halasz@uqconnect.edu.au 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 Veronika Halász Jason B Mattingley Ross Cunnington Google Veronika Halász Jason B Mattingley Ross Cunnington Google Scholar Veronika Halász Jason B Mattingley Ross Cunnington PubMed Veronika Halász Jason B Mattingley Ross Cunnington 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.