Attention to action reveals neural representation for agency, kinematics, and goals

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Attention to action reveals neural representation for agency, kinematics, and goals Veronika Halász1*, Jason B. Mattingley1, 2 and Ross Cunnington1, 2 1 The University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Australia 2 The University of Queensland, The School of Psychology, Australia During action observation, links between past motor plans for our own actions, learnt associations about others’ actions, and present sensory information are used to provide predictions about the action. We know that a vast network is active during this process, but we know very little about how this system is modulated when attention and predictive processes interact. Here we investigated how the neural representation of an observed action changes if attention is specifically oriented to the agent, the goal, or the kinematics of the movement. Furthermore, we tested the neural response to novel and repeated action properties, to investigate how predictive mechanisms change with attentional focus. During fMRI measurement, participants watched video clips in which the agency, kinematics, or goals of hand actions were independently manipulated so that they were either “repeated” or “novel” with respect to the immediately preceding video clip. To investigate the effect of attention, participants were asked to focus exclusively on different aspects of the video clips, monitoring for target features in either the identity of the agent, the kinematics, or the goal of the action. A widespread network of brain areas, including parietal, premotor, and prefrontal regions, showed a systematic decrease in activation with repeated compared with novel presentation of actions, a repetition suppression effect (RS), which did not differ depending on whether the agent, the goal, or the kinematics of the action was repeated. However, results showed enhancement of RS in specific regions depending on the attentional focus. When attending to the acting agent, a stronger RS effect was found in the right lingual, and LMO and fusiform area. When attention was focused on goals, right postcentral, LMO, and bilateral SPL showed a stronger RS. Finally, when attending to kinematics, greater RS was found in areas of the right insula and LIFG. While a widespread action-observation network is involved in perception of actions overall, by specifically focusing attention on different aspects of the observed actions, we could reveal regions that appear to have a greater role in processing novelty in agency, kinematics, or goals. In particular, prefrontal regions, including the IFG, appear to have a greater role in representing kinematics, while more posterior occipital and parietal regions appear to play a greater role in representing action goals. Keywords: Attention, action observation, repetition suppression, agency, kinematics Conference: ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Attention Citation: Halász V, Mattingley JB and Cunnington R (2013). Attention to action reveals neural representation for agency, kinematics, and goals. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00096 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 Sep 2013; Published Online: 25 Nov 2013. * 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.