Abstract
Previous work has shown that the perception of a graspable object may automatically potentiate actions that are tailored to specific action-related features of the object (e.g., its size) and may be related to its immediate grasping as well as to its long-term, functional use. We investigated the neural correlates of function- and size-related object affordances that may be concurrently potentiated by a graspable object. Participants were lying in a MR scanner holding a large switch in one hand and a small switch in the other hand. They passively attended a large or a small object with clearly separated functional and graspable end that was displayed centrally at an average angle of 45 degrees. Participants responded to the direction of an arrow that was overlaid on the object after a mean period of 1,000 ms after object onset and was pointing to the left or to the right with equal probability. Response times were shorter when the arrow pointed to the functional end of the object and when the responses were made with the switch that was congruent to the size of the perceived object. A clear distinction was found in the representation of function- and size-related affordances; the former was represented in the posterior parietal cortex and the latter in prefrontal, premotor, and primary sensorimotor cortices. We conclude that different aspects of object-directed actions may be automatically potentiated by individual object features and are represented in distinct brain areas.
Highlights
The particular status of tools for human behavior is reflected by how we reason about them and by how our brain responds to tool stimuli (Vaesen, 2012)
The participants were faster to respond with the switch that corresponded with the size of the displayed object; the main effect of Size Congruency only showed a trend towards statistical significance [F(1,18) = 3.3, p = 0.087, ηp2 = 0.154]
We investigated the origin of this interaction with posthoc t-tests (Bonferroni corrected alpha level = 0.025), which showed that there was a significant effect of Size Congruency when participants were responding with the small switch [t(18) = −3.6, p = 0.002], but no effect when responding with the large switch [t(18) = 1.2, p = 0.231]
Summary
The particular status of tools for human behavior is reflected by how we reason about them and by how our brain responds to tool stimuli (Vaesen, 2012). We hypothesized that the size of the displayed object would automatically activate the representation of the corresponding grasping action. Such representation should facilitate a size congruent response and interfere with a size incongruent response. With regards to the potentiation of action related to the long-term functional use of an object, we drew our predictions from a recent EEG study with a similar experimental design and stimuli (Kourtis and Vingerhoets, 2015), which showed that the functional part of the object (e.g., the head of a hammer) first captured a passive observer’s attention and potentiated a spatially compatible response (see Bub et al, 2008; Pellicano et al, 2010). We expected that the participants would be faster responding to an arrow pointing to the functional end of a displayed object
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