Expertise influences congruency monitoring during action observation at the motor level.

Abstract

Congruency monitoring of action occurs in individuals with relevant motor experience while observing actions. However, it remains unclear whether congruency monitoring can occur at the motor level and the extent to which expertise contributes. Here, we examined the behavioral performance and electrophysiological brain activity of individuals with and without domain-specific expertise when judging the action congruency of occluded video clips of a snowboard halfpipe trick and normal walking. For the halfpipe trick, experts exhibited better task performance and greater midline theta oscillations before possible incongruency compared with controls. Source reconstruction for the theta oscillation revealed a stronger activation in the middle and superior frontal gyrus for experts in response to incongruency compared with controls. Incongruent halfpipe actions elicited a higher N400 amplitude in experts compared with congruent actions, while no such differences were observed in controls. Source reconstruction revealed the activation in the board frontal regions and middle temporal gyrus for experts. These findings suggest that congruency monitoring can occur at the motor level during action observations and is modulated by individual expertise. The modulation of expertise reflects in the special N400 effect and midline theta oscillation.