Abstract
During interpersonal interactions, people perform actions with different forms of vitality, communicating their positive or negative attitude toward others. For example, a handshake can be “soft” or “vigorous”, a caress can be ‘kind’ or ‘rushed’. While previous studies have shown that the dorso-central insula is a key area for the processing of human vitality forms, there is no information on the perception of vitality forms generated by a humanoid robot. In this study, two fMRI experiments were conducted in order to investigate whether and how the observation of actions generated by a humanoid robot (iCub) with low and fast velocities (Study 1) or replicating gentle and rude human forms (Study 2) may convey vitality forms eliciting the activation of the dorso-central insula. These studies showed that the observation of robotic actions, generated with low and high velocities, resulted in activation of the parieto-frontal circuit typically involved in the recognition and the execution of human actions but not of the insula (Study 1). Most interestingly, the observation of robotic actions, generated by replicating gentle and rude human vitality forms, produced a BOLD signal increase in the dorso-central insula (Study 2). In conclusion, these data highlight the selective role of dorso-central insula in the processing of vitality forms opening future perspectives on the perception and understanding of actions performed by humanoid robots.
Highlights
During interpersonal interactions, people perform actions with different forms of vitality, communicating their positive or negative attitude toward others
Two fMRI experiments were conducted to investigate whether the observation of actions executed by a humanoid robot could elicit activation of the dorso-central insula as well as investigate which kinematic parameters are responsible for the activation
The regions of interest (ROIs) analysis carried out in this insular sector showed a significant difference of the BOLD signal between the observation of human actions and robotic actions in both rude and gentle conditions
Summary
People perform actions with different forms of vitality, communicating their positive or negative attitude toward others. Two fMRI experiments were conducted in order to investigate whether and how the observation of actions generated by a humanoid robot (iCub) with low and fast velocities (Study 1) or replicating gentle and rude human forms (Study 2) may convey vitality forms eliciting the activation of the dorso-central insula. The observation of robotic actions, generated by replicating gentle and rude human vitality forms, produced a BOLD signal increase in the dorso-central insula (Study 2) These data highlight the selective role of dorso-central insula in the processing of vitality forms opening future perspectives on the perception and understanding of actions performed by humanoid robots. People perform actions gently, neutrally, or rudely etc., expressing their positive or negative attitudes towards others These aspects of actions characterize human behavior and provide information about the affective state of the agent. These findings clearly indicate that the dorso-central insula is a selective area involved in the encoding of vitality forms regardless of the modality through which they are conveyed[13]
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