Abstract
Motor resonance mechanisms are known to affect humans' ability to interact with others, yielding the kind of “mutual understanding” that is the basis of social interaction. However, it remains unclear how the partner's action features combine or compete to promote or prevent motor resonance during interaction. To clarify this point, the present study tested whether and how the nature of the visual stimulus and the properties of the observed actions influence observer's motor response, being motor contagion one of the behavioral manifestations of motor resonance. Participants observed a humanoid robot and a human agent move their hands into a pre-specified final position or put an object into a container at various velocities. Their movements, both in the object- and non-object- directed conditions, were characterized by either a smooth/curvilinear or a jerky/segmented trajectory. These trajectories were covered with biological or non-biological kinematics (the latter only by the humanoid robot). After action observation, participants were requested to either reach the indicated final position or to transport a similar object into another container. Results showed that motor contagion appeared for both the interactive partner except when the humanoid robot violated the biological laws of motion. These findings suggest that the observer may transiently match his/her own motor repertoire to that of the observed agent. This matching might mediate the activation of motor resonance, and modulate the spontaneity and the pleasantness of the interaction, whatever the nature of the communication partner.
Highlights
It is well known that movement observation has measurable effects on the observer’s motor system, and that these are attributable to the activation of mirror neuron circuits [1]
If the motor system is prepared to produce a motor response to the observed motion, this might result in motor contagion: namely, the observer’s motor performance might automatically replicate some features of the stimulus
The results showed that the observed movement kinematics, namely an action property at low cognitive value, modulated the resonance mechanisms, whatever the nature of the observed stimulus, except when the humanoid robot violated the biological law of motion
Summary
It is well known that movement observation has measurable effects on the observer’s motor system, and that these are attributable to the activation of mirror neuron circuits [1] These brain areas give rise to a series of ‘‘resonance behaviors’’ in which, during the observation of actions performed by others, motor representation congruent with the observed actions becomes automatically activated in the observers’ brain [2]. Since motor resonance was proposed to affect humans’ ability to interact with others, yielding the kind of ‘‘mutual understanding’’ at the basis of social interaction [3,4], several behavioral, neurophysiological and neuroimaging studies have dealt with this matter It remains still unclear how different action features combine/ compete to promote or prevent motor resonance, and motor contagion (for a review see [5]). When observing a moving agent there are several sources of information that can influence the observer’s motor response (for a review on bottom-up and top-down effects see [6])
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