Event Abstract Back to Event The effects of cognitive context on visual-motor interactions Marta Bortoletto1, Jason B. Mattingley2 and Ross Cunnington2* 1 IRCCS San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Italy 2 University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute and School of Psychology, Australia Visual-motor interference occurs when action execution is facilitated by the concurrent observation of the same action and hindered by the concurrent observation of a different action. This effect is thought to reflect interactions between the visual system and the motor system, which are important for functions such as imitation and action understanding. Here we asked whether such processes are influenced by the cognitive context in which actions are performed. In a delayed go/no-go task, images of hand gestures were presented as a go stimulus after participants had planned either a matching (congruent) or non-matching (incongruent) gesture. Participants performed the task in two cognitive contexts. At the end of each trial, participants were asked to select among four hand gesture images either: the action they had seen (image context), thereby attending most to the observed action; or the action they had performed (action context), thereby attending more to their own performed action. We measured the N170 elicited from presentation of the go-stimulus in order to study the influence of action plans on action observation (motor-to-visual priming). We also measured movement-related activity, i.e. left-lateralized readiness potentials (L-LRPs) following the go stimulus, in order to study the influence of action observation on action planning (visual-to-motor priming). Strikingly, the context manipulation reversed the direction of the priming effects: Motor-to-visual priming (congruency effects on N170) was stronger in the action context compared with the image context. Viceversa, visual-to-motor priming (congruency effects on L-LRPs) was stronger in the image context compared with the action context. In general, only the non-relevant aspect of the task was affected by the congruency between observed and executed actions. Our findings indicate that neural interactions between motor and visual processes for executed and observed actions can change depending on task demands, and are sensitive to top-down control according to the context. References Bortoletto, M., Mattingley, J. B., & Cunnington, R. (2011). Action intentions modulate visual processing during action perception. Neuropsychologia, 49(7), 2097-104. Chong, T. T.-J., Cunnington, R., Williams, M. A., Kanwisher, N., & Mattingley, J. B. (2008). fMRI adaptation reveals mirror neurons in human inferior parietal cortex. Current Biology, 18(20), 1576-80. Craighero, L., Bello, A., Fadiga, L., & Rizzolatti, G. (2002). Hand action preparation influences the responses to hand pictures. Neuropsychologia, 40(5), 492-502. Rizzolatti, & Sinigaglia, C. (2010). The functional role of the parieto-frontal mirror circuit: interpretations and misinterpretations. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(4), 264-74. Keywords: Motor Activity, Perception, observed movement, mirror system, EEG/ERP Conference: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 29 Nov - 2 Dec, 2012. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Motor Citation: Bortoletto M, Mattingley JB and Cunnington R (2012). The effects of cognitive context on visual-motor interactions. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.208.00012 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 Oct 2012; Published Online: 03 Nov 2012. * Correspondence: Dr. Ross Cunnington, University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute and School of Psychology, Brisbane, Australia, r.cunnington@uq.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 Marta Bortoletto Jason B Mattingley Ross Cunnington Google Marta Bortoletto Jason B Mattingley Ross Cunnington Google Scholar Marta Bortoletto Jason B Mattingley Ross Cunnington PubMed Marta Bortoletto 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.