Can’t take my eyes off you: Goal-irrelevant kinematics of observed actions prime subcomponents of motor output under perceptual load
-
1
The University of Queensland, School of Psychology, Australia
We investigated motor priming, how observing a human model's action alters the observer's subsequent motor output. Specifically, we asked whether priming of goal-irrelevant kinematics depends on attention. To establish a paradigm, pilot experiments replicated recent research showing priming of goal-unrelated kinematics in reach-to-grasp action, and used life-sized films of action rather than live models. In a go/no-go task, female participants viewed a filmed female model reach toward a target and either grasp it (go trials) or overshoot a grasp behind it (no-go trials). Crucially, across go trials the model reached for the same target with either a direct trajectory or an exaggerated, higher-lifting trajectory. Despite instructions to reach directly to a target on all go trials, participants' reach trajectories lifted higher after observing exaggerated reaches compared with observing straight reaches. This result confirmed that goal-irrelevant kinematics prime the motor system and validated the use of films to elicit this effect. The main experiment tested whether goal-unrelated priming persisted in a perceptual load condition, which was designed to drain attentional resources away from processing the model’s action. Participants detected rapid colour changes of a shape during action observation. Perceptual load during action observation did not reduce trajectory priming compared with the no load control condition (i.e., same stimuli but no concurrent detection task), but did interfere with timing parameters in participants' reaches regardless of the observed trajectory. These results contrast with previous studies that reported no motor priming when attention was drawn away from actions during observation.
Keywords:
Motor Priming,
Attention,
perceptual load,
kinematics,
action observation,
action execution,
reach to grasp
Conference:
ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 29 Nov - 2 Dec, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Attention
Citation:
Sparks
S and
Kritikos
A
(2012). Can’t take my eyes off you: Goal-irrelevant kinematics of observed actions prime subcomponents of motor output under perceptual load.
Conference Abstract:
ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.208.00085
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:
07 Nov 2012.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Samuel Sparks, The University of Queensland, School of Psychology, Brisbane, Queensland, 4072, Australia, samuel.sparks@uqconnect.edu.au