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Overt orienting of spatial attention and corticospinal excitability during action observation are unrelated

Observing moving body parts can automatically activate topographically corresponding motor representations in the primary motor cortex (M1), the so-called direct matching. Novel neurophysiological findings from social contexts are nonetheless proving that this process is not automatic as previously...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Betti, Sonia, Castiello, Umberto, Guerra, Silvia, Sartori, Luisa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5358745/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28319191
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0173114
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author Betti, Sonia
Castiello, Umberto
Guerra, Silvia
Sartori, Luisa
author_facet Betti, Sonia
Castiello, Umberto
Guerra, Silvia
Sartori, Luisa
author_sort Betti, Sonia
collection PubMed
description Observing moving body parts can automatically activate topographically corresponding motor representations in the primary motor cortex (M1), the so-called direct matching. Novel neurophysiological findings from social contexts are nonetheless proving that this process is not automatic as previously thought. The motor system can flexibly shift from imitative to incongruent motor preparation, when requested by a social gesture. In the present study we aim to bring an increase in the literature by assessing whether and how diverting overt spatial attention might affect motor preparation in contexts requiring interactive responses from the onlooker. Experiment 1 shows that overt attention—although anchored to an observed biological movement—can be captured by a target object as soon as a social request for it becomes evident. Experiment 2 reveals that the appearance of a short-lasting red dot in the contralateral space can divert attention from the target, but not from the biological movement. Nevertheless, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over M1 combined with electromyography (EMG) recordings (Experiment 3) indicates that attentional interference reduces corticospinal excitability related to the observed movement, but not motor preparation for a complementary action on the target. This work provides evidence that social motor preparation is impermeable to attentional interference and that a double dissociation is present between overt orienting of spatial attention and neurophysiological markers of action observation.
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spelling pubmed-53587452017-04-06 Overt orienting of spatial attention and corticospinal excitability during action observation are unrelated Betti, Sonia Castiello, Umberto Guerra, Silvia Sartori, Luisa PLoS One Research Article Observing moving body parts can automatically activate topographically corresponding motor representations in the primary motor cortex (M1), the so-called direct matching. Novel neurophysiological findings from social contexts are nonetheless proving that this process is not automatic as previously thought. The motor system can flexibly shift from imitative to incongruent motor preparation, when requested by a social gesture. In the present study we aim to bring an increase in the literature by assessing whether and how diverting overt spatial attention might affect motor preparation in contexts requiring interactive responses from the onlooker. Experiment 1 shows that overt attention—although anchored to an observed biological movement—can be captured by a target object as soon as a social request for it becomes evident. Experiment 2 reveals that the appearance of a short-lasting red dot in the contralateral space can divert attention from the target, but not from the biological movement. Nevertheless, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over M1 combined with electromyography (EMG) recordings (Experiment 3) indicates that attentional interference reduces corticospinal excitability related to the observed movement, but not motor preparation for a complementary action on the target. This work provides evidence that social motor preparation is impermeable to attentional interference and that a double dissociation is present between overt orienting of spatial attention and neurophysiological markers of action observation. Public Library of Science 2017-03-20 /pmc/articles/PMC5358745/ /pubmed/28319191 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0173114 Text en © 2017 Betti et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Betti, Sonia
Castiello, Umberto
Guerra, Silvia
Sartori, Luisa
Overt orienting of spatial attention and corticospinal excitability during action observation are unrelated
title Overt orienting of spatial attention and corticospinal excitability during action observation are unrelated
title_full Overt orienting of spatial attention and corticospinal excitability during action observation are unrelated
title_fullStr Overt orienting of spatial attention and corticospinal excitability during action observation are unrelated
title_full_unstemmed Overt orienting of spatial attention and corticospinal excitability during action observation are unrelated
title_short Overt orienting of spatial attention and corticospinal excitability during action observation are unrelated
title_sort overt orienting of spatial attention and corticospinal excitability during action observation are unrelated
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5358745/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28319191
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0173114
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