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Movement kinematics drive chain selection toward intention detection
The ability to understand intentions based on another’s movements is crucial for human interaction. This ability has been ascribed to the so-called motor chaining mechanism: anytime a motor chain is activated (e.g., grasp-to-drink), the observer attributes to the agent the corresponding intention (i...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
National Academy of Sciences
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6187161/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30242132 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1809825115 |
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author | Soriano, Marco Cavallo, Andrea D’Ausilio, Alessandro Becchio, Cristina Fadiga, Luciano |
author_facet | Soriano, Marco Cavallo, Andrea D’Ausilio, Alessandro Becchio, Cristina Fadiga, Luciano |
author_sort | Soriano, Marco |
collection | PubMed |
description | The ability to understand intentions based on another’s movements is crucial for human interaction. This ability has been ascribed to the so-called motor chaining mechanism: anytime a motor chain is activated (e.g., grasp-to-drink), the observer attributes to the agent the corresponding intention (i.e., to drink) from the first motor act (i.e., the grasp). However, the mechanisms by which a specific chain is selected in the observer remain poorly understood. In the current study, we investigate the possibility that in the absence of discriminative contextual cues, slight kinematic variations in the observed grasp inform mapping to the most probable chain. Chaining of motor acts predicts that, in a sequential grasping task (e.g., grasp-to-drink), electromyographic (EMG) components that are required for the final act [e.g., the mouth-opening mylohyoid (MH) muscle] show anticipatory activation. To test this prediction, we used MH EMG, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS; MH motor-evoked potentials), and predictive models of movement kinematics to measure the level and timing of MH activation during the execution (Experiment 1) and the observation (Experiment 2) of reach-to-grasp actions. We found that MH-related corticobulbar excitability during grasping observation varied as a function of the goal (to drink or to pour) and the kinematics of the observed grasp. These results show that subtle changes in movement kinematics drive the selection of the most probable motor chain, allowing the observer to link an observed act to the agent’s intention. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6187161 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | National Academy of Sciences |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-61871612018-10-15 Movement kinematics drive chain selection toward intention detection Soriano, Marco Cavallo, Andrea D’Ausilio, Alessandro Becchio, Cristina Fadiga, Luciano Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Biological Sciences The ability to understand intentions based on another’s movements is crucial for human interaction. This ability has been ascribed to the so-called motor chaining mechanism: anytime a motor chain is activated (e.g., grasp-to-drink), the observer attributes to the agent the corresponding intention (i.e., to drink) from the first motor act (i.e., the grasp). However, the mechanisms by which a specific chain is selected in the observer remain poorly understood. In the current study, we investigate the possibility that in the absence of discriminative contextual cues, slight kinematic variations in the observed grasp inform mapping to the most probable chain. Chaining of motor acts predicts that, in a sequential grasping task (e.g., grasp-to-drink), electromyographic (EMG) components that are required for the final act [e.g., the mouth-opening mylohyoid (MH) muscle] show anticipatory activation. To test this prediction, we used MH EMG, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS; MH motor-evoked potentials), and predictive models of movement kinematics to measure the level and timing of MH activation during the execution (Experiment 1) and the observation (Experiment 2) of reach-to-grasp actions. We found that MH-related corticobulbar excitability during grasping observation varied as a function of the goal (to drink or to pour) and the kinematics of the observed grasp. These results show that subtle changes in movement kinematics drive the selection of the most probable motor chain, allowing the observer to link an observed act to the agent’s intention. National Academy of Sciences 2018-10-09 2018-09-21 /pmc/articles/PMC6187161/ /pubmed/30242132 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1809825115 Text en Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Biological Sciences Soriano, Marco Cavallo, Andrea D’Ausilio, Alessandro Becchio, Cristina Fadiga, Luciano Movement kinematics drive chain selection toward intention detection |
title | Movement kinematics drive chain selection toward intention detection |
title_full | Movement kinematics drive chain selection toward intention detection |
title_fullStr | Movement kinematics drive chain selection toward intention detection |
title_full_unstemmed | Movement kinematics drive chain selection toward intention detection |
title_short | Movement kinematics drive chain selection toward intention detection |
title_sort | movement kinematics drive chain selection toward intention detection |
topic | Biological Sciences |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6187161/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30242132 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1809825115 |
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