Influence of action execution on biological motion perception

Influence of action execution on biological motion perception

Research Area:

Clinical Movement Control and real-life Behavior Analysis for Assistive Systems

Researchers:

Andrea Christensen; Winfried Ilg Martin A. Giese;

Collaborators:

H. O. Karnath
  

Description:

The perception and execution of motor actions are tightly interlinked, and numerous experiments suggest the existence of common sensory-motor representations.
Using a virtual-reality setup we aim to investigate the influence of self-generated body motion on the perception of online generated biological motion in combined motor behaviour and psychophysical studies.

The theory has been postulated that the recognition of body movements might be influenced by synchronous internal simulation of the observed motor behaviour. Furthermore it has been supposed that during self-generated movements efference copies of descending motor commands in conjunction with internal forward models supports the prediction of our own movement's consequences. These theories lead to the prediction, that action recognition should critically depend on the similarity between executed and observed movements.

We tested this hypothesis exploiting a novel experimental paradigm that combines advanced real-time full-body tracking with the online-generation biological motion stimuli, making visually observed biological motion stimuli directly dependent on the actual motor behavior of the observer.

Our results provide consistent evidence for a well-defined spatial and temporal tuning of the influence of motor execution on biological motion perception. Facilitatory interactions were observed only for sufficient spatial and temporal coherence between observed and executed action, while degradation of this coherence often resulted in interference.

Publications

Sacheli, L. M., Christensen, A., Giese, M. A., Taubert, N., Pavone, E. F., Aglioti, S. M. et al. (2015). Prejudiced interactions: implicit racial bias reduces predictive simulation during joint action with an out-group avatar. Scientific Reports, 5, 8507. [More] 
Christensen, A., Giese, M. A., Sultan, F., Mueller, O. M., Goericke, S. L., Ilg, W. et al. (2014). An intact action-perception coupling depends on the integrity of the cerebellum. Journal of Neuroscience, 34(19), 6707-16. [More] 
Ilg, W., Christensen, A., Mueller, O. M., Goericke, S. L., Giese, M. A. & Timmann, D. (2013). Effects of cerebellar lesions on working memory interacting with motor tasks of different complexities. Journal of Neurophysiology, 110(10). [More] 
Christensen, A., Borchers, S. & Himmelbach, M. (2013). Effects of Pictorial Cues on Reaching Depend on the Distinctiveness of Target Objects. PLoS ONE, 8(1), e54230. [More] 
Fleischer, F., Christensen, A., Caggiano, V., Thier, P. & Giese, M. A. (2012). Neural theory for the perception of causal actions. Psychological Research, 76(4), 476-493. [More] 
Christensen, A., Ilg, W. & Giese, M. A (2011). Biological motion detection does not involve an automatic perspective taking Journal of Vision, 11(11), 743. [More] 
Borchers, S., Christensen, A., Ziegler, L. & Himmelbach, M (2011). Der Einfluss erlernter Objektgroessen auf die visuelle Kontrolle von Greifbewegungen bei monokularer und binokularer Praesentation In: Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen, Halle, Germany. [More] 
Endres, D., Christensen, A., Omlor, L. & Giese, M. A. (2011). Segmentation of Action Streams: Human Observers vs. Bayesian Binning. KI 2011: Advances in Artificial Intelligence, LNAI 7006, Springer, BEST APPLIED PAPER AWARD, 75, 8. [More] 
Endres, D., Christensen, A., Omlor, L. & Giese, M. A. (2011). Emulating Human Observers with Bayesian Binning: Segmentation of Action Streams. ACM Transactions on Applied Perception (TAP), 8(3), 16:1-12. [More] 
Christensen, A., Ilg, W. & Giese, M. A (2011). Interaktion von Wahrnehmung und Handlung basiert auf Aehnlichkeit in einem visuellen und nicht in einem koerperzentrierten Referenzrahmen In: Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen, Halle, Germany. [More] 
Christensen, A., Ilg, W. & Giese, M. A. (2011). Spatiotemporal Tuning of the Facilitation of Biological Motion Perception by Concurrent Motor Execution. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(9), 3493-3499. [More] 
Borchers, S., Christensen, A., Ziegler, L. & Himmelbach, M. (2011). Visual action control does not rely on strangers-Effects of pictorial cues under monocular and binocular vision. Neuropsychologia, 49(3), 556-563. [More] 
Ilg, W., Christensen, A., Mueller, O. M., Goericke, S. L., Giese, M. A. & Timmann, D (2011). The influence of focal cerebellar lesions on a working memory task with and without walking Society for Neuroscience Meeting, Washington DC, USA. [More] 
Christensen, A., Giese, M. A., Mueller, O. M., Goericke, S. L., Timmann, D. & Ilg, W (2011). Cerebellar involvement in the facilitation of action perception by concurrent motor activity Society for Neuroscience Meeting, Washington DC, USA. [More] 
Christensen, A., Ilg, W., Karnath, H. O. & Giese, M. A (2010). Facilitation of biological-motion detection by motor execution does not depend on attributed body side Perception 39 ECVP Abstract Supplement, page 18. [More] 
Christensen, A., Ilg, W., Karnath, H. O. & Giese, M. A (2010). Influence of (a)synchronous egomotion on action perception In: Neural Encoding of Perception and Action, Tuebingen, Germany. [More] 
Christensen, A., Ilg, W., Karnath, H. O. & Giese, M. A (2010). Einfluss (a)synchroner Eigenbewegung auf die Handlungswahrnehmung In: Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen, Saarbruecken, Germany. [More] 
Roether, C. L., Omlor, L., Christensen, A. & Giese, M. A. (2009). Critical features for the perception of emotion from gait. Journal of Vision, 9(6), 1-32. [More] 
Christensen, A., Ilg, W., Karnath, H. O. & Giese, M. A (2009). Temporal Synchrony as Critical Factor for Faciliation and Interference of Action Recognition In: GNS Congress, Goettingen, Germany. [More] 
Christensen, A., Ilg, W., Karnath, H. O. & Giese, M. A (2009). Influence of spatial and temporal congruency between executed and observed movements of the recognition of biological motion Journal of Vision, 9(8), 614. [More] 
Christensen, A., Ilg, W., Karnath, H. O. & Giese, M. A (2009). Specific influences of self-motion on the detection of biological motion Perception 38 ECVP Abstract Supplement, page: 85.. [More] 
Ilg, W., Christensen, A., Karnath, H. O. & Giese, M. A (2008). Facilitation of action recognition by self-generated movements depends critically on timing Neuroscience Meeting, Washington DC. [More] 
Christensen, A., Ilg, W., Karnath, H. O. & Giese, M. A (2008). Faciliation of action recognition by motor programs is critically dependent on timing Perception 37 ECVP Abstract Supplement. page: 25 (TRAVEL AWARD). [More]