Spatial attention to key body sites is sufficient for goal-irrelevant motor priming in reach-to-grasp action when eye movement is constrained
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1
The University of Queensland, School of Psychology, Australia
The actions of others influence our own movements, even when their actions are not relevant to our goals (Hardwick & Edwards, 2011). Previously we reported this 'motor priming' effect was abolished when observed movement occurs outside the foveated and attended space (Sparks & Kritikos, 2013). In a two-task experiment, we sought to disambiguate foveation and spatial attention. In both tasks, female participants viewed films and then, on cue presentation, reached directly for a target. In Task 1, the film showed either a female model reaching for a target (the goal) or a white dot moving toward a target with the same trajectory as the model's wrist. The trajectory of the model's wrist (or the dot) was either direct or exaggeratedly high-lifting. Participants were instructed to follow the model's wrist (or dot) with their eyes. Go/no-go signals appeared at the final wrist/dot position. In both human and dot movement conditions, participants' wrist trajectories lifted higher above the hypothetical direct path following observation of exaggerated versus direct trajectories. Only human movement observation, however, modulated wrist position at grip. In Task 2, we displayed only human movement while participants fixated a stationary point equidistant between the model's exaggerated and direct reach paths. In peripheral vision, participants detected go/no-go signals that could appear on the model's wrist at early, mid, late, and final reach stages. The motor priming effect for wrist trajectory emerged as described for Task 1. Together, these findings are relevant to the common conceptualisation of motor priming as 'automatic imitation.' Here, priming of goal-irrelevant kinematics was automatic insofar as it occurred involuntarily and without foveation of key body sites. Additionally, human-like motion, as in the white-dot condition, may be sufficient to elicit motor priming even in goal-irrelevant kinematics.
Keywords:
Attention,
Automatic Imitation,
Motor Priming,
kinematics,
reach to grasp
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Motor Behaviour
Citation:
Sparks
S,
Lyons
M and
Kritikos
A
(2015). Spatial attention to key body sites is sufficient for goal-irrelevant motor priming in reach-to-grasp action when eye movement is constrained.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00385
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Samuel Sparks, The University of Queensland, School of Psychology, Brisbane, Australia, samuel.sparks@uq.net.au