Experience-based priming of body parts: A study of action imitation

被引：92

作者：

Gillmeister, Helge ^{[1
]}

Catmur, Caroline ^{[1
]}

Liepelt, Roman ^{[2
]}

Brass, Marcel ^{[3
]}

Heyes, Cecilia ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] UCL, Dept Psychol, London WC1H 0AP, England

[2] Max Planck Inst Human Cognit & Brain Sci, Leipzig, Germany

[3] Univ Ghent, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium

来源：

BRAIN RESEARCH | 2008年 / 1217卷

基金：

英国经济与社会研究理事会;

关键词：

imitation; body part coding; visuomotor priming; mirror neuron system;

D O I：

10.1016/j.brainres.2007.12.076

中图分类号：

Q189 [神经科学];

学科分类号：

071006 ;

摘要：

Two important dimensions of action are the movement and the body part with which the movement is effected. Experiment I tested whether automatic imitation is sensitive to the body part dimension of action. We found that hand and foot movements were selectively primed by observation of a corresponding, task-irrelevant effector in motion. Experiment 2 used this body part priming effect to investigate the role of sensorimotor learning in the development of imitation. The results showed that incompatible training, in which observation of hand movements was paired with execution of foot movements and vice versa, led to a greater reduction in body part priming than compatible training, in which subjects experienced typical contingencies between observation and execution of hand and foot movements. These findings are consistent with the assumption that overt behavioral imitation is mediated by the mirror neuron system, which is somatotopically organized. our results also support the hypothesis that the development of imitation and the mirror neuron system are driven by correlated sensorimotor learning. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

引用

页码：157 / 170

页数：14

共 72 条

[1] Imitative learning in male Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) using the two-action method [J].