Early and late motor responses to action observation
Open accessAbstract
Is a short visuomotor associative training sufficient to reverse the visuomotor tuning of mirror neurons in adult humans? We tested the effects of associative training on corticospinal modulation during action observation in the 100-320 ms interval after action onset. In two separate experiments, the acceleration of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-induced movements was recorded before and after training participants to respond to observed acts with an opposite or similar behavior. Before training, TMS-induced accelerations mirrored the observed action at 250 and 320 ms. After training, responses at 250 ms were unchanged and still mirrored the stimuli, without any effect of training direction. Only at 320 ms, we observed training-dependent changes in evoked responses. A control experiment with non-biological rotational movements as visual stimuli indicated that spatial stimulus-response compatibility is not sufficient to account for the results of the two main experiments. We show that the effects of a short visuomotor associative training are not pervasive on the automatic mirror responses. 'Early' (250 ms) responses were not influenced by training. Conversely only 'late' (320 ms) responses changed according to the training direction. This biphasic time course indicates that two distinct mechanisms produce the automatic mirror responses and the newly learned visuomotor associations.
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A pilot study confirmed that the stimuli and timing evoked motor resonance.
“Although short periods of action observation have only rarely been used in the motor resonance literature (Barchiesi and Cattaneo, 2013), a pilot study confirmed that the stimuli and timing did in fact evoke motor resonance.”
From To imitate or not: Avoiding imitation involves preparatory inhibition of motor resonance (2014) · cites this paper as Barchiesi and Cattaneo, 2013
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“The motor system of primates responds to the sight of others’ movements with stimulus-specific motor programs that replicate congruently the observed behavior (Cattaneo and Rizzolatti, 2009).”
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Mirror neurons: from origin to function
Cook, R., Bird, G., Catmur, C., Press, C., & Heyes, C. (2014) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x13000903 · Cited by 632 · see citing works
To imitate or not: Avoiding imitation involves preparatory inhibition of motor resonance
Cross, K. A., & Iacoboni, M. (2014) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.01.027 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
“motor resonance literature (Barchiesi and Cattaneo, 2013), a pilot study confirmed that the stimuli and timing did in fact evoke motor resonance.”
- Authors
- Barchiesi, G., & Cattaneo, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Trento (IT)
- Venue
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2012-05-25
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 711-719
- ISSN
- 1749-5016 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-5024
- PMC
- PMC3739914
- OpenAlex
- W2137557074
- Cited by
- 84
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 15.92
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca (Universita Degli Studi Di Milano) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Iris (University of Trento) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Fondazione Cassa Di Risparmio Di Trento E Rovereto
- Provincia Autonoma di Trento
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Keywords
- action observation, mirror neurons, motor response, stimulus-response compatibility
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Association Learning, Brain Mapping, Electromyography, Female, Humans, Imitative Behavior, Male, Middle Aged, Motor Cortex, Movement, Reaction Time, Time Factors, Wrist, Evoked Potentials, Motor, Observation, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Young Adult
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