Predictive action tracking without motor experience in 8-month-old infants
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Predictive action tracking without motor experience in 8-month-old infants. / de Klerk, C. C J M; Southgate, V.; Csibra, G.
In: Brain and Cognition, Vol. 109, 2016, p. 131-139.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Predictive action tracking without motor experience in 8-month-old infants
AU - de Klerk, C. C J M
AU - Southgate, V.
AU - Csibra, G.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - A popular idea in cognitive neuroscience is that to predict others’ actions, observers need to map those actions onto their own motor repertoire. If this is true, infants with a relatively limited motor repertoire should be unable to predict actions with which they have no previous motor experience. We investigated this idea by presenting pre-walking infants with videos of upright and inverted stepping actions that were briefly occluded from view, followed by either a correct (time-coherent) or an incorrect (time-incoherent) continuation of the action (Experiment 1). Pre-walking infants looked significantly longer to the still frame after the incorrect compared to the correct continuations of the upright, but not the inverted stepping actions. This demonstrates that motor experience is not necessary for predictive tracking of action kinematics. In a follow-up study (Experiment 2), we investigated sensorimotor cortex activation as a neural indication of predictive action tracking in another group of pre-walking infants. Infants showed significantly more sensorimotor cortex activation during the occlusion of the upright stepping actions that the infants in Experiment 1 could predictively track, than during the occlusion of the inverted stepping actions that the infants in Experiment 1 could not predictively track. Taken together, these findings are inconsistent with the idea that motor experience is necessary for the predictive tracking of action kinematics, and suggest that infants may be able to use their extensive experience with observing others’ actions to generate real-time action predictions.
AB - A popular idea in cognitive neuroscience is that to predict others’ actions, observers need to map those actions onto their own motor repertoire. If this is true, infants with a relatively limited motor repertoire should be unable to predict actions with which they have no previous motor experience. We investigated this idea by presenting pre-walking infants with videos of upright and inverted stepping actions that were briefly occluded from view, followed by either a correct (time-coherent) or an incorrect (time-incoherent) continuation of the action (Experiment 1). Pre-walking infants looked significantly longer to the still frame after the incorrect compared to the correct continuations of the upright, but not the inverted stepping actions. This demonstrates that motor experience is not necessary for predictive tracking of action kinematics. In a follow-up study (Experiment 2), we investigated sensorimotor cortex activation as a neural indication of predictive action tracking in another group of pre-walking infants. Infants showed significantly more sensorimotor cortex activation during the occlusion of the upright stepping actions that the infants in Experiment 1 could predictively track, than during the occlusion of the inverted stepping actions that the infants in Experiment 1 could not predictively track. Taken together, these findings are inconsistent with the idea that motor experience is necessary for the predictive tracking of action kinematics, and suggest that infants may be able to use their extensive experience with observing others’ actions to generate real-time action predictions.
KW - Action prediction
KW - EEG
KW - Infant development
KW - Motor experience
KW - Predictive action tracking
KW - Sensorimotor alpha
U2 - 10.1016/j.bandc.2016.09.010
DO - 10.1016/j.bandc.2016.09.010
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 27693999
AN - SCOPUS:84989209074
VL - 109
SP - 131
EP - 139
JO - Brain and Cognition
JF - Brain and Cognition
SN - 0278-2626
ER -
ID: 179282564