Action co-representation is tuned to other humans.
The present study attempts to explore the process by which knowledge of another's intentional behavior in a joint-action scenario is represented through the action observation and execution network-also known as the common coding system. Participants (n = 18) were instructed to perform the complementary social Simon task under the implemented belief of interaction with either an unseen human (biological agent) or a computer program, where in fact, all response sequences from either "partner" were generated by computer. Results provide behavioral and neurophysiological evidence (P3 and S-LRP) that the believed intentionality of another person's actions is sufficient to facilitate a strong-enough agency-dependent social Simon effect to modulate action planning and anticipation. We suggest that the co-representation of human action may be an evolved biologically tuned default of the human motor system.
Tsai
Chia-Chin
CC
The Institute of Neuroscience, National Yang Ming University, 155 Linong Street Sec. 2, Peitou, Taipei, Taiwan.
Kuo
Wen-Jui
WJ
Hung
Daisy L
DL
Tzeng
Ovid J L
OJ
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D018913:Event-Related Potentials, P300 / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult