title: Social requests and social affordances: how they affect the kinematics of motor sequences during interactions between conspecifics.
abstract: The present study aimed at determining whether and what factors affect the control of motor sequences related to interactions between conspecifics. Experiment 1 demonstrated that during interactions between conspecifics guided by the social intention of feeding, a social affordance was activated, which modified the kinematics of sequences constituted by reaching-grasping and placing. This was relative to the same sequence directed to an inanimate target. Experiments 2 and 4 suggested that the related-to-feeding social request emitted by the receiver (i.e. the request gesture of mouth opening) is prerequisite in order to activate a social affordance. Specifically, the two experiments showed that the social request to be fed activated a social affordance even when the sequences directed towards a conspecific were not finalized to feed. Experiment 3 showed that moving inside the peripersonal space of a conspecific, who did not produce any social request, marginally affected the sequence. Finally, experiments 5 and 6 indicated that the gaze of a conspecific is necessary to make a social request effective at activating a social affordance. Summing up, the results of the present study suggest that the control of motor sequences can be changed by the interaction between giver and receiver: the interaction is characterized by a social affordance that the giver activates on the basis of social requests produced by the receiver. The gaze of the receiver is a prerequisite to make a social request effective.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ferri
authors.forename: Giovanna Cristina
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Campione
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dalla Volta
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gianelli
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gentilucci
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012919:Social Behavior