title: The magic grasp: motor expertise in deception.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Most of us are poor at faking actions. Kinematic studies have shown that when pretending to pick up imagined objects (pantomimed actions), we move and shape our hands quite differently from when grasping real ones. These differences between real and pantomimed actions have been linked to separate brain pathways specialized for different kinds of visuomotor guidance. Yet professional magicians regularly use pantomimed actions to deceive audiences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, we tested whether, despite their skill, magicians might still show kinematic differences between grasping actions made toward real versus imagined objects. We found that their pantomimed actions in fact closely resembled real grasps when the object was visible (but displaced) (Experiment 1), but failed to do so when the object was absent (Experiment 2).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We suggest that although the occipito-parietal visuomotor system in the dorsal stream is designed to guide goal-directed actions, prolonged practice may enable it to calibrate actions based on visual inputs displaced from the action.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom. cristiana.cavina-pratesi@durham.ac.uk
authors.forename: Cristiana
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cavina-Pratesi
authors.forename: Gustav
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kuhn
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ietswaart
authors.forename: A David
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Milner
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D008192:Deception; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers / Q000502:physiology; D018737:Hand Strength / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008273:Magic / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D013997:Time Factors