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The sociomotor framework proposes that people can represent their actions in terms of the behavior these actions evoke in others, so that anticipating the behavior of others triggers own actions. In social interactions, such as imitation, it thus highlights the acting model rather than the responding person. In line with this idea, motor actions are facilitated if they are foreseeably imitated rather than counterimitated by a social partner. In the present study, we investigate how exactly another's behavior is represented in such sociomotor actions. The effect of being imitated can be explained by two distinct forms of compatibility between model and imitator actions: correspondence of anatomical features (imitative compatibility) and correspondence of spatial features (spatial compatibility). Both types of features often go hand in hand, though research on motor priming shows that spatial and anatomical features of other's actions are represented independently. We therefore investigated to which degree the benefit of anticipated imitation is caused by spatial or imitative compatibility. Across 5 experiments, we found that only spatial compatibility of the imitator's behavior influenced the model's actions, while imitative compatibility had no influence. Actors thus seem to represent actions of their social partners mainly in terms of nonsocial, spatial features. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Human actions often aim at triggering certain responses from social interaction partners, but these responses do not always come as expected. Here we show that unexpected partner errors trigger sustained monitoring and that this monitoring exceeds the level that is observed if participants are faced with a machine malfunction rather than an error of an interaction partner (Experiment 1). Critically, this pattern of results emerged even though both types of errors were signaled by physically identical events in an oddball task, ruling out alternative explanations in terms of differential bottom-up factors. Unexpected delays in the action-effect sequence, however, did not trigger increased monitoring for social as compared to nonsocial situations (Experiment 2). These results indicate that mechanisms of performance monitoring might be recruited especially when facing the variability that is inherent in social interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Research has shown that the observation of another's movement activates the corresponding motor representation in the observer. However, it is largely unknown how activation of these shared representations is influenced by the number of observed agents. In recent work, we have studied automatic imitation while participants saw 2 hands of which either one hand or both hands made a movement. These studies found that 2 hands produced a stronger imitative response than a single hand when the hands made an identical movement but not when they made different movements. It was argued that identical movements were mapped onto the same motor representation and therefore produced a stronger motor response. Nevertheless, an alternative explanation is that participants randomly represented 1 hand on each trial. The goal of the current study was to disentangle these 2 hypotheses. In Experiments 1 and 2, we replicate our results using a stimulus setup that made random sampling unlikely. In Experiment 3, we show that an additive effect was still present when attention was directed to 1 hand that always made a movement. Finally, in Experiment 4, we show that intentional imitation of 1 hand did not preclude automatic imitation of a second hand. Together, these findings support the hypothesis that the actions of multiple persons can be represented together in the motor system. (PsycINFO Database Record

Human behavior can be classified into 2 basic categories: execution of responses and withholding responses. This classification is used in go/no-go training, where people respond to some objects and withhold their responses to other objects. Despite its simplicity, there is now substantial evidence that such training is powerful in changing human behavior toward such objects. However, it is poorly understood how simple responses can influence behavior. Contrary to the remarkably tenacious idea that go/no-go training changes behavior by strengthening inhibitory control, we propose that the training changes behavior via changes in explicit liking of objects. In two preregistered experiments, we show that go/no-go training influences explicit liking for smartphone apps (Experiments 1 and 2) and that this liking partially mediates the effect of the training on consequential choices for using these apps 1 day later (Experiment 2). The results highlight the role of evaluations when examining how motor response training influences behavior. This knowledge can inform development of more effective applied motor response training procedures and raises new theoretical questions on the relation between motor responses and affect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Sustaining neuronal proteostasis during the course of our life is a central aspect required for brain function. The dynamic nature of synaptic composition and abundance is a requisite to drive cognitive and motor processes involving a tight control of many aspects of protein biosynthesis and degradation. Through the concerted action of specialized stress sensors, the proteostasis network monitors and limits the accumulation of damaged, misfolded, or aggregated proteins. These stress pathways signal to the cytosol and nucleus to reprogram gene expression, enabling adaptive programs to recover cell function. During aging, the activity of the proteostasis network declines, which may increase the risk of accumulating abnormal protein aggregates, a hallmark of most neurodegenerative diseases. Here, I discuss emerging concepts illustrating the functional significance of adaptive signaling pathways to normal brain physiology and their contribution to age-related disorders. Pharmacological and gene therapy strategies to intervene and boost proteostasis are expected to extend brain healthspan and ameliorate disease states.

There is an ongoing debate about whether, and to what extent, males differ from females in their language skills. In the case of handwriting, a composite language skill involving language and motor processes, behavioral observations consistently show robust sex differences but the mechanisms underlying the effect are unclear. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a copying task, the present study examined the neural basis of sex differences in handwriting in 53 healthy adults (ages 19–28, 27 males). Compared to females, males showed increased activation in the left posterior middle frontal gyrus (Exner's area), a region thought to support the conversion between orthographic and graphomotor codes. Functional connectivity between Exner's area and the right cerebellum was greater in males than in females. Furthermore, sex differences in brain activity related to handwriting were independent of language material. This study identifies a novel neural signature of sex differences in a hallmark of human behavior, and highlights the importance of considering sex as a factor in scientific research and clinical applications involving handwriting.

The aim of this study is to explore how children bring together motor processes, language and perception when embodying emotional states (Condition 1) versus factual events (Condition 2) th...

In previous research, the parameters of the ex-Gaussian distribution have been subject to a wide variety of interpretations. The present study investigated whether the ex-Gaussian model is capable of distinguishing effects on separate processing stages (i.e., pre-motor vs. motor). In order to do so, we used datasets where the locus of effect was quite clear. Specifically, we analyzed data from experiments comparing hand vs. foot responses-presumably differing in the motor stage-and from experiments in which the lateralized readiness potential was used to localize experimental effects into premotor vs. motor processes. Moreover, we broadened the scope to two other descriptive RT models: the ex-Wald and EZ diffusion models. To the extent possible with each of these models, we reanalyzed the RT data of 19 clearly localized experimental effects from 12 separate experiments reported in seven previously published articles. Unfortunately, we did not find a clear pattern of results for any of the models, with no clear link between effects on one of the model's parameters and effects on different processing stages. The present results suggest that one should resist the temptation to associate specific processing stages with individual parameters of the ex-Gaussian, ex-Wald, and EZ diffusion models.

Evaluations of stimuli can be changed by simple motor responses such that stimuli to which responses are consistently withheld tend to be evaluated less positively than other stimuli. The exact mechanism that underlies this no-go devaluation effect is still unknown. Here we examine whether attention to the stimuli during training contributes to the devaluation effect. Participants received a go/no-go training in which 2 go items or 2 no-go items were simultaneously presented, and attention to 1 of the items was cued before participants executed or withheld a simple motor response (press a key on a keyboard). Next, explicit evaluations of these stimuli and untrained stimuli were assessed. Across 2 experiments we observed a predicted no-go devaluation effect, that is, a decrease in evaluations for items that have not been responded to. Furthermore, as predicted, selectively cueing attention toward stimuli during go/no-go training amplified differences in subsequent evaluations between go and no-go stimuli. Confirmatory analyses showed that the devaluation effect for cued no-go stimuli was not statistically significantly stronger than that for uncued no-go stimuli within each experiment. However, combining the data of both experiments showed moderate evidence (p = .023, BF+0 = 5.88) for stronger devaluation of cued no-go stimuli compared with uncued no-go stimuli. We conclude that attention to stimuli during go/no-go training contributes to revaluation processes of stimuli via motor actions, and that this knowledge is relevant for a better understanding of the underlying mechanism of the training and to optimize go/no-go training for practical use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Research points toward the role of children’s fine motor skills (FMS) in reading development but needs to better control for confounding variables and establish explanatory pathways. Three explanations for links between FMS and reading are developed that focus on shared development, functionalism, and shared internalized motor processes. Using a longitudinal cross-lagged design with 120 kindergarteners followed into grade 1, we administered measures of reading, FMS, IQ, executive functions (attention, rapid naming), phonemic awareness, nonword repetition, grapho-motor skills, handwriting, as well as receptive and expressive vocabulary. Structural equation modelling indicated a unique diagonal pathway from kindergarten FMS to grade 1 reading, over and above the control variables. Grapho-motor and handwriting skills did not mediate the link between FMS and reading, as predicted by functionalism. Overall, findings suggest that early FMS are subtly but importantly linked to reading in elementary school.

Manipulable objects have the potential to evoke mental representations of hand actions. Behavioural evidence favouring the view that this process happens automatically while passively viewing objects is critically examined. A case is made for the alternative proposal that objects may evoke action representations when observers concurrently operate with an intention to engage in a reach-and-grasp action. In addition, the nature of hand action representations was examined by considering two components of actions, hand selection and wrist orientation, and it is shown that the relationship between these dimensions is modulated by task context. When an action representation is evoked by a task-irrelevant object, these two dimensions are to a large extent independent of one another, but when an observer prepares an action for immediate production, these two action features are hierarchically integrated, with hand selection dominating the hierarchy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Abstract. In information-based approaches, affordances are perceived by detecting information that specifies an animal–environment fit, not by combining perceptions of constituent lower-order properties. Given that detection of such information necessarily occurs over space and time, there is no clear distinction between perception and memory. Rather, perceiving and remembering are continuous processes. Whereas previous research has investigated the continuity of perceived and remembered affordances for the self, we did so with respect to perceived and remembered affordances for others. Participants reported remembered maximum reaching height and remembered anthropometric properties of another person. Remembered maximum reaching height was not reducible to a combination of remembered anthropometric properties. Moreover, remembered maximum reaching height scaled to the reaching ability of the other person and not to that of the perceiver. Both results are consistent with an information-based perspective on perceiving and remembering affordances and demonstrate a continuity between perceiving and remembering affordances for others.

Constraining the degrees of freedom simplifies the coordinative challenge of bimanual asymmetric movements. This, however, comes at the cost of increased processing demands during movement preparation, referred to as the bimanual asymmetric cost. The goal of the present study was to further investigate information processing of the bimanual asymmetric cost with the response priming technique. This technique involved precuing a movement to encourage it to be preprogrammed. A different movement is occasionally cued by the go signal, which required the preprogrammed movement to be reprogrammed. In Experiment 1, 2 preprogrammed unimanual movements were reprogrammed, or integrated, into a bimanual movement. In Experiment 2, a preprogrammed bimanual movement was reprogrammed, or de-integrated, into a unimanual movement. Both experiments revealed 2 costs when integrating or de-integrating bimanual movements. One cost was likely related to aborting 1 movement and preparing another, which is the typical reprogramming cost found in response priming experiments. The second cost was likely related to constraining the degrees of freedom of bimanual asymmetric movements, which is a bimanual asymmetric cost. Integrating 2 unimanual movements into a bimanual asymmetric movement involves constraining the degrees of freedom, and de-integrating a bimanual asymmetric movement into a unimanual movement involves unconstraining the degrees of freedom. Both reprogramming and bimanual asymmetric costs occurred in 1 of the experimental conditions, and the interesting finding was that their effects were additive. Additive costs suggest that each cost affects a different stage of movement preparation. We suggest that the bimanual asymmetric cost occurs during response selection. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Several arguments suggest that mental rotation (MR) and motor planning may share embodied neural mechanisms, but the overlap between cognitive processes recruited during MR of objects and body parts is not well established. We here used high-density EEG to examine the cognitive similarity between MR of non-manipulable objects (chairs) and bodily stimuli (hands). We selected chairs because they may appear in a recognizable left-right orientation and are not automatically associated with a manual action. Participants had identical response options for both types of stimuli, and they gave responses orally in order to prevent possible interference with motor imagery. MR of hands and chairs generated very similar behavioral responses, time-courses and neural sources of evoked-response potentials (ERPs). ERP segmentation analysis revealed distinct time windows during which differential effects of stimulus type and angular disparity were observed. An early period (90-160 ms) differentiated only between stimulus types, and was associated with occipito-temporal activity. A later period (290-330 ms) revealed strong effects of angular disparity, associated with electrical sources in the right angular gyrus and primary motor/somatosensory cortex. These data suggest that spatial transformation processes and motor planning are recruited simultaneously, supporting the involvement of motor emulation processes in MR.

The human body contains approximately 20 billion blood vessels, which transport nutrients, oxygen, immune cells, and signals throughout the body. The brain's vasculature includes up to 9 billion of these vessels to support cognition, motor processes, and myriad other vital functions. To model blood flowing through a vasculature, a geometric description of the vessels is required. Previously reported attempts to model vascular geometries have produced highly-detailed models. These models, however, are limited to a small fraction of the human brain, and little was known about the feasibility of computationally modeling whole-organ-sized networks. We implemented a fractal-based algorithm to construct a vasculature the size of the human brain and evaluated the algorithm's speed and memory requirements. Using high-performance computing systems, the algorithm constructed a vasculature comprising 17 billion vessels in 1960 core-hours, or 49 minutes of wall-clock time, and required less than 32 GB of memory per node. We demonstrated strong scalability that was limited mainly by input/output operations. The results of this study demonstrated, for the first time, that it is feasible to computationally model the vasculature of the whole human brain. These findings provide key insights into the computational aspects of modeling whole-organ vasculature.

In active agents, sensory and motor processes form an inevitable bond. This wedding is particularly striking for saccadic eye movements – the prime target of Shadmehr and Ahmed's thesis – which impose frequent changes on the retinal image. Changes in movement vigor (latency and speed), therefore, will need to be accompanied by changes in visual and attentional processes. We argue that the mechanisms that control movement vigor may also enable vision to attune to changes in movement kinematics.

SummaryCorticostriatal connectivity is central for many cognitive and motor processes, such as reinforcement or action initiation and invigoration. The cortical input to the striatum arises from two main cortical populations: intratelencephalic (IT) and pyramidal tract (PT) neurons. We uncovered a new feedforward excitatory circuit, supported by a polysynaptic motif from PT neurons to cholinergic interneurons (ChIs) to excitatory inputs, which runs in parallel to the canonical monosynaptic corticostriatal connection. This new motif conveys a delayed second phase of excitation to striatal spiny projection neurons (SPNs), through an acetylcholine-dependent glutamate release mechanism, resulting in biphasic corticostriatal signals. These biphasic signals are a hallmark of PT, but not IT, corticostriatal inputs, due to a stronger relative input from PT neurons to ChIs. These results uncover a novel feed-forward circuit mechanism by which PT activity differentially gates excitatory inputs to the striatum, with potential implications for behavior, plasticity and learning.HighlightsPT, but not IT, corticostriatal inputs convey biphasic excitation to SPNs via a disynaptic circuit involving striatal ChIs.PT neurons recruit ChIs more efficiently than IT neurons due to a stronger relative input to ChIs.The second phase of SPN excitation is mediated by nicotinic receptors at long-range glutamatergic axons in the striatum.Suprathreshold depolarizations of SPNs by PT inputs depend on ChI→SPN excitation and result in delayed spiking.

Excellent athletic performance in baseball and softball batting is achieved through the momentary cognitive-motor processes. However, in previous studies, cognitive and motor processes are investigated separately. In this study, we focused on the difference in the time of swing onset (a delta onset) during a batting task where 17 elite female softball batters hit balls randomly thrown at two different speeds by pitchers. The delta onset included both cognitive and motor processes because the batters needed to anticipate the ball speed and discriminate their swing motion according to the time-to-contact. Then, we investigated the relationship between the delta onset and the batting outcomes of the batting task, and the relationship between the experimental outcomes and actual batting performance (batting average) over a season. We used path analysis to clarify the structure of the cognitive-motor processes and consequent performance. We found that the batters who had a larger delta onset attained superior batting outcomes (i.e., higher exit velocity and lower miss ratio) in the batting task, and these experimental outcomes explained 67% of the batting average in real games. On the other hand, the cognitive scores (judgement accuracy and rapidity) obtained from a button pressing task, where batters responded to a ball by pressing a button instead of actually swinging, explained only 34% of the batting average. Therefore, our model quantitatively describes the key cognitive-motor structure for athletes and can partially predict a batter's performance in real games. These findings suggest that it is important to employ both cognitive and motor processes in performing tasks, such as this batting task, to properly evaluate a batter's actual ability.

Biologically active substances are an inherent element of human and plant coexistence. Preparations made of Cannabis have been recognized for centuries by science, among others for their therapeutic properties. However, they have also become a narcotic prohibited by law. Legal restrictions on the marketing of Cannabis plant raw material are the main factors inhibiting efforts of expanding knowledge about the rich spectrum of substances formed by the plant. In the last decades, the boundary of discrepancy between perceptions of science and law has become blurred due to numerous evidence showing the benefits of constituents occurring in the plant for applications in medicine. Cannabis sp. and its products consist of a large variety of chemicals. A significant part of identified cannabinoids, terpenes, terpenoids or flavonoids, the most abundant classes, are proven to have medicinal properties. The above-mentioned secondary metabolites of Cannabis sp. appear to be promising pharmaceuticals. They have an impact on many physiological processes occurring in humans, mainly due to acting on the endocannabinoid system, having farfetched importance to human physiology, starting from embryo implantation and fetal development through the functioning of the immune system, regulating cognitive and motor processes, modulating the course of the inflammatory reaction and ending on autophagy and apoptosis.

Selective attention refers to the ability to selectively act upon relevant information at the expense of irrelevant information. Yet, in many experimental tasks, what happens to the representation of the irrelevant information is still debated. Typically, 2 approaches to distractor processing have been suggested, namely distractor inhibition and distractor-based retrieval. However, it is also typical that both processes are hard to disentangle. For instance, in the negative priming literature (for a review Frings, Schneider, & Fox, 2015) this has been a continuous debate since the early 1980s. In the present study, we attempted to prove that both processes exist, but that they reflect distractor processing at different levels of representation. Distractor inhibition impacts stimulus representation, whereas distractor-based retrieval impacts mainly motor processes. We investigated both processes in a distractor-priming task, which enables an independent measurement of both processes. For our argument that both processes impact different levels of distractor representation, we estimated the exponential parameter (τ) and Gaussian components (μ, σ) of the exponential Gaussian reaction-time (RT) distribution, which have previously been used to independently test the effects of cognitive and motor processes (e.g., Moutsopoulou & Waszak, 2012). The distractor-based retrieval effect was evident for the Gaussian component, which is typically discussed as reflecting motor processes, but not for the exponential parameter, whereas the inhibition component was evident for the exponential parameter, which is typically discussed as reflecting cognitive processes, but not for the Gaussian parameter. (PsycINFO Database Record

The athlete's brain exhibits significant functional adaptations that facilitate visuomotor reaction performance. However, it is currently unclear if the same neurophysiological processes that differentiate athletes from non-athletes also determine performance within a homogeneous group of athletes. This information can provide valuable help for athletes and coaches aiming to optimize existing training regimes. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the neurophysiological correlates of visuomotor reaction performance in a group of skilled athletes. In 36 skilled badminton athletes, electroencephalography (EEG) was used to investigate pattern reversal and motion onset visual-evoked potentials (VEPs) as well as visuomotor reaction time (VMRT) during a simple reaction task. Stimulus-locked and response-locked event-related potentials (ERPs) in visual and motor regions as well as the onset of muscle activation (EMG onset) were determined. Correlation and multiple regression analyses identified the neurophysiological parameters predicting EMG onset and VMRT. For pattern reversal stimuli, the P100 latency and age best predicted EMG onset (r = 0.43; p = .003) and VMRT (r = 0.62; p = .001). In the motion onset experiment, EMG onset (r = 0.80; p

The protective function of pain depends on appropriate motor responses to avoid injury and promote recovery. The preparation and execution of motor responses is thus an essential part of pain. However, it is not yet fully understood how pain and motor processes interact in the brain. Here we used electroencephalography to investigate the effects of pain on motor preparation in the human brain. Twenty healthy human participants performed a motor task in which they performed button presses to stop increasingly painful thermal stimuli when they became intolerable. In another condition, participants performed button presses without concurrent stimulation. The results show that the amplitudes of preparatory event-related desynchronizations at alpha and beta frequencies did not differ between conditions. In contrast, the amplitude of the preparatory readiness potential was reduced when a button press was performed to stop a painful stimulus compared with a button press without concomitant pain. A control experiment with nonpainful thermal stimuli showed a similar reduction of the readiness potential when a button press was performed to stop a nonpainful thermal stimulus. Together, these findings indicate that painful and nonpainful thermal stimuli can similarly influence motor preparation in the human brain. Pain-specific effects on motor preparation in the human brain remain to be demonstrated. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Pain is inherently linked to motor processes, but the interactions between pain and motor processes in the human brain are not yet fully understood. Using electroencephalography, we show that pain reduces movement-preparatory brain activity. Further results indicate that this effect is not pain specific but independent of the modality of stimulation.

Individuals have a tendency to be more risky in their choices after having experienced a monetary loss, than after a reward. Here, we examined whether prior outcomes influence differently the patterns of neural activity of individuals who are used to taking monetary risk, namely poker players. High-frequency poker players and non-gamblers were scanned while performing a controlled task that allowed measuring the effect of prior outcomes on subsequent decisions. Both non-gamblers and poker players took more risks after losing a gamble than after winning one. Neuroimaging data revealed that non-gamblers exhibited higher brain activation than poker players when pondering a decision after losing, as compared to after winning. The opposite was found in poker players. This differential pattern of activation was observed in brain regions involved in high-order motor processes (the dorsal premotor cortex). These results suggest that gambling habits introduce significant changes in action preparation during decision-making following wins and losses.

Abstract. Previous research involving preschool children and adults suggests that moving in synchrony with others can foster cooperation. Song provides a rich oscillatory framework that supports synchronous movement and may thus be considered a powerful agent of positive social relations. In the current study, we assessed this hypothesis in a group of primary-school aged children with diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Children participated in one of three activity conditions: group singing, group art, or competitive games. They were then asked to play a prisoner’s dilemma game as a measure of cooperation. Results showed that children who engaged in group singing were more cooperative than children who engaged in group art or competitive games.

Retaining biological motion (BM), or the movements of animate entities, in working memory (WM) is critical to human social life. Moreover, as functioning members of society, we always process BM in a specific emotional state. However, no WM study to date has explored the influence of emotional state on processing BM in WM. As a first step, the current study examined the influence of emotional state on WM capacity for BM. We first induced a specific (positive, negative, or neutral) emotional state and then asked the participants to complete a WM task measuring WM capacity for BM. In Experiment 1, we found that a negative emotional state impaired WM capacity for BM relative to neutral and positive emotional states, with no difference between the latter 2. Experiment 2, adopting μ and α suppression as electroencephalogram (EEG) indices, further confirmed that a negative emotional state reduced the number of BM stimuli retained in WM. Overall, the current study suggests that a negative emotional state has a considerably negative effect on WM capacity for BM. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

It is often claimed that merely seeing a graspable object can elicit the implicit representation of a potential grasp. But can this representation affect the explicit execution of an actual grasp, and if so, how? In an open-loop paradigm, we instructed participants to grasp small, medium, or large test disks with the appropriate grip configuration (pincer, tripod, or pentapod). Before the presentation of these tests, we presented congruent or incongruent distractors. To assess interactions between implicit (putatively elicited by the distractors) and explicit (actually executed) sensorimotor processes, we measured preview reaction times (as an index of action preparation) and grasp kinematics (as an indicator of sensorimotor representations for motor control). Results indicate that action preparation is indeed affected by the presentation of preceding distractors. However, costs in action preparation were measured only when the first, implicit process was less precise than that of the actual grasp. We suggest that an interaction occurs at the level of sensorimotor processes through a mechanism which generalizes a precision parameter. We interpret these findings in relation to processes involved in real-time motor control and within the framework of theories of motor cognition.

Research in the last decade has undermined the idea of perception as a continuous process, providing strong empirical support for its rhythmic modulation. More recently, it has been revealed that the ongoing motor processes influence the rhythmic sampling of sensory information. In this review, we will focus on a growing body of evidence suggesting that oscillation-based mechanisms may structure the dynamic interplay between the motor and sensory system and provide a unified temporal frame for their effective coordination. We will describe neurophysiological data, primarily collected in animals, showing phase-locking of neuronal oscillations to the onset of (eye) movements. These data are complemented by novel evidence in humans, which demonstrate the behavioral relevance of these oscillatory modulations and their domain-general nature. Finally, we will discuss the possible implications of these modulations for action–perception coupling mechanisms.

The neurophysiological basis of motor control is of substantial interest to basic researchers and clinicians alike. Motor processes are accompanied by prominent field potential changes in the β-frequency band (15–29 Hz): in trial-averages, movement initiation is accompanied by β-band desynchronization over sensorimotor areas, whereas movement cancellation is accompanied by β-power increases over (pre)frontal areas. However, averaging misrepresents the true nature of the β-signal. Unaveraged β-band activity is characterized by short-lasting, burst-like events, rather than by steady modulations. Therefore, averaging-based quantifications may miss important brain–behavior relationships. To investigate how β-bursts relate to movement in male and female humans (N= 234), we investigated scalp-recorded β-band activity during the stop-signal task, which operationalizes both movement initiation and cancellation. Both processes were indexed by systematic spatiotemporal changes in β-burst rates. Before movement initiation, β-bursting was prominent at bilateral sensorimotor sites. These burst-rates predicted reaction time (a relationship that was absent in trial-average data), suggesting that sensorimotor β-bursting signifies an inhibited motor system, which has to be overcome to initiate movements. Indeed, during movement initiation, sensorimotor burst-rates steadily decreased, lateralizing just before movement execution. In contrast, successful movement cancellation was signified by increased phasic β-bursting over fronto-central sites. Such β-bursts were followed by short-latency increases of bilateral sensorimotor β-burst rates, suggesting that motor inhibition can be rapidly re-instantiated by frontal areas when movements have to be rapidly cancelled. Together, these findings suggest that β-bursting is a fundamental signature of the motor system, used by both sensorimotor and frontal areas involved in the trial-by-trial control of behavior.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTMovement-related β-frequency (15–29 Hz) changes are among the most prominent features of neural recordings across species, scales, and methods. However, standard averaging-based methods obscure the true dynamics of β-band activity, which is dominated by short-lived, burst-like events. Here, we demonstrate that both movement-initiation and cancellation in humans are characterized by unique trial-to-trial patterns of β-bursting. Movement initiation is characterized by steady reductions of β-bursting over bilateral sensorimotor sites. In contrast, during rapid movement cancellation, β-bursts first emerge over fronto-central sites typically associated with motor control, after which sensorimotor β-bursting re-initiates. These findings suggest a fundamentally novel, non-invasive measure of the neural interaction underlying movement-initiation and -cancellation, opening new avenues for the study of motor control in health and disease.

Mounting evidence shows interaction between manipulative hand movements and movements of tongue, lips and mouth in a vocal and non-vocal context. The current article reviews this evidence and discusses its contribution to perspectives of development and evolution of speech. In particular, the article aims to present novel insight on how processes controlling the two primary grasp components of manipulative hand movements, the precision and power grip, might be systematically connected to motor processes involved in producing certain articulatory gestures. This view assumes that due to these motor overlaps between grasping and articulation, development of these grip types in infancy can facilitate development of specific articulatory gestures. In addition, the hand-mouth connections might have even boosted the evolution of some articulatory gestures. This account also proposes that some semantic sound-symbolic pairings between a speech sound and a referent concept might be partially based on these hand-mouth interactions.

In the present study we investigated the nature and chronometry of empathy for pain influences on perceptual and motor processes. Thus, event-related brain potentials (ERPs), response force (RF) and oscillatory electroencephalography (EEG) activity were measured while participants were presented with pictures of body parts in painful or neutral situations. Their task consisted in either judging the painfulness of the stimuli or counting the body parts displayed. ERP results supported the assumption of an early automatic component of empathy for pain, as reflected by the early posterior negativity (EPN), and of a late controlled component, as reflected by the late posterior positivity (P3). RF indicated that empathy-evoking stimuli facilitate motor responses if attention is directed toward the pain dimension, whereas EEG oscillations in the mu-and beta-band revealed, independent of the task, an enhanced activation of the sensorimotor cortex after the response to painful compared to neutral stimuli. In conclusion, present findings indicate that empathy-evoking stimuli produce automatic and controlled effects on both perceptual and motor processing.

People can come to falsely remember performing actions that they have not actually performed. Common accounts of such false action memories have invoked source confusion from the overlap of sensory features but largely ignored the role of motor processes. We addressed this lacuna with a paradigm in which participants first perform (vs. do not perform) actions and then observe another person performing some of the non-performed actions. In this paradigm, observation of videos showing another's actions can later induce false self-attributions of these actions, the observation-inflation effect. Contrary to a sensory-feature account but consistent with a motor-simulation account, we found the effect even with perceptually impoverished action videos in which the majority of sensory features is absent, but motion cues are preserved (Experiment 1). We then created conditions during action observation that should (vs. should not) impede motor simulation. As predicted we found that the effect of observation was reduced when participants executed movements that were incongruent (vs. congruent) with the observed actions (Experiment 2). We discuss the processes that can produce associations of self with observed others' actions and later affect observers' action memory.

Purpose The present study sought to determine if adults with ADHD demonstrate reduced graphomotor learning relative to controls. Method Twenty-eight control adults (n = 14) and adults with ADHD (n = 14) were recruited and wrote a novel grapheme on a digitizing tablet 30 times. Participants with ADHD were counterbalanced on and off stimulant medication. Results Control participants, F(1, 13) = 13.786, p = .003, ω2partial = .460, and participants with ADHD on medication, F(1, 13) = 10.462, p = .007, ω2partial = .387, demonstrated significant improvement in graphomotor fluency with equivalent practice whereas participants with ADHD off medication did not, F(1, 12) = 0.166, NS. Conclusions Results indicate that graphomotor program learning in adults with ADHD may occur more slowly than typically developing peers. Findings have implications for providing accommodations to adults with ADHD, potential benefits of stimulant medication, and using digitizing technology as a neuropsychological assessment instrument.

Two experiments examined the dynamic interaction between cognitive resources in short-term memory and bimanual object manipulation by extending recent research by Logan and Fischman (2011). In Experiment 1, 16 participants completed a bimanual end-state comfort task and a memory task requiring serial recall of 12 words or pictures. The end-state comfort task involved moving two glasses between two shelves. Participants viewed the items, performed the end-state comfort task, and then serially recalled the items. Recall was evaluated by the presence or absence of primacy and recency effects. The end-state comfort effect (ESCE) was assessed by the percentage of initial hand positions that allowed the hands to end comfortably. The main findings indicated that the ESCE was disrupted; the primacy effect remained intact; and the recency effect disappeared regardless of the type of memory item recalled. In Experiment 2, 16 participants viewed six items, performed an end-state comfort task, viewed another six items, and then serially recalled all 12 items. Results were essentially the same as in Experiment 1. Findings suggest that executing a bimanual end-state comfort task, regardless of when it is completed during a memory task, diminishes the recency effect irrespective of the type of memory item.

The present study extends the sport neuroscience literature by comparing elite and amateur golfers during golf putting and examining the essential cognitive-motor processes that may contribute to understanding the superior cognitive-motor performance of skilled performers. Twenty elite and 18 amateur golfers were recruited to perform 60 putts while individual EEGs were recorded. Compared with the amateur golfers, the elite golfers were characterized by (1) lower alpha 2 power at Pz and T8 2 s before putt release; (2) lower alpha 2 power at Fz and T8 and lower mu 2 power 1 s before putting; and (3) lower alpha 2 coherence at Fz–T7 and Fz–T8. This suggests that the elite golfers had higher levels of attention to response motor programming and visuospatial attention and less cognitive-motor interference before putting. These findings not only point to the importance of refining brain processes but also specify essential cognitive-motor processes for superior performance in athletes.

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Motor-based theories of facial expression recognition propose that the visual perception of facial expression is aided by sensorimotor processes that are also used for the production of the same expression. Accordingly, sensorimotor and visual processes should provide congruent emotional information about a facial expression. Here, we report evidence that challenges this view. Specifically, the repeated execution of facial expressions has the opposite effect on the recognition of a subsequent facial expression than the repeated viewing of facial expressions. Moreover, the findings of the motor condition, but not of the visual condition, were correlated with a nonsensory condition in which participants imagined an emotional situation. These results can be well accounted for by the idea that facial expression recognition is not always mediated by motor processes but can also be recognized on visual information alone.

Highlights • Anthropomorphism is a consequence of similarities between human and non-human animals. • Primatologists use sensory and motor processes to infer primate emotional expressions. • Training and experience influence anthropomorphic attributions made by primatologists. • Experience is accompanied by functional plasticity of sensory and motor cortices., Anthropomorphism implies the attribution of human like emotions and cognition to non-human animals. This tendency may be conditioned by similar morphologies between mammals and is particularly important in primatology. Some neurocognitive findings suggest that prefrontal brain activity associated to conceptual learning influences anthropomorphic judgments, nevertheless, individual differences are also presented indicating that training on primate behavior may influence anthropomorphism. We identified and interpreted brain activity registered by functional magnetic resonance imaging while seven trained primatologists (39.42 ± 10.86 yr.) inferred emotions in human primates, non-human primates and non-primate animals; comparisons were made with seven matched scholars with no primatological training (38.71 ± 9.34 yr.). Primatologists manifested cerebellar, occipital and frontal activity related to sensory and motor processes when valuating humans and non-human primates, but not for other animals. So, primatological training and experience may elicit brain plasticity processes allowing inner motor and sensory models through frontal and cerebellar interactions.

Humans act goal-oriented, and this idea is at the core of ideomotor theory (IT), which claims that actions are selected by mentally anticipating the sensory consequences brought about by the respective bodily movement (i.e., their action effects). Evidence for this effect anticipation mainly derives from the response-effect (R-E) compatibility (REC) paradigm: In the spatial domain, for example, a left response is produced faster (and sometimes less error-prone) if followed by a compatible left rather than an incompatible right action effect. In the present study, we employed the diffusion model to elucidate the reasons for this observation. To this end, we reanalyzed data from the seminal study by Kunde (2001) and from a new experiment. The overall results suggest that REC affects drift rate. This result fits well with conceptualizing REC as an endogenously created case of stimulus-response compatibility (SRC). Several consequences of this view are discussed against the background of available empirical results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Both eye and hand movements have been shown to selectively interfere with visual working memory. We investigated working memory in the context of simultaneous eye-hand movements to approach the question whether the eye and the hand movement systems independently interact with visual working memory. Participants memorized several locations and performed eye, hand, or simultaneous eye-hand movements during the maintenance interval. Subsequently, we tested spatial working memory at the eye or the hand motor goal, and at action-irrelevant locations. We found that for single eye and single hand movements, memory at the eye or hand target was significantly improved compared to action-irrelevant locations. Remarkably, when an eye and a hand movement were prepared in parallel, but to distinct locations, memory at both motor targets was enhanced—with no tradeoff between the two separate action goals. This suggests that eye and hand movements independently enhance visual working memory at their goal locations, resulting in an overall working memory performance that is higher than that expected when recruiting only one effector.

The purpose of this investigation is to demonstrate that one is unable to understand the operation of the brain without taking top-down effects into account. This is demonstrated by looking in turn at evolutionary and developmental aspects, then at functional aspects related to sensory systems, learning processes, and motor processes that lead to action on the world. It is also clear in terms of the effects of a society on brains located in that society. The possibility of top down affects exists both because of multiple realisability of higher level processes at lower levels, and because lower level elements are adapted to perform their higher level functions. These top-down processes validate a non-reductionist approach to how the brain works.

Contains fulltext : 195559.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) It is unclear whether cognitive and motor control are parallel and interactive or serial and independent processes. According to one view, cognitive control refers to a set of modality-nonspecific processes that act on supramodal representations and precede response modality-specific motor processes. An alternative view is that cognitive control represents a set of modality-specific operations that act directly on motor-related representations, implying dependence of cognitive control on motor control. Here, we examined the influence of response modality (vocal vs. manual) on three well-established subcomponent processes of cognitive control: shifting, inhibiting, and updating. We observed effects of all subcomponent processes in reaction times. The magnitude of these effects did not differ between response modalities for shifting and inhibiting, in line with a serial, supramodal view. However, the magnitude of the updating effect differed between modalities, in line with an interactive, modality-specific view. These results suggest that updating represents a modality-specific operation that depends on motor control, whereas shifting and inhibiting represent supramodal operations that act independently of motor control. 7 p.

It is well known that eye movement patterns are influenced by both goal- and salience-driven factors. Recent studies, however, have demonstrated that objects that are nonsalient and task irrelevant can still capture our eyes if moving our eyes to those objects has previously produced reward. Here we demonstrate that training such an association between eye movements to an object and delivery of reward is not needed. Instead, an object that merely signals the availability of reward captures the eyes even when it is physically nonsalient and never relevant for the task. Furthermore, we show that oculomotor capture by reward is more reliably observed in saccades with short latencies. We conclude that a stimulus signaling high reward has the ability to capture the eyes independently of bottom-up physical salience or top-down task relevance and that the effect of reward affects early selection processes.