The neural correlates of Fitts's law in action observation: An fMRI study
Publication year
2012Number of pages
12 p.
Source
Social Neuroscience, 7, 1, (2012), pp. 30-41ISSN
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor
Display more detailsDisplay less details
Organization
SW OZ DCC CO
Journal title
Social Neuroscience
Volume
vol. 7
Issue
iss. 1
Languages used
English (eng)
Page start
p. 30
Page end
p. 41
Subject
Action, intention, and motor control; DI-BCB_DCC_Theme 2: Perception, Action and ControlAbstract
Previous neuroimaging studies support the assumption of a strong link between perception and action, demonstrating that the motor system is involved when others' actions are observed. One question that is still open to debate is which aspects of observed actions engage the motor system. The present study tested whether motor activation corresponds to the difficulty of the observed action, using Fitts's law. This law postulates that the difficulty of any movement (ID) is a function of the distance to the target (A) and the target width (W). In an observation task, the ID of the observed action was manipulated orthogonally to W (by using five different As). The results revealed activity in the primary motor cortex, the supplementary motor area, and the basal ganglia in response to increasing ID levels, but not in response to different levels of A or W. Thus, activation in the motor system during action observation is not driven by perceptual parameters but by the motor difficulty of the observed action.
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Academic publications [245263]
- Faculty of Social Sciences [30345]
Upload full text
Use your RU credentials (u/z-number and password) to log in with SURFconext to upload a file for processing by the repository team.