Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2010 Oct;22(10):2198-211. doi: 10.1162/jocn.2009.21409.
Several theories of the mechanisms linking perception and action require that the links are bidirectional, but there is a lack of consensus on the effects that action has on perception. We investigated this by measuring visual event-related brain potentials to observed hand actions while participants prepared responses that were spatially compatible (e.g., both were on the left side of the body) or incompatible and action type compatible (e.g., both were finger taps) or incompatible, with observed actions. An early enhanced processing of spatially compatible stimuli was observed, which is likely due to spatial attention. This was followed by an attenuation of processing for both spatially and action type compatible stimuli, likely to be driven by efference copy signals that attenuate processing of predicted sensory consequences of actions. Attenuation was not response-modality specific; it was found for manual stimuli when participants prepared manual and vocal responses, in line with the hypothesis that action control is hierarchically organized. These results indicate that spatial attention and forward model prediction mechanisms have opposite, but temporally distinct, effects on perception. This hypothesis can explain the inconsistency of recent findings on action-perception links and thereby supports the view that sensorimotor links are bidirectional. Such effects of action on perception are likely to be crucial, not only for the control of our own actions but also in sociocultural interaction, allowing us to predict the reactions of others to our own actions.
几种将感知和动作联系起来的机制理论要求这些联系是双向的，但对于动作对感知的影响，还没有达成共识。我们通过测量参与者准备与观察到手动作空间兼容（例如，两者都在身体左侧）或动作兼容且空间不兼容（例如，都是手指轻敲）或动作不兼容的观察到手动作时的视觉事件相关脑电位来研究这一点。观察到对空间兼容刺激的早期增强处理，这可能是由于空间注意力所致。随后，对空间和动作类型兼容的刺激的处理减弱，这可能是由传出副本信号驱动的，该信号减弱了对动作预测感觉后果的处理。衰减不是响应模态特异性的；当参与者准备手动和语音响应时，对于手动刺激发现了衰减，这与动作控制是分层组织的假设一致。这些结果表明，空间注意力和前向模型预测机制对感知具有相反但时间上不同的影响。该假设可以解释最近关于动作感知联系的不一致发现，从而支持传感器 - 运动联系是双向的观点。这种动作对感知的影响可能是至关重要的，不仅对于我们自己的动作控制，而且对于社会文化互动，使我们能够预测他人对我们自己动作的反应。
