School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, 4072, QLD, Australia.
Exp Brain Res. 2010 Apr;201(4):743-51. doi: 10.1007/s00221-009-2089-6. Epub 2009 Nov 25.
It has been argued that through a process of internal 'simulation', we automatically map observed actions directly onto our motor system to facilitate imitation. Instead, here we show that observed actions influence the kinematic parameters of manual responses in a dynamic, context-dependent fashion. Participants observed object-directed hand actions in imitative and complementary action contexts, and performed identical (same grip-type) and non-identical (opposite grip-type) responses to a similar object, respectively. In imitative contexts, identical actions were performed optimally. In complementary contexts, however, non-identical actions were enhanced relative to identical actions. A further experiment using arrow cues instead of hand actions confirmed that these results were specific to action observation. Our findings demonstrate that action context plays a critical role in determining the relationship between action observation and execution. Crucially, this relationship is not fixed, but depends on an agent's goal when observing others act.
有人认为，通过内部“模拟”过程，我们会自动将观察到的动作直接映射到我们的运动系统，以促进模仿。相反，在这里我们表明，观察到的动作会以动态的、依赖上下文的方式影响手动反应的运动学参数。参与者在模仿和互补动作的情境中观察针对物体的手部动作，并分别对相似的物体执行相同（相同握持类型）和不同（相反握持类型）的反应。在模仿情境中，相同的动作表现最佳。然而，在互补情境中，与相同动作相比，不同动作得到了增强。使用箭头提示而不是手部动作的进一步实验证实，这些结果是特定于动作观察的。我们的发现表明，动作情境在确定动作观察和执行之间的关系方面起着关键作用。至关重要的是，这种关系不是固定的，而是取决于观察者在观察他人行为时的目标。
