Kalénine Solène, Decroix Jérémy
Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 9193 - SCALab - Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, F-59000, Lille, France.
Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 9193 - SCALab - Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, F-59000, Lille, France.
Neuropsychologia. 2023 Oct 10;189:108658. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108658. Epub 2023 Aug 11.
The involvement of the sensorimotor system in the perception of painful actions has been repeatedly demonstrated. Yet the cognitive processes corresponding to sensorimotor activations have not been identified. In particular, the respective role of higher-level and lower-level action representations such as goals and grips in the recognition of painful actions is not clear. Previous research has shown that in a neutral context, higher-level action representations (goals) are prioritized over lower-level action representations (grips) and guide action recognition. The present study evaluates to what extent the general priority given to goal-related information in the processing of visual actions can be modulated by a context of pain. We used the action violation paradigm developed by van Elk et al. (2008). In the present action tasks, participants had to judge whether the grip or the goal of object-directed actions displayed in photographs was correct or not. The actress in the photograph could show either a neutral facial expression or a facial expression of pain. In the control task, they had to judge whether the actress expressed pain. In the action tasks, goals influenced grip judgements more than grips influenced goal judgements overall, corroborating the priority given to goal-related information previously reported. Critically, the impact of irrelevant goal-related information on the identification of incorrect grips disappeared in the pain context. Moreover, judgements in the control task were similarly influenced by grip and goal-related information. Results suggest that a context of pain reduces the reliance on higher-level action for action judgments. Findings provide novel directions regarding the cognitive and brain mechanisms involved in action processing in painful situations and support pluralist views of action understanding.
感觉运动系统在对疼痛动作的感知中的参与已被反复证实。然而，与感觉运动激活相对应的认知过程尚未得到明确。特别是，诸如目标和抓握方式等高级和低级动作表征在疼痛动作识别中的各自作用尚不清楚。先前的研究表明，在中性情境中，高级动作表征（目标）比低级动作表征（抓握方式）具有优先级，并指导动作识别。本研究评估了在视觉动作处理中给予与目标相关信息的一般优先级在多大程度上会受到疼痛情境的调节。我们使用了范·埃尔克等人（2008年）开发的动作违反范式。在当前的动作任务中，参与者必须判断照片中显示的目标导向动作的抓握方式或目标是否正确。照片中的女演员可以表现出中性面部表情或疼痛的面部表情。在控制任务中，他们必须判断女演员是否表现出疼痛。在动作任务中，总体而言，目标对抓握判断的影响大于抓握方式对目标判断的影响，这证实了先前报道的给予与目标相关信息的优先级。至关重要的是，在疼痛情境中，与目标相关的无关信息对错误抓握方式识别的影响消失了。此外，控制任务中的判断同样受到抓握方式和与目标相关信息的影响。结果表明，疼痛情境会降低动作判断对高级动作的依赖。研究结果为疼痛情境下动作处理所涉及的认知和脑机制提供了新的方向，并支持了动作理解的多元主义观点。
