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To me or to you? When the self is advantaged
Francesca Ferri1, Giovanna Cristina Campione, Riccardo Dalla Volta
1Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Via Volturno 39, 43125, Parma, Italy.
Action sequences to oneself, particularly self-feeding, are faster and more automatic than those directed to others. This is due to frequent execution and effector coordination, unlike social intentions guiding actions toward conspecifics.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Motor Control
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Action sequences are fundamental to human behavior.
- Understanding the differences between self-directed and other-directed actions is crucial for cognitive science.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate why action sequences directed to oneself are facilitated compared to those directed to conspecifics.
- To explore the underlying mechanisms of automaticity in self-feeding actions.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Participants performed reaching and grasping actions to feed themselves or a conspecific.
- Control conditions involved placing food into mouth-like apertures on containers.
- Kinematic analysis was used to measure movement speed and efficiency.
Main Results:
- Reaching and bringing actions were significantly faster when directed towards the participant's own body, especially for self-feeding.
- Actions directed towards conspecifics were slower and required more accuracy.
- Control experiment 2 confirmed that feeding actions were slower than placing actions.
Conclusions:
- Self-feeding sequences are automatic due to frequent execution and effector coordination (arm-mouth).
- Actions towards conspecifics are less automatic, guided by social intentions, and require greater accuracy.
- The findings highlight distinct neural and cognitive processes underlying self-directed versus other-directed actions.
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