Motor contagion: the contribution of trajectory and end-points

Increased involuntary arm movement deviation when observing an incongruent human arm movement has been interpreted as a strong indicator of motor contagion. Here, we examined the contribution of trajectory and end-point information on motor contagion by altering congruence between the stimulus and arm movement. Participants performed cyclical horizontal arm movements whilst simultaneously observing a stimulus representing human arm movement. The stimuli comprised congruent horizontal movements or vertical movements featuring incongruent trajectory and end-points. A novel, third, stimulus comprised curvilinear movements featuring congruent end-points, but an incongruent trajectory. In Experiment 1, our dependent variables indicated increased motor contagion when observing the vertical compared to horizontal movement stimulus. There was even greater motor contagion in the curvilinear stimulus condition indicating an additive effect of an incongruent trajectory comprising congruent end-points. In Experiment 2, this additive effect was also present when facing perpendicular to the display, and thus with end-points represented as a product of the movement rather than an external spatial reference. Together, these findings support the theory of event coding (Hommel et al., Behav Brain Sci 24:849-878, 2001), and the prediction that increased motor contagion takes place when observed and executed actions share common features (i.e., movement end-points).