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Related Experiment Videos

Eliminating mirror responses by instructions.

Lara Bardi1, Carsten Bundt1, Wim Notebaert1

  • 1Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium.

Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior
|June 3, 2015
PubMed
Summary
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Instructions can change automatic imitation. Simply telling people to do the opposite of what they see, even passively, alters their motor resonance, showing flexibility in the brain's mirroring system.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Science
  • Social Psychology

Background:

  • Observing actions activates motor plans (motor resonance), crucial for social interaction.
  • Automatic imitation can interfere with behavior; flexibility in mirror responses is known but mechanisms are unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the mechanisms underlying flexible adjustments in motor mirroring.
  • To understand how task instructions influence automatic imitation during action observation.

Main Methods:

  • Used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to measure motor evoked potentials (MEPs).
  • Participants passively observed finger movements under a counter-imitation instruction.
  • Assessed changes in mirror responses (MEPs) based on instructions, not active execution.
Keywords:
MEPsMirror systemResponse flexibilityTMSTask instructions

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • A counter-imitation instruction significantly altered mirror responses, indexed by MEPs.
  • Task instructions alone, without active task execution, were sufficient to modify mirror activation.
  • This suggests that stimulus-response associations activated by instructions can override inherent mirror representations.

Conclusions:

  • The brain's mirroring system is flexible and can be modulated by simple instructions.
  • Implementation of task rules can overwrite automatic motor resonance, offering insight into adaptive behavior.
  • Findings reveal a key mechanism for flexible control over imitation in social contexts.