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Social Motor Priming: when offline interference facilitates motor execution.
Sonia Betti1, Eris Chinellato2, Silvia Guerra1
1Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, Università degli Studi di Padova, Padova, Italy.
Peerj
|October 15, 2019
Summary
Observing actions can speed up or slow down our own movements, depending on social context. This study shows social cues facilitate appropriate actions but interfere with incongruent ones, revealing integrated action planning.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Motor Control
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Human actions often require synchronization with others.
- Visuomotor interference slows performance when observed and executed actions differ.
- Social motor priming can facilitate action execution through interactive gestures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the costs and benefits of processing social responses and executing actions.
- To examine how social context influences motor control and action planning.
Main Methods:
- Participants performed precision grip (PG) or whole-hand grasp (WHG) actions.
- Observed actions were PGs in interactive and non-interactive conditions.
- 3-D kinematic analysis measured reaction time, movement time, and grip aperture.
Main Results:
- Socially appropriate actions (WHG) were facilitated (sped up) in interactive contexts.
- Performing a different action (PG) than the socially cued one was delayed.
- Increased grip aperture indicated concurrent representation of the socially appropriate response.
Conclusions:
- Socially appropriate actions are facilitated, while incongruent actions are inhibited.
- Physically incongruent action representations can be integrated within a single action plan.
- This integration occurs even in offline tasks without specific training.
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