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Updated: Oct 19, 2025
Corticospinal Excitability Modulation During Action Observation
Published on: December 31, 2013
Relationship between cardiac cycle and the timing of actions during action execution and observation
E R Palser1, J Glass2, A Fotopoulou3
1Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Institute of Neurology, University College London, 33 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK; Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK; UCSF Dyslexia Center, Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, 675 Nelson Rising Lane, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
Insights
Heartbeats synchronize with self-paced movements during both action and observation. This cardiac-motor coordination, measured via electrocardiography (ECG), occurs even when watching others move.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Motor Control
- Cardiovascular Physiology
Background:
- Prior studies suggest a link between motor events and the cardiac cycle.
- Existing research is limited to simple, isolated movements and single individuals.
- Interpersonal coordination involving movement and cardiac activity has been observed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between the cardiac cycle and self-paced movements in a dyadic (two-person) setting.
- To examine this relationship during both action execution and action observation.
- To explore if interpersonal coordination stems from mirrored cardiac-motor phasing.
Main Methods:
- Recorded electrocardiography (ECG) in 26 participants within 19 dyads.
- Participants included an action executioner and an observer performing self-paced movements.
- Analyzed the timing of movements relative to the cardiac cycle (specifically, the R-peak).
Main Results:
- Heartbeats were found to be timed with self-paced movements during both execution and observation.
- Movement culmination was less likely to coincide with the R-peak of the electrocardiogram (ECG).
- Observers' heartbeats also showed an off-phase relationship with movement culmination.
Conclusions:
- A coordination exists between an individual's cardiac cycle and their movement timing.
- This cardiac-motor coordination is mirrored during action observation.
- Interpersonal coordination may arise from the synchronization of movement and cardiac phases between individuals.
Abstract:
Previous research suggests that there may be a relationship between the timing of motor events and phases of the cardiac cycle. This relationship has thus far only been researched using simple isolated movements such as key-presses in reaction-time tasks and only in a single subject acting alone. Other research has shown both movement and cardiac coordination among interacting individuals. Here, we investigated how the cardiac cycle relates to ongoing self-paced movements in both action execution and observation using a novel dyadic paradigm. We recorded electrocardiography (ECG) in 26 subjects who formed 19 dyads containing an action executioner and observer as they performed a self-paced sequence of movements. We demonstrated that heartbeats are timed to movements during both action execution and observation. Specifically, movements were less likely to culminate synchronously with the heartbeat around the time of the R-peak of the ECG. The same pattern was observed for action observation, with the observer's heartbeats occurring off-phase with movement culmination. These findings demonstrate that there is coordination between an action executioner's cardiac cycle and the timing of their movements, and that the same relationship is mirrored in an observer. This suggests that previous findings of interpersonal coordination may be caused by the mirroring of a phasic relationship between movement and the heart.
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