TY - JOUR

T1 - Anticipating actions and corticospinal excitability

T2 - A preregistered motor TMS experiment

AU - Genschow, Oliver

AU - Bardi, Lara

AU - Brass, Marcel

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number PZ00P1_168007 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Elsevier Ltd

PY - 2018/9/1

Y1 - 2018/9/1

N2 - Past research on action observation and imitation suggests that observing a movement activates a corresponding motor representation in the observer. However, recent research suggests that individuals may not only reflexively simulate the observed behavior but also simulate and engage in anticipated action without another person actually engaging in it. For example, it has been demonstrated that observing a triggering event (i.e., nose wrinkling) that potentially leads to the anticipation of an action (i.e., nose scratching) increases the likelihood that the observer will perform that action. In the present research, we applied motor Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to investigate such anticipated social action effects at the neurophysiological level within a trial-by-trial measure. While a pilot study suggests that observing nose wrinkling elicits stronger motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in participants’ biceps muscles than observing control events, this effect could not be fully replicated in a preregistered study. Although a post hoc meta-analysis across both studies supports the general hypothesis, these results need to be taken cautiously. Implications of the results reported in the manuscript are discussed.

AB - Past research on action observation and imitation suggests that observing a movement activates a corresponding motor representation in the observer. However, recent research suggests that individuals may not only reflexively simulate the observed behavior but also simulate and engage in anticipated action without another person actually engaging in it. For example, it has been demonstrated that observing a triggering event (i.e., nose wrinkling) that potentially leads to the anticipation of an action (i.e., nose scratching) increases the likelihood that the observer will perform that action. In the present research, we applied motor Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to investigate such anticipated social action effects at the neurophysiological level within a trial-by-trial measure. While a pilot study suggests that observing nose wrinkling elicits stronger motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in participants’ biceps muscles than observing control events, this effect could not be fully replicated in a preregistered study. Although a post hoc meta-analysis across both studies supports the general hypothesis, these results need to be taken cautiously. Implications of the results reported in the manuscript are discussed.

KW - Anticipation

KW - Corticospinal excitability

KW - Imitation

KW - Motor TMS

KW - Prediction

KW - Business psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85048190509&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.04.014

DO - 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.04.014

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 29886221

AN - SCOPUS:85048190509

VL - 106

SP - 81

EP - 92

JO - Cortex

JF - Cortex

SN - 0010-9452

ER -