Using EEG movement tagging to isolate brain responses coupled to biological movements

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Detecting biological motion is essential for adaptive social behavior. Previous research has revealed the brain processes underlying this ability. However, brain activity during biological motion perception captures a multitude of processes. As a result, it is often unclear which processes reflect movement processing and which processes reflect secondary processes that build on movement processing. To address this issue, we developed a new approach to measure brain responses directly coupled to observed movements. Specifically, we showed 30 male and female adults a point-light walker moving at a pace of 2.4 Hz and used EEG frequency tagging to measure the brain response coupled to that pace (‘movement tagging’). The results revealed a reliable response at the walking frequency that was reduced by two manipulations known to disrupt biological motion perception: phase scrambling and inversion. Interestingly, we also identified a brain response at half the walking frequency (i.e., 1.2 Hz), corresponding to the rate at which the individual dots completed a cycle. In contrast to the 2.4 Hz response, the response at 1.2 Hz was increased for scrambled (vs. unscrambled) walkers. These results show that frequency tagging can be used to capture the visual processing of biological movements and can dissociate between global (2.4 Hz) and local (1.2 Hz) processes involved in biological motion perception, at different frequencies of the brain signal.

Original languageEnglish
Article number108395
JournalNeuropsychologia
Volume177
Number of pages8
ISSN0028-3932
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15.12.2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
EC was supported by a senior postdoctoral fellowship awarded by the Research Foundation Flanders ( 12U0322N ). DO was supported by the Special Research Fund of Ghent University ( BOF18/DOC/348 ). LP was supported by a European Research Council Grant (Project THEMPO-758473 ).

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