Anticipating actions and corticospinal excitability

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 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 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

既往对动作观察与模仿的研究表明，观察某一动作能够激活观察者相应的运动表征。然而，近期研究提出，个体不仅可能对观察到的行为进行反射性的模拟，而且可能在他人并未实际进行该行为的情况下，对预期动作进行模拟并参与其中。例如，已有研究表明，观察到一个可能引发动作（例如，鼻翼皱缩）的触发事件，会增加观察者执行该动作的可能性。在本研究中，我们运用运动性经颅磁刺激（TMS）技术，旨在探究此类预期社会动作效应在神经生理层面的逐试次测量。虽然一项初步研究显示，观察鼻翼皱缩能够比观察控制事件在参与者肱二头肌中引发更强的肌电图（MEPs），但在一项预注册研究中，这一效应并未得到完全复制。尽管对这两项研究进行的后设分析支持了总体假设，但这些结果仍需谨慎对待。