mitation is a characteristic but little-understood function of the human brain and of some higher animals. The direct matching hypothesis suggests that a specialised brain circuit is able to extract and directly copy the motor commands of another person's observed actions. Here we investigate how conscious people are of this kind of imitation. We first showed that imitation reactions are faster than simple visual reaction times, consistent with a direct matching circuit in the CNS. We next compared the perceived time of imitation reactions in 17 healthy subjects with other kinds of actions. We found a significant delay in subjects' awareness of their own imitation reactions. Thus, while imitation reactions are unusually fast, subjects are not aware of this. The brain's direct-matching circuit for imitation partly bypasses conscious awareness.
Imitation without awareness / Tessari, A; Rumiati, Raffaella; Haggard, P.. - In: NEUROREPORT. - ISSN 0959-4965. - 13:18(2002), pp. 2531-2535. [10.1097/00001756-200212200-00030]
Imitation without awareness
Rumiati, Raffaella;
2002-01-01
Abstract
mitation is a characteristic but little-understood function of the human brain and of some higher animals. The direct matching hypothesis suggests that a specialised brain circuit is able to extract and directly copy the motor commands of another person's observed actions. Here we investigate how conscious people are of this kind of imitation. We first showed that imitation reactions are faster than simple visual reaction times, consistent with a direct matching circuit in the CNS. We next compared the perceived time of imitation reactions in 17 healthy subjects with other kinds of actions. We found a significant delay in subjects' awareness of their own imitation reactions. Thus, while imitation reactions are unusually fast, subjects are not aware of this. The brain's direct-matching circuit for imitation partly bypasses conscious awareness.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.