Grasping intentions: from thought experiments to empirical evidence
Skepticism has been expressed concerning the possibility to understand others’ intentions by simply observing their movements: Since a number of different intentions may have produced a particular action, motor information – it has been argued - might be sufficient to understand what an agent is doi...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2012-05-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00117/full |
| _version_ | 1818145614158888960 |
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| author | Cristina eBecchio Valeria eManera Luisa eSartori Andrea eCavallo Umberto eCastiello |
| author_facet | Cristina eBecchio Valeria eManera Luisa eSartori Andrea eCavallo Umberto eCastiello |
| author_sort | Cristina eBecchio |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Skepticism has been expressed concerning the possibility to understand others’ intentions by simply observing their movements: Since a number of different intentions may have produced a particular action, motor information – it has been argued - might be sufficient to understand what an agent is doing, but not her remote goal in performing that action. Here we challenge this conclusion by showing that in the absence of contextual information, intentions can be inferred from body movement. Based on recent empirical findings, we shall contend that: i) intentions translate into differential kinematic patterns; ii) observers are especially attuned to kinematic information and can use early differences in visual kinematics to anticipate the intention of an agent in performing a given action; iii) during interacting activities, predictions about the future course of others’ actions tune online action planning; iv) motor activation during action observation subtends a complementary understanding of what the other is doing. These findings demonstrate that intention understanding is deeply rooted in social interaction: by simply observing others’ movements, we might know what they have in mind to do and how we should act in response. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T12:06:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-82f56e5bd7ea43de8c8eca186ab1514e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T12:06:15Z |
| publishDate | 2012-05-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-82f56e5bd7ea43de8c8eca186ab1514e2022-12-22T01:07:56ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612012-05-01610.3389/fnhum.2012.0011722451Grasping intentions: from thought experiments to empirical evidenceCristina eBecchio0Valeria eManera1Luisa eSartori2Andrea eCavallo3Umberto eCastiello4Università di TorinoUniversità di TorinoUniversità di PadovaUniversità di TorinoUniversità di PadovaSkepticism has been expressed concerning the possibility to understand others’ intentions by simply observing their movements: Since a number of different intentions may have produced a particular action, motor information – it has been argued - might be sufficient to understand what an agent is doing, but not her remote goal in performing that action. Here we challenge this conclusion by showing that in the absence of contextual information, intentions can be inferred from body movement. Based on recent empirical findings, we shall contend that: i) intentions translate into differential kinematic patterns; ii) observers are especially attuned to kinematic information and can use early differences in visual kinematics to anticipate the intention of an agent in performing a given action; iii) during interacting activities, predictions about the future course of others’ actions tune online action planning; iv) motor activation during action observation subtends a complementary understanding of what the other is doing. These findings demonstrate that intention understanding is deeply rooted in social interaction: by simply observing others’ movements, we might know what they have in mind to do and how we should act in response.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00117/fullkinematicsintention understandingreach-to-graspsocial intentioncomplementary actionsmirror system |
| spellingShingle | Cristina eBecchio Valeria eManera Luisa eSartori Andrea eCavallo Umberto eCastiello Grasping intentions: from thought experiments to empirical evidence Frontiers in Human Neuroscience kinematics intention understanding reach-to-grasp social intention complementary actions mirror system |
| title | Grasping intentions: from thought experiments to empirical evidence |
| title_full | Grasping intentions: from thought experiments to empirical evidence |
| title_fullStr | Grasping intentions: from thought experiments to empirical evidence |
| title_full_unstemmed | Grasping intentions: from thought experiments to empirical evidence |
| title_short | Grasping intentions: from thought experiments to empirical evidence |
| title_sort | grasping intentions from thought experiments to empirical evidence |
| topic | kinematics intention understanding reach-to-grasp social intention complementary actions mirror system |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00117/full |
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