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Motor activation prior to observation of a predicted movement

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A Corrigendum to this article was published on 01 January 2005

Abstract

Previous research has shown that some of the same motor regions are activated both when performing and when observing a movement. Here we demonstrate in human subjects that such motor activity also occurs prior to observing someone else's action. This suggests that the mere knowledge of an upcoming movement is sufficient to excite one's own motor system, enabling people to anticipate, rather than react to, others' actions.

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Figure 1: Readiness potentials and scalp topographies of negativity prior to the observed movement.
Figure 2: Statistical parametric maps of differences in the amplitude of readiness potential.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a US National Science Foundation grant (BCS-0225611) and by a CNRS grant to A.S.; C.V. is funded by Capes-Cofecub and J.M.K. and S.J.B. by the Wellcome Trust, London, UK. We thank E. Daprati for initial discussion of the paradigm.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut des Sciences Cognitives, CNRS, 67 Boulevard Pinel, Bron, 69675, France

    James M Kilner, Claudia Vargas, Sylvie Duval & Angela Sirigu

  2. Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG, UK

    James M Kilner

  3. Institute of Biophysics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Ilha do Fundao, Rio de Janeiro, 21949-900, Brazil

    Claudia Vargas

  4. Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, UK

    Sylvie Duval & Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

Authors
  1. James M Kilner
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  2. Claudia Vargas
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  3. Sylvie Duval
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  4. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
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  5. Angela Sirigu
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Correspondence to Angela Sirigu.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Kilner, J., Vargas, C., Duval, S. et al. Motor activation prior to observation of a predicted movement. Nat Neurosci 7, 1299–1301 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1355

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