Article
Neurosciences
Helen O'Shea
Summary: This study utilizes multidimensional modeling to examine the neurocognitive characteristics of four action-related behaviors. The findings suggest that action execution is most similar to concurrent action observation and motor imagery, while action execution is least similar to action observation. Most action types share similarities in at least one neurocognitive dimension, except for action-related language.
FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Carolina G. Ferroni, Davide Albertini, Marco Lanzilotto, Alessandro Livi, Monica Maranesi, Luca Bonini
Summary: This research investigated the neural activity in the action observation network (AON) during self and others' action encoding, revealing temporal and tuning specificities of distinct brain areas and neuronal classes. Different areas within AON showed varied prevalence of facilitated and suppressed neurons during task execution and observation, with distinct cell classes carrying specific visuomotor signals. The findings elucidated the firing properties and time course of activity at both system and local levels in the AON.
Article
Neurosciences
Wataru Sato, Takanori Kochiyama, Sakiko Yoshikawa
Summary: Observing and understanding emotional facial expressions plays a major role in face-to-face communication, possibly through motor synchronization. Previous fMRI studies have shown activation in neocortical motor regions during the observation/execution of emotional facial expressions, but it remains unclear if other brain regions are involved and if they form a functional network. In this study, fMRI was used to investigate these issues, and the results revealed activation in multiple regions, including the amygdala, basal ganglia, cerebellum, and brainstem, suggesting the involvement of a widespread observation/execution matching network.
HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING
(2023)
Review
Neurosciences
Giovanni Pezzulo, Francesco Donnarumma, Simone Ferrari-Toniolo, Paul Cisek, Alexandra Battaglia-Mayer
Summary: Studies on the neural population dynamics in monkey motor areas during reaching tasks reveal that the activity mainly represents the generation and timing of motor behavior. The research shows that PMd encodes spatial aspects regardless of specific behavioral demands, with neural dynamics shared across action execution and observation. This suggests that the largest components of premotor population dynamics may reflect higher cognitive motor processes.
PROGRESS IN NEUROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Helga O. Miguel, Emma E. Condy, Thien Nguyen, Selin Zeytinoglu, Emily Blick, Kimberly Bress, Kosar Khaksari, Hadis Dashtestani, John Millerhagen, Sheida Shahmohammadi, Nathan A. Fox, Amir Gandjbakhche
Summary: This study used fNIRS to investigate the neural correlates of action-observation and action-execution, and found that the parietal regions share neural activity during both processes. These findings confirm the applicability of fNIRS for studying the AON and provide a foundation for future research with developmental and clinical populations.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Katy A. Cross, Mahsa Malekmohammadi, Jeong Woo Choi, Nader Pouratian
Summary: The study found that local alpha/beta power in the globus pallidus and motor cortex is suppressed during both action execution and observation, with less suppression during observation. However, pallidocortical phase synchrony and GPi and motor cortical alpha/beta-gamma PAC are only suppressed during action execution, indicating the important role of network coupling in motor execution.
CLINICAL NEUROPHYSIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Experimental
E. R. Palser, J. Glass, A. Fotopoulou, J. M. Kilner
Summary: The study found that there is synchronization between heartbeats and movements during both action execution and observation, with observers exhibiting off-phase heartbeats with movement culmination. This suggests a coordination between an action executioner's cardiac cycle and the timing of their movements, which is mirrored in an observer.
Article
Neurosciences
Maria Chiara Bazzini, Arturo Nuara, Emilia Scalona, Doriana De Marco, Giacomo Rizzolatti, Pietro Avanzini, Maddalena Fabbri-Destro
Summary: Motor learning refers to the process of relatively permanent changes in motor behavior through repeated interactions with the environment. The regular alternation between observation and execution in training, known as Action Observation Training (AOT), has been found to have a greater impact on motor learning than pure motor practice or observational learning alone.
FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Glyn Elwyn
Summary: Cooperation is a fundamental characteristic of human society, and respecting individual agency, providing information, and collaborating are ethical imperatives, particularly in healthcare decision-making. Shared decision making involves cognitive, emotional, and relational work with the goal of restoring patient autonomy.
PATIENT EDUCATION AND COUNSELING
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Jiu Chen, Wenwu Kan, Yong Liu, Xinhua Hu, Ting Wu, Yuanjie Zou, Hongyi Liu, Kun Yang
Summary: Both motor imagery (MI) during action observation (AO) and action execution lead to distinct brain activities in low frequency ranges such as delta, theta, and alpha. Significant differences in global spectral power were found between finger movement and MI during AO in delta and alpha oscillations.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Neil M. Dundon, Jaron T. Colas, Neil Garrett, Viktoriya Babenko, Elizabeth Rizor, Dengxian Yang, Mairtin MacNamara, Linda Petzold, Scott T. Grafton
Summary: Heuristics can enhance human decision making by reducing computational requirements and being robust to overparameterisation. However, their efficiency in nontrivial actions has not been fully explored. In this study, a novel task was designed to jointly optimize action selection and spatio-temporal skillful execution. The results showed that participants using the heuristic strategy had advantages in both decision making and action execution, supporting the concept of "less-is-more".
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Review
Biology
Francesco Torricelli, Alice Tomassini, Giovanni Pezzulo, Thierry Pozzo, Luciano Fadiga, Alessandro D'Ausilio
Summary: The study suggests that building reliable predictive models of others' actions is essential for successful social interaction, and there is ample evidence that our movements follow kinematic invariants, which can be used to reduce uncertainty during social exchanges. Recognizing others' actions by anchoring socially-relevant perceptual decisions to these invariants provides a computational advantage for inferring conspecifics' goals and intentions.
PHYSICS OF LIFE REVIEWS
(2023)
Editorial Material
Cell Biology
John Mann
Summary: Goodwin et al. found that a single 25 mg dose of psilocybin has short-term antidepressant effects in medication-resistant depression. Unanswered questions include the relationship between psychedelic effects and antidepressant benefits, the use of drug blood levels as a guide to dosage, and the potential risk of suicide associated with psilocybin.
CELL REPORTS MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Biology
Maria Cecilia Martinez, Camila Lidia Zold, Marcos Antonio Coletti, Mario Gustavo Murer, Mariano Andres Belluscio
Summary: The activity of the striatum plays a role in the timing of action sequence initiation and is linked to impulsivity. This modulation is more pronounced in adolescent rats, potentially reflecting age-related differences in reward expectation and temporal discounting.
Article
Geography
Jun Zhang
Summary: This article critically examines the bicycle-sharing programs as a socio-technical system, highlighting their complex effects on urban lives. It argues that these programs emerged as a capitalist technological fix and reproduce existing social hierarchy rather than disrupting it.
Article
Neurosciences
Eoin Travers, Nima Khalighinejad, Aaron Schurger, Patrick Haggard
Article
Psychology, Biological
Lucie Charles, Patrick Haggard
QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
(2020)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Anne-Catherine M. L. Huys, Brianna Beck, Patrick Haggard, Kailash P. Bhatia, Mark J. Edwards
Summary: The study showed that patients with FND do not exhibit a stronger placebo response compared to healthy controls, suggesting that increased suggestibility to placebo in FND patients may be a misconception. Instead, occasional dramatic placebo responses may occur due to the inherent variability of functional symptoms compared to organic diseases.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biology
Antonio Cataldo, Nobuhiro Hagura, Yousef Hyder, Patrick Haggard
Summary: Human perception of touch is influenced by inputs from multiple channels. Contrary to classical theories, it was found that inputs from two sub-modalities of mechanical input channels interact to determine tactile perception. Sustained mechanical pressure was shown to inhibit tingling sensations induced by a bioactive compound, without mediation from nociceptive or affective channels.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Anne Loffler, Anastasia Sylaidi, Zafeirios Fountas, Patrick Haggard
Summary: The study explores decision reversals that involve integrating multiple classes of information, such as sensory evidence, higher-order intentions, and motor costs. Movement trajectories reveal when participants change their mind about dot-motion direction and colour choices. Results show that decision reversals about colour intentions are less frequent in participants with stronger intentions and lower motor costs for intention pursuit.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Anne-Catherine M. L. Huys, Patrick Haggard, Kailash P. Bhatia, Mark J. Edwards
Summary: The study found that in functional tremor, the attentional focus on ongoing visual feedback from the movement is not beneficial and has a detrimental impact on motor performance. This altered attentional focus may partly responsible for functional tremor, and it also worsens motor performance in healthy control participants and patients with an organic action tremor when directed towards visual feedback.
Letter
Clinical Neurology
Anne-Catherine M. L. Huys, Patrick Haggard, Kailash P. Bhatia, Mark J. Edwards
MOVEMENT DISORDERS CLINICAL PRACTICE
(2022)
Article
Ethics
Sofia Bonicalzi, Eugenia Kulakova, Chiara Brozzo, Sam J. Gilbert, Patrick Haggard
Summary: Reasoning about underlying causal relations influences responsibility judgments, with a preference for pluralistic causal reasoning. Dependence theories and transference theories are two main approaches in causal reasoning, and hybrid models combining both have emerged. Our experiment findings indicate that diminished responsibility judgments occur when dependence, transference, or both fail.
PHILOSOPHICAL PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Anne-Catherine M. L. Huys, Patrick Haggard, Kailash P. Bhatia, Mark J. Edwards
Summary: This study aimed to test whether patients with functional tremor exaggerate their symptom perception and reporting. The results showed that compared to patients with organic tremor and healthy controls, patients with functional tremor did not perceive or report their tremor to be exaggerated.
JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Ivan Ezquerra-Romano, Maansib Chowdhury, Caterina Maria Leone, Gian Domenico Iannetti, Patrick Haggard
Summary: This paper introduces a non-contact, temperature-controlled, multi-purpose cooling stimulator, which can precisely control the cold sensation stimulation and be used to study different aspects of cold sensation. It avoids the interference of mechanical contact. Through experiments, it is verified that this method can measure the cold detection threshold without mechanical contact, providing a more accurate method for studying cold sensory pathways and cold-touch interactions.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE METHODS
(2023)
Article
Biology
Gaiqing Kong, Antonio Cataldo, Miruna Nitu, Lucile Dupin, Hiroaki Gomi, Patrick Haggard
Summary: During self-touch, the combination of kinaesthetic and tactile signals affects haptic perceptions. The size of perceived bumps is influenced by changes in tactile pressure.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Biology
Ashild Kummen, Patrick Haggard, Gwydion Williams, Lucie Charles
Summary: Research shows that people's perception of freedom is influenced by their behavioral tendencies, even when their choices are biased by habits. This illusion of freedom artificially increases the sense of freedom and has important implications for understanding mechanisms of persuasion.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Editorial Material
Psychology, Biological
Ebani Dhawan, Patrick Haggard
Summary: In cases of rape and sexual assault, victims often experience a state of immobility referred to as 'freezing'. Neuroscientific research suggests that this freeze response is a result of fear and threat, which can inhibit the brain circuits responsible for voluntary movement. Thus, defense arguments that blame victims for freezing are inappropriate and unfair.
NATURE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
(2023)
Letter
Clinical Neurology
Anne-Catherine M. L. Huys, Patrick Haggard
JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Letter
Clinical Neurology
Anne-Catherine M. L. Huys, Kailash P. Bhatia, Patrick Haggard, Mark J. Edwards
MOVEMENT DISORDERS CLINICAL PRACTICE
(2021)
