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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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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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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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1355
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