Grasp and remember: the impact of human and robotic actions on object preference and memory.

Goal contagion, the tendency to adopt others' goals, significantly impacts cognitive processes, which gains particular importance in the emerging field of human-robot interactions. The present study explored how observing human versus robotic actions affects preference and memory. Series of objects undergoing either human or robotic grasping actions together with static (no action) objects were presented, while participants indicated their preference for each object.

Genetic effects on variability in visual aesthetic evaluations are partially shared across visual domains.

The aesthetic values that individuals place on visual images are formed and shaped over a lifetime. However, whether the formation of visual aesthetic value is solely influenced by environmental exposure is still a matter of debate. Here, we considered differences in aesthetic value emerging across three visual domains: abstract images, scenes, and faces.

Dissociating embodiment and emotional reactivity in motor responses to artworks.

Perceiving art is known to elicit motor cortex activation in an observer's brain. This motor activation has often been attributed to a covert approach response associated with the emotional valence of an art piece (emotional reaction hypothesis). However, recent accounts have proposed that aesthetic experiences could be grounded in the motor simulation of actions required to produce an art piece and of the sensorimotor states embedded in its subject (embodied aesthetic hypothesis).

IPL-M1 interaction shapes pre-reflective social differentiation in the human action system: new insights from TBS and TMS combined.

The conscious experience of being the author of our own actions is thought to be grounded in pre-reflective and low-level sensorimotor representations of the self as different from the other. It has been suggested that the inferior parietal lobe (IPL) is generally involved in self-other differentiation processes and in providing an explicit sense of action authorship. However, direct evidence for its causal and functional role in distinguishing self-related and other-related sensorimotor representations is lacking.

From goals to muscles: motor familiarity shapes the representation of action-related sounds in the human motor system.

Numerous studies corroborated the idea that the sound of familiar motor acts triggers a muscle-specific replica of the perceived actions in the listener's brain. We recently contradicted this conclusion by demonstrating that the representation of newly-learned action-related sounds is not somatotopically organised but rather it corresponds to the goal a particular action aims to achieve. In the present study, we aimed at reconciling these results.

Modulating Mimetic Preference with Theta Burst Stimulation of the Inferior Parietal Cortex.

We like an object more when we see someone else reaching for it. To what extent is action observation causally linked to object valuation? In this study, we set out to answer to this question by applying continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) over the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL). Previous studies pointed to this region as critical in the representation of others' actions and in tool manipulation.

Mirror and (absence of) counter-mirror responses to action sounds measured with TMS.

To what extent is the mirror neuron mechanism malleable to experience? The answer to this question can help characterising its ontogeny and its role in social cognition. Some suggest that it develops through sensorimotor associations congruent with our own actions. Others argue for its extreme volatility that will encode any sensorimotor association in the environment.

The Role of the Orbitofrontal and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortices in Aesthetic Preference for Art.

The search for the underlying neural activation that occurs during subjective aesthetic experiences of artwork has been enhanced through neuroimaging techniques. Recently, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, alongside the orbitofrontal cortex, have been implicated in aesthetic appreciation, and this is the focus of the present paper. Here, the validity of this conclusion is examined through the discussion of its neuroanatomical connections and functional properties.

Enhancing aesthetic appreciation by priming canvases with actions that match the artist's painting style.

The creation of an artwork requires motor activity. To what extent is art appreciation divorced from that activity and to what extent is it linked to it? That is the question which we set out to answer. We presented participants with pointillist-style paintings featuring discernible brushstrokes and asked them to rate their liking of each canvas when it was preceded by images priming a motor act either compatible or incompatible with the simulation of the artist's movements.

Conscious and unconscious representations of observed actions in the human motor system.

Action observation activates the observer's motor system. These motor resonance responses are automatic and triggered even when the action is only implied in static snapshots. However, it is largely unknown whether an action needs to be consciously perceived to trigger motor resonance.

Motor simulation and the coordination of self and other in real-time joint action.

Joint actions require the integration of simultaneous self- and other-related behaviour. Here, we investigated whether this function is underpinned by motor simulation, that is the capacity to represent a perceived action in terms of the neural resources required to execute it. This was tested in a music performance experiment wherein on-line brain stimulation (double-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation, dTMS) was employed to interfere with motor simulation.

Imitating others' actions: transcranial magnetic stimulation of the parietal opercula reveals the processes underlying automatic imitation.

The human tendency to imitate gestures performed by conspecifics is automatic in nature. However, whether this automatic imitation can be considered as a true imitative phenomenon or only as a special instance of spatial compatibility is still being debated. New evidence suggests that automatic imitation, otherwise known as 'imitative compatibility', shall be considered as a phenomenon that operates independently from spatial compatibility.

Action observation in the infant brain: the role of body form and motion.

Much research has been carried out to understand how human brains make sense of another agent in motion. Current views based on human adult and monkey studies assume a matching process in the motor system biased toward actions performed by conspecifics and present in the observer's motor repertoire. However, little is known about the neural correlates of action cognition in early ontogeny.

Distinguishing self and other in joint action. Evidence from a musical paradigm.

The capacity to distinguish between one's own and others' behavior is a cognitive prerequisite for successful joint action. We employed a musical joint action task to investigate how the brain achieves this distinction. Pianists performed the right-hand part of piano pieces, previously learned bimanually, while the complementary left-hand part either was not executed or was (believed to be) played by a co-performer.

The impact of aesthetic evaluation and physical ability on dance perception.

The field of neuroaesthetics attracts attention from neuroscientists and artists interested in the neural underpinnings of esthetic experience. Though less studied than the neuroaesthetics of visual art, dance neuroaesthetics is a particularly rich subfield to explore, as it is informed not only by research on the neurobiology of aesthetics, but also by an extensive literature on how action experience shapes perception. Moreover, it is ideally suited to explore the embodied simulation account of esthetic experience, which posits that activation within sensorimotor areas of the brain, known as the action observation network (AON), is a critical element of the esthetic response.

When sounds become actions: higher-order representation of newly learned action sounds in the human motor system.

In the absence of visual information, our brain is able to recognize the actions of others by representing their sounds as a motor event. Previous studies have provided evidence for a somatotopic activation of the listener's motor cortex during perception of the sound of highly familiar motor acts. The present experiments studied (a) how the motor system is activated by action-related sounds that are newly acquired and (b) whether these sounds are represented with reference to extrinsic features related to action goals rather than with respect to lower-level intrinsic parameters related to the specific movements.

Peripheral homonymous hemianopia: correlation between lesion location and visual field defects by means of cytoarchitectonic probabilistic maps.

Background: Peripheral homonymous scotomas beyond 30° from fixation are rare. The paucity of publications describing such visual field defects might be attributed to various factors, including the absence of severe symptoms, routine visual field assessment restricted to the central 30° with automated perimetry, and the collateral circulation to the occipital cortex. The aim of this study was to correlate the brain lesions and perimetric findings in 2 unusual cases of peripheral homonymous scotomas, with the anatomic location of the optic radiation and primary visual cortex.

Chronic stroke recovery after combined BCI training and physiotherapy: a case report.

A case of partial recovery after stroke and its associated brain reorganization in a chronic patient after combined brain computer interface (BCI) training and physiotherapy is presented. A multimodal neuroimaging approach based on fMRI and diffusion tensor imaging was used to investigate plasticity of the brain motor system in parallel with longitudinal clinical assessments. A convergent association between functional and structural data in the ipsilesional premotor areas was observed.

The role of temporo-parietal cortex in subcortical visual extinction.

Visual extinction is an intriguing defect of awareness in stroke patients, referring to the unsuccessful perception of contralesional events under conditions of competition. Previous studies have investigated the cortical and subcortical brain structures that, when damaged or inactivated, provoke visual extinction. The present experiment asked how lesions of subcortical structures may contribute to the appearance of visual extinction.

Perfusion imaging in Pusher syndrome to investigate the neural substrates involved in controlling upright body position.

Brain damage may induce a dysfunction of upright body position termed "pusher syndrome". Patients with such disorder suffer from an alteration of their sense of body verticality. They experience their body as oriented upright when actually tilted nearly 20 degrees to the ipsilesional side.

Damage to white matter fiber tracts in acute spatial neglect.

Previous statistical voxelwise lesion-behavior mapping (VLBM) studies have demonstrated that spatial neglect is associated with cortical and subcortical gray matter damage. However, it has also been suggested that the disorder may result from white matter injury. Our aim was to investigate the white matter connectivity in a large sample of 140 stroke patients.