Event:

Motor contagions refer to implicit effects on one’s actions induced by observed actions. Motor contagions are believed to be induced simply by action observation and cause an observer’s action to become similar to the action observed. However, in our recent work, we discovered a new motor contagion that is induced only when the observation is accompanied by prediction errors -differences between actions one observes and those he/she predicts or expects. In two experiments with professional sportsmen, we show that this contagion is distinct and arguably more dominant than contagions induced by action observation, and can lead to deterioration in performance of professionals after observing a novice. In this talk, I will give a brief summary of my work in "human centric robotics"- in which I utilize parallel research in robotics, motor neuroscience and cognitive neuroscience to improving machines that interact with humans. I will then talk in more detail about our cognitive neuroscience experiments investigating prediction error induced motor contagions, and discuss how this contagion may be the missing link between mechanisms investigated in action observation and action production by humans.