Moving in a co-ordinated fashion with another individual changes our behaviour towards them; we tend to like them more, find them more attractive, and are more willing to co-operate with them. It is generally assumed that this effect on behaviour results from alterations in representations of self and others. Specifically, through neurophysiological perception-action matching mechanisms, interpersonal motor co-ordination (IMC) is believed to forge a neural coupling between actor and observer, which serves to blur boundaries in conceptual self-other representations and causes positive views of the self to be projected onto others. An investigation into this potential neural mechanism is lacking, however. Moreover, the specific components of IMC that might influence this mechanism have not yet been specified. In the present study we exploited a robust behavioural phenomenon--automatic imitation--to assess the degree to which IMC influences neural action observation-execution matching mechanisms. This revealed that automatic imitation is reduced when the actions of another individual are perceived to be synchronised in time, but are spatially incongruent, with our own. We interpret our findings as evidence that IMC does indeed exert an effect on neural perception-action matching mechanisms, but this serves to promote better self-other distinction. Our findings demonstrate that further investigation is required to understand the complex relationship between neural perception-action coupling, conceptual self-other representations, and social behaviour.

Behavioral and Social Neuroscience Research Group CEITEC Central European Institute of Technology Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Behavioral and Social Neuroscience Research Group CEITEC Central European Institute of Technology Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic ; 1st Department of Neurology Faculty of Medicine and St Anne's University Hospital Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Lakin JL, Jefferis VE, Cheng CM, Chartrand TL (2003) The chameleon effect as social glue: Evidence for the evolutionary significance of nonconscious mimicry. Journal of nonverbal behavior 27: 145–162.

Chartrand TL, Lakin JL (2013) The antecedents and consequences of human behavioral mimicry. Annual review of psychology 64: 285–308. PubMed

Sebanz N, Knoblich G (2009) Prediction in joint action: what, when, and where. Topics in Cognitive Science 1: 353–367. PubMed

Hove MJ, Risen JL (2009) It’s all in the timing: Interpersonal synchrony increases affiliation. Social Cognition 27: 949–960.

Launay J, Dean RT, Bailes F (2013) Synchronization can influence trust following virtual interaction. Experimental psychology 60: 53–63. PubMed

Valdesolo P, Ouyang J, DeSteno D (2010) The rhythm of joint action: Synchrony promotes cooperative ability. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 46: 693–695.

Wiltermuth SS, Heath C (2009) Synchrony and cooperation. Psychological Science 20: 1–5. PubMed

Chartrand TL, van Baaren RB (2009) Human mimicry. In: Zanna MP, editor. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. San Diego, CA: Academic. 219–74.

Maddux WW, Mullen E, Galinsky AD (2008) Chameleons bake bigger pies and take bigger pieces: Strategic behavioral mimicry facilitates negotiation outcomes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 44: 461–468.

Swaab RI, Maddux WW, Sinaceur M (2011) Early words that work: When and how virtual linguistic mimicry facilitates negotiation outcomes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 47: 616–621.

James W (1890) The principles of psychology (Vol. 2). New York: Holt.

Strafella AP, Paus T (2000) Modulation of cortical excitability during action observation: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study. NeuroReport 11: 2289–92. PubMed

Oosterhof NN, Wiggett AJ, Diedrichsen J, Tipper SP, Downing PE (2010) Surface-based information mapping reveals crossmodal vision–Action representations in human parietal and occipitotemporal cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology 104: 1077–1089. PubMed PMC

Rizzolatti G, Craighero L (2004) The mirror-neuron system. Annual Review of Neuroscience 27: 169–192. PubMed

Knoblich G, Sebanz N (2008) Evolving intentions for social interaction: from entrainment to joint action. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 363: 2021–2031. PubMed PMC

Gallese V (2001) The shared manifold hypothesis. From mirror neurons to empathy. Journal of consciousness studies 8: 5–7.

Gallese V (2003) The roots of empathy: the shared manifold hypothesis and the neural basis of intersubjectivity. Psychopathology 36: 171–180. PubMed

Farmer H, Tsakiris M (2012) The bodily social self: a link between phenomenal and narrative selfhood. Review of Philosophy and Psychology 3: 125–144.

Smith ER (2008) An embodied account of self-other “overlap” and its effects. In: Semin GR, Smith ER, editors. Embodied grounding: Social, cognitive, affective and neuroscientific approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 148–159.

Galinsky AD, Ku G, Wang CS (2005) Perspective-taking and self-other overlap: Fostering social bonds and facilitating social coordination. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 8: 109–124.

Miles LK, Nind LK, Henderson Z, Macrae CN (2010) Moving memories: Behavioral synchrony and memory for self and others. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 46: 457–460.

Miles LK, Nind LK, Macrae CN (2009) The rhythm of rapport: Interpersonal synchrony and social perception. Journal of experimental social psychology 45: 585–589.

Valdesolo P, DeSteno D (2011) Synchrony and the social tuning of compassion. Emotion 11: 262–266. PubMed

Lakens D (2010) Movement synchrony and perceived entitativity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 46: 701–708.

Paladino MP, Mazzurega M, Pavani F, Schubert TW (2010) Synchronous multisensory stimulation blurs self-other boundaries. Psychological Science 21: 1202–1207. PubMed

Tsakiris M (2008) Looking for myself: current multisensory input alters self-face recognition. PLoS ONE 3: e4040. PubMed PMC

Tajadura-Jiménez A, Grehl S, Tsakiris M (2012) The other in me: interpersonal multisensory stimulation changes the mental representation of the self. PLoS ONE 7: e40682. PubMed PMC

Keysers C, Wicker B, Gazzola V, Anton JL, Fogassi L, et al. (2004) A touching sight: SII/PV activation during the observation and experience of touch. Neuron 42: 335–346. PubMed

Ebisch SJ, Ferri F, Salone A, Perrucci MG, D’Amico L, et al. (2011) Differential involvement of somatosensory and interoceptive cortices during the observation of affective touch. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 23: 1808–1822. PubMed

Keysers C, Kaas JH, Gazzola V (2010) Somatosensation in social perception. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 11: 417–428. PubMed

Heyes C (2011) Automatic imitation. Psychological bulletin 137: 463–483. PubMed

Catmur C, Walsh V, Heyes C (2009) Associative sequence learning: the role of experience in the development of imitation and the mirror system. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 364: 2369–2380. PubMed PMC

Catmur C, Walsh V, Heyes C (2007) Sensorimotor learning configures the human mirror system. Current Biology 17: 1527–1531. PubMed

Catmur C, Mars RB, Rushworth MF, Heyes C (2011) Making mirrors: premotor cortex stimulation enhances mirror and counter-mirror motor facilitation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 23: 2352–2362. PubMed

Leighton J, Bird G, Orsini, Heyes C (2010) Social attitudes modulate automatic imitation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 46: 905–910.

Cook J, Bird G (2011) Social attitudes differentially modulate imitation in adolescents and adults. Experimental brain research 211: 601–612. PubMed PMC

Cook JL, Bird G (2012) Atypical social modulation of imitation in autism spectrum conditions. Journal of autism and developmental disorders 42: 1045–1051. PubMed PMC

Shockley K, Santana MV, Fowler CA (2003) Mutual interpersonal postural constraints are involved in cooperative conversation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 29: 326–332. PubMed

Schmidt RC, Richardson MJ (2008) Dynamics of interpersonal coordination. In: Fuchs A, Jirsa VVK, editors. Coordination: neural, behavioral and social dynamics. Springer: Berlin.

Stürmer B, Aschersleben G, Prinz W (2000) Correspondence effects with manual gestures and postures: a study of imitation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 26: 1746–1759. PubMed

Brass M, Bekkering H, Prinz W (2001) Movement observation affects movement execution in a simple response task. Acta psychologica 106: 3–22. PubMed

Heyes C, Bird G, Johnson H, Haggard P (2005) Experience modulates automatic imitation. Cognitive Brain Research 22: 233–240. PubMed

Press C, Bird G, Walsh E, Heyes C (2008) Automatic imitation of intransitive actions. Brain and cognition 67: 44–50. PubMed

Chartrand TL, Bargh JA (1999) The chameleon effect: The perception–behavior link and social interaction. Journal of personality and social psychology 76: 893–910. PubMed

Hayes AF (2013) Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guilford Press: New York.

Macrae CN, Duffy OK, Miles LK, Lawrence J (2008) A case of hand waving: Action synchrony and person perception. Cognition 109: 152–156. PubMed

Press C, Gillmeister H, Heyes C (2007) Sensorimotor experience enhances automatic imitation of robotic action. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 274: 2509–2514. PubMed PMC

Iacoboni M, Woods RP, Brass M, Bekkering H, Mazziotta JC, et al. (1999) Cortical mechanisms of human imitation. Science 286: 2526–2528. PubMed

Brass M, Derrfuss J, von Cramon DY (2005) The inhibition of imitative and overlearned responses: a functional double dissociation. Neuropsychologia 43: 89–98. PubMed

Brass M, Zysset S, von Cramon DY (2001) The inhibition of imitative response tendencies. Neuroimage 14: 1416–1423. PubMed

Brass M, Ruby P, Spengler S (2009) Inhibition of imitative behaviour and social cognition. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 364: 2359–2367. PubMed PMC

Spengler S, von Cramon DY, Brass M (2009) Control of shared representations relies on key processes involved in mental state attribution. Human brain mapping 30: 3704–3718. PubMed PMC

Brass M, Derrfuss J, Matthes-von Cramon G, von Cramon DY (2003) Imitative response tendencies in patients with frontal brain lesions. Neuropsychology 17: 265–271. PubMed

Frith CD (2007) The social brain? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 362: 671–678. PubMed PMC

Frith CD, Frith U (2012) Mechanisms of social cognition. Annual review of psychology 63: 287–313. PubMed

Van Overwalle F (2009) Social cognition and the brain: A meta-analysis. Human brain mapping 30: 829–858. PubMed PMC

Van Overwalle F, Baetens K (2009) Understanding others’ actions and goals by mirror and mentalizing systems: a meta-analysis. Neuroimage 48: 564–584. PubMed

Bird G, Leighton J, Press C, Heyes CM (2007) Intact automatic imitation of human and robot actions in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences 274: 3027–31. PubMed PMC

Santiesteban I, White S, Cook J, Gilbert SJ, Heyes C, et al. (2012) Training social cognition: from imitation to theory of mind. Cognition 122: 228–235. PubMed

Aron A, Aron EN, Smollan D (1992) Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness. Journal of personality and social psychology 63: 596.

Aron A, Lewandowski GW Jr, Mashek D, Aron EN (2013) The self-expansion model of motivation and cognition in close relationships. In: Simpson JA, Campbell L,editors. The Oxford handbook of close relationships. Oxford University Press: USA.

Mazzurega M, Pavani F, Paladino MP, Schubert TW (2011) Self-other bodily merging in the context of synchronous but arbitrary-related multisensory inputs. Experimental brain research 213: 213–221. PubMed

Likowski KU, Mühlberger A, Seibt B, Pauli P, Weyers P (2008) Modulation of facial mimicry by attitudes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 44: 1065–1072.

Stel M, Blascovich J, McCall C, Mastop J, Van Baaren RB, et al. (2010) Mimicking disliked others: Effects of a priori liking on the mimicry-liking link. European Journal of Social Psychology 40: 867–880.

Stel M, van Baaren RB, Blascovich J, van Dijk E, McCall C, et al. (2010) Effects of a priori liking on the elicitation of mimicry. Experimental psychology 57: 412–418. PubMed

McIntosh DN (2006) Spontaneous facial mimicry, liking and emotional contagion. Polish Psychological Bulletin 37: 31–42.

Orthogonal-compatibility effects confound automatic imitation: implications for measuring self-other distinction