Visual aftereffects for walking actions reveal underlying neural mechanisms for action recognition

Barraclough, Nick; Jellema, Tjeerd

Abstract

The results of this study illustrate a new high-level visual aftereffect: Observing actors walking forward, without horizontal translation, makes subsequent actors appear to walk backward, and the opposite effect is obtained after observing backward walking. We used this aftereffect, which cannot be explained by simple low-level adaptation to motion direction, to investigate the properties of neural mechanisms underlying recognition of walking actions. Our results suggest that the perception of walking and the perception of static images of actors in walking postures rely on common brain mechanisms that are primarily object centered, rather than viewer centered, and that are blind to the identity of the actor. These results, obtained with human psychophysical adaptation techniques, support previous evidence accumulated using single-unit recording in nonhuman primates. In addition, these results provide evidence that current models of human action recognition require an object-centered processing stage. © The Author(s) 2011.

Citation

Barraclough, N., & Jellema, T. (2011). Visual aftereffects for walking actions reveal underlying neural mechanisms for action recognition. Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS, 22(1), 87-94. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610391910

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 30, 2010
• Online Publication Date: Dec 16, 2010
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2011
• Deposit Date: Nov 13, 2014
• Journal: Psychological Science
• Print ISSN: 0956-7976
• Publisher: Association for Psychological Science
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 87-94
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610391910
• Keywords: visual perception social perception vision social cognition extrastriate body area biological motion object recognition implied motion static images perception adaptation neurons representation viewpoint,
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/464810
• Publisher URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797610391910
• Contract Date: Nov 13, 2014