ACTION COORDINATION

Cognitive and neural representations of action in temporally coordinated behaviour

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Many common behaviours such as moving a table, rowing a boat, and producing music require individual performers to coordinate their actions. Researchers have only begun to investigate the mechanisms of perception, action, and cognition that support these types of joint action (Galantucci and Sebanz, 2009). It has recently been suggested that the activation of mental representations of others’ actions may underlie successful joint action (Sebanz and Knoblich, 2009). However, it has also been argued that temporal coordination may be explained by dynamical principles that govern coordination between oscillating systems, without relying on higher-level cognitive representations (Marsh, Richardson, and Schmidt, 2009). The proposed research employs experimental analogs of ensemble music performance, in which two or more people produce separate musical sequences whose pitches are temporally coordinated, to determine a) whether representations of a co-performer’s actions are activated in temporally coordinated joint action and b) which components of the actions are represented by co-performers. The first question is addressed by comparing both behaviour and functional brain activity when people perform sequences alone and with another person. The second question is addressed by measuring neural activity in response to incongruence between the movements and pitches produced by co-performers and in response to violations of expectation about a co-performer’s pitch and timing. The proposed research will unite the applicant’s expertise in studying coordinated action using musical tasks with the European host's expertise in representation-based accounts of joint action. In doing so, the research will bridge the gap between two theoretical approaches to action coordination, and will further understanding of the mechanisms by which people produce the complex coordination they so easily achieve in everyday life.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Coordinated action is a subject of great interest to scientists. Understanding the underlying mechanisms could help lay the foundation for cutting edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and better man-machine interfaces.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Successful joint activities such as rowing require a smooth collaboration between the mechanisms of perception, action, and cognition.

The EU-funded 'Cognitive and neural representations of action in temporally coordinated behaviour' (ACTION COORDINATION) project will investigate if such actions are temporally activated.

Furthermore, the extent of an individual's cognitive and neural involvement in their partner's actions during such coordinated activities will also be assessed.Project researchers carried out three studies during the project period involving temporally coordinated action.

In the first study, pairs of experienced pianists performed musical duets and their brain activity was monitored using electroencephalography (EEG).

During the performance, incorrect pitches were introduced to observe changes in their brain activity and effect on performance.

Results revealed that besides monitoring individual and partner's performances, incorrect pitches affecting their shared goal evoked stronger brain responses.

This suggests that the brain monitors individual and group performance but considers shared goals in coordinated actions more significant than individual roles in a joint action.

The second study recruited 96 novices in piano playing to learn and perform musical duets.

Experiments were conducted to assess their performance while listening to the duet or individual part of their performance.

Interestingly, representations of the shared goal produced fewer errors than focussing on the individual goal. Another study focussed on deciphering how individuals in a joint action represent individual and group actions and maintain a distinction between them.

Using EEG, brain activity was recorded in 24 pairs of participants who had to coordinate button presses to produce single tones.

Interestingly, brain responses were reduced only when partners successfully produced single tones.

This suggests that people use information about their timing on a particular joint action to differentiate between their own and group contributions.Project activities have considerably enhanced our knowledge about how we perform joint actions using cognitive and neural mechanisms.

Better understanding of interpersonal coordination, can improve our productivity.

Moreover, this will enable better designing of man-machine interfaces and robots.