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18 - Reading Intention in Action

from Part IV - Understanding Others

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2016

By
Caterina Ansuini ,
Andrea Cavallo ,
Cesare Bertone  and
Cristina Becchio
Edited by
Sukhvinder S. Obhi  and
Emily S. Cross
Sukhvinder S. Obhi
Affiliation:
McMaster University, Ontario
Emily S. Cross
Affiliation:
Bangor University
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Summary

Abstract

The human ability to predict and interpret others’ intentions is crucial to social life. The purpose of this chapter is to consider the proposition that intentions can be understood from observing others’ movements. To this end, we first focus on experimental evidence showing that individual, social and communicative intentions ‘shape’ movement kinematics. Next, we review recent work suggesting that during action observation humans are capable of picking up intention information and using it to predict others’ behavior. In the third section, we address the neural mechanisms that mediate the ability to read intention from movement observation. Based on preliminary data, we argue that mirror neuron areas are sensitive to intention information conveyed by movement kinematics. Finally, we discuss the hypothesis that a deficit in this ability might account for the difficulties in social interaction reported in autism spectrum disorders.

Type
Chapter
Information
Shared Representations
Sensorimotor Foundations of Social Life
 , pp. 374 - 391
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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