Predictive Mechanisms Are Not Involved the Same Way during Human-Human vs. Human-Machine Interactions: A Review <s> Passive Observation of Machines <s> Abstract Weinvestigated whether observation of actions reproduced in three-dimensional virtual reality would engage perceptual and visuomotor brain processes different from those induced by the observation of real hand actions. Participants were asked to passively observe grasping actions of geometrical objects made by a real hand or by hand reconstructions of different quality in 3D virtual reality as well as on a 2D TV screen. We found that only real actions in natural environment activated a visuospatial network including the right posterior parietal cortex. Observation of virtual-reality hand actions engaged prevalent visual perceptual processes within lateral and mesial occipital regions. Thus, only perception of actions in reality maps onto existing action representations, whereas virtual-reality conditions do not access the full motor knowledge available to the central nervous system. <s> BIB001 </s> Predictive Mechanisms Are Not Involved the Same Way during Human-Human vs. Human-Machine Interactions: A Review <s> Passive Observation of Machines <s> Abstract Previous work has shown that both human adults and children attend to grasping actions performed by another person but not necessarily to those made by a mechanical device [1–3]. According to recent neurophysiological data, the monkey premotor cortex contains "mirror" neurons that discharge both when the monkey performs specific manual grasping actions and when it observes another individual performing the same or similar actions [4–7]. However, when a human model uses tools to perform grasping actions, the mirror neurons are not activated [4–6]. A similar "mirror" system has been described in humans [8–15], but whether or not it is also tuned specifically to biological actions has never been tested. Here we show that when subjects observed manual grasping actions performed by a human model a significant neural response was elicited in the left premotor cortex. This activation was not evident for the observation of grasping actions performed by a robot model commanded by an experimenter. This result indicates for the first time that in humans the mirror system is biologically tuned. This system appears to be the neural substrate for biological preference during action coding. <s> BIB002 </s> Predictive Mechanisms Are Not Involved the Same Way during Human-Human vs. Human-Machine Interactions: A Review <s> Passive Observation of Machines <s> Recent behavioural and neuroimaging studies have found that observation of human movement, but not of robotic movement, gives rise to visuomotor priming. This implies that the Fmirror neuron_ or Faction observation–execution matching_ system in the premotor and parietal cortices is entirely unresponsive to robotic movement. The present study investigated this hypothesis using an Fautomatic imitation_ stimulus–response compatibility procedure. Participants were required to perform a prespecified movement (e.g. opening their hand) on presentation of a human or robotic hand in the terminal posture of a compatible movement (opened) or an incompatible movement (closed). Both the human and the robotic stimuli elicited automatic imitation; the prespecified action was initiated faster when it was cued by the compatible movement stimulus than when it was cued by the incompatible movement stimulus. However, even when the human and robotic stimuli were of comparable size, colour and brightness, the human hand had a stronger effect on performance. These results suggest that effector shape is sufficient to allow the action observation–matching system to distinguish human from robotic movement. They also indicate, as one would expect if this system develops through learning, that to varying degrees both human and robotic action can be Fsimulated_ by the premotor and parietal cortices. D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Theme: Neural basis of behaviour Topic: Cognition <s> BIB003 </s> Predictive Mechanisms Are Not Involved the Same Way during Human-Human vs. Human-Machine Interactions: A Review <s> Passive Observation of Machines <s> The current study investigated the properties of stimuli that lead to the activation of the human mirror neuron system, with an emphasis on those that are critically relevant for the perception of humanoid robots. Results suggest that robot actions, even those without objects, may activate the human mirror neuron system. Additionally, both volitional and nonvolitional human actions also appear to activate the mirror neuron system to relatively the same degree. Results from the current studies leave open the opportunity to use mirror neuron activation as a 'Turing test' for the development of truly humanoid robots. <s> BIB004 </s> Predictive Mechanisms Are Not Involved the Same Way during Human-Human vs. Human-Machine Interactions: A Review <s> Passive Observation of Machines <s> When interacting with a robot, the level of mental workload, comfort and trust during the interaction are decisive factors for an effective interaction. Hence, current research focuses on the concept, whether ascribing gantry robot in assembly with anthropomorphic movements can lead to a better anticipation of its behavior by the human operator. Therefore, in an empirical study the effect of different degrees of anthropomorphism should be compared. This is based on the scientific research concerning the neural activity of the human brain when watching someone performing an action. Within the study videos of a virtual gantry robot and a digital human model during placing movements were designed to use in the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The aim is to investigate the underlying brain mechanism during observing the movements of the two models. <s> BIB005
Many authors have argued that the action/observation matching predictive system could be activated during the observation of robot-generated actions BIB003 BIB004 BIB005 . In contrast, some PET studies found that the predictive system was not responsive to non-human-generated action, whatever its physical appearance or kinematic motion rules, and even when the goal of the action was understood by the observer BIB001 BIB002 .