Abstract
Previous studies have shown that viewing others in pain activates cortical somatosensory processing areas and facilitates the detection of tactile targets. It has been suggested that such shared representations have evolved to enable us to better understand the actions and intentions of others. If this is the case, the effects of observing others in pain should be obtained from a range of viewing perspectives. Therefore, the current study examined the behavioral effects of observed grasps of painful and nonpainful objects from both a first- and third-person perspective. In the first-person perspective, a participant was faster to detect a tactile target delivered to their own hand when viewing painful grasping actions, compared with all nonpainful actions. However, this effect was not revealed in the third-person perspective. The combination of action and object information to predict the painful consequences of another person's actions when viewed from the first-person perspective, but not the third-person perspective, argues against a mechanism ostensibly evolved to understand the actions of others.
DOI
10.1037/a0035348
Publication Date
2014-04-01
Publication Title
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform
Volume
40
Issue
2
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
ISSN
1939-1277
Embargo Period
2024-11-22
Additional Links
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24708424
First Page
457
Last Page
464
Recommended Citation
Bach, P., Fenton-Adams, W., & Tipper, S. (2014) 'Can't touch this: the first-person perspective provides privileged access to predictions of sensory action outcomes.', J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform, 40(2), pp. 457-464. American Psychological Association (APA): Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035348
Comments
RCUK Open Access funded. ESRC ES/J019178/1