Motor Cognition: What Actions Tell to the Self

Oxford Psychology

by Marc Jeannerod

Our ability to acknowledge and recognise our own identity - our 'self' - is a characteristic doubtless unique to humans. Where does this feeling come from? How does the combination of neurophysiological processes coupled with our interaction with the outside world construct this coherent identity? We know that our social interactions contribute via the eyes, ears etc. However, our self is not only influenced by our senses. It is also influenced by the actions we perform and those we see others perform. Our brain anticipates the effects of our own actions and simulates the actions of others. In this way, we become able to understand ourselves and to understand the actions and emotions of others. This book is the first to describe the new field of 'Motor Cognition' - one to which the author's contribution has been seminal. Though motor actions have long been studied by neuroscientists and physiologists, it is only recently that scientists have considered the role of actions in building the self. How consciousness of action is part of self-consciousness, how one's own actions determine the sense of being an agent, how actions performed by others impact on ourselves for understanding others, differentiating ourselves from them and learning from them: these questions are raised and discussed throughout the book, drawing on experimental, clinical, and theoretical bases. The advent of new neuroscience techniques, like neuroimaging and direct electrical brain stimulation, together with a renewal of behavioral methods in cognitive psychology, provide new insights into this area. Mental imagery of action, self-recognition, consciousness of actions, imitation can be objectively studied using these new tools. The results of these investigations shed light on clinical disorders in neurology, psychiatry and in neuro-development. This is a major new work that will lay down the foundations for the field of motor cognition.

Genres: Psychology

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeannerod collects a career's worth of research into an accessible and engaging read that successfully etches out a new research field while providing a novel approach and experimental measures to support his claims. Motor Cognition represents a consolidation of years of research defining a unique subfield of experimental psychology, neuropsychiatry, cognitive neuroscience, and psychophysics.

Jeannerod explores our motor actions in both conscious and subconscious contexts, highlighting our mechanisms for self-attribution of our actions. Super interesting for anyone interested in human volition, bodily perception, and fans of the interaction between our brains and bodily movement.

Though its content is rather academic in nature, the text is completely approachable to readers unfamiliar with the concepts. I feel it reads as a 'popular science' book done right; it avoids the plaguing journalistic liberties often taken by non-scientists writing science.

[Ondrej Havlicek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice review of the literature on motor aspects of cognition. Motor processes seem to be involved in everything, which is no wonder given that our brains might have developed primarily for the purpose of movement. Jeannerod also uses the literature to argue for his simulation theory. Basically, whenever there is any covert action, be it planned, imagined, observed, heard etc, some part of our motor cortex is active => we covertly simulate the action. Not sure about the validity of the inference and there are definitely reasons for some skepticism. Fortunately it is based also on some behavioral evidence. Of course, mirror neurons are involved and parallels to social cognition are drawn. This piece is a bit old so I am not sure how popular and supported this view is in the current literature. I take it as a very nice and useful introduction into this topic and can well recommend it.