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Abstract:
When we perceive human actions or even objects, processing is not conned to the visual areas in the brain, but also involves specic cortical networks, which are normally used for motor control (e.g., Chao & Martin, 2000; Gallese, 2003; Jeannerod, 2001; Rizzolatti & Craighero, 2004). The activation of motor representations through perception implies a strong linkage between perception and action. This notion can be traced back to William James, who claimed that “every representation of a movement awakens in some degree the actual movement which is its object” (James, 1890, p. 1134). Later Greenwald (1970) made a similar proposal by stating that an action can automatically be induced not only by internally representing an action (goal) but also by perceiving it in the external world. Meanwhile, there is plenty of evidence that perceptual processing and action planning are intrinsically linked, and coded in a common representational medium (e.g., Hommel, Müsseler, Aschersleben, & Prinz, 2001; Prinz, 1990, 1997).
