Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/4810
Title: The magic grasp: Motor expertise in deception
Authors: Cavina-Pratesi, C
Kuhn, G
Ietswaart, M
Milner, A D
Issue Date: 2011
Publisher: Public Library of Science
Citation: PLoS ONE 6(2): e16568, Feb 2011
Abstract: Background: Most of us are poor at faking actions. Kinematic studies have shown that when pretending to pick up imagined objects (pantomimed actions), we move and shape our hands quite differently from when grasping real ones. These differences between real and pantomimed actions have been linked to separate brain pathways specialized for different kinds of visuomotor guidance. Yet professional magicians regularly use pantomimed actions to deceive audiences. Methodology and Principal Findings: In this study, we tested whether, despite their skill, magicians might still show kinematic differences between grasping actions made toward real versus imagined objects. We found that their pantomimed actions in fact closely resembled real grasps when the object was visible (but displaced) (Experiment 1), but failed to do so when the object was absent (Experiment 2). Conclusions and Significance: We suggest that although the occipito-parietal visuomotor system in the dorsal stream is designed to guide goal-directed actions, prolonged practice may enable it to calibrate actions based on visual inputs displaced from the action.
Description: This is an open access article, with the official published version at the link below.
URI: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/4810
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0016568
ISSN: 1932-6203
Appears in Collections:Psychology
Dept of Life Sciences Research Papers

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