Uli,or to higherlevel cognitive processes In distinct,we investigated whether cortical theta and mu oscillations are modulated by the human likeness of your observed agent. We characterized human likeness in two diverse methods: in terms of look and in terms of motion. Participants watched videos of three agents as their EEG was recorded: Human,Android,and Robot. Human had biological look and movement,Android had biological look and mechanical movement,and Robot had mechanical appearance and mechanical movement (see Figure ,Strategies,and Saygin et al for much more detail).FIGURE Nevertheless frames from the videos made use of inside the experiment depicting the three actors: Human,Android,and Robot.Frontiers in Neuroroboticswww.frontiersin.orgNovember Volume Article Urgen et al.EEG oscillations throughout action observationWe hypothesized that if mu suppression is influenced by the specific visual properties from the observed action,we may locate a difference amongst the actions on the different agents based on their look andor motion qualities. If alternatively mu suppression reflects higherlevel processes connected to the which means of your action,then the agents could not differ from one another given that they all perform the exact same recognizable actions in spite of their distinct degrees of human likeness. For theta activity,we hypothesized that its energy will be modulated by the human likeness of the observed agent,reflecting the processing demands of mapping the visual input into current semantic representations. Considering that inside the context of action processing,persons are additional acquainted with human actors than robot actors,we hypothesized memory processes would differ depending on the agent’s appearance. More specifically,we hypothesized that the power on the theta oscillations would lower as a MedChemExpress LY300046 function with the human likeness on the observed agent,since observation of fairly unfamiliar stimuli would result in higher memory processing demands (Hald et al. ZionGolumbic et al. Atienza et al. We hence anticipated that observation of your Robot would lead to improved theta activity when compared with the Human,because the humanlike appearance with the agent would facilitate access to semantic representations related to human action. The Android condition,which capabilities humanlike look but nonhuman motion,in addition permits us to ask whether or not the human likeness with the motion is a modulator of memory processes. In sum,the aim on the study was threefold. First,by manipulating a variety of capabilities on the observed agent,we aimed to enhance our understanding on the functional significance of EEG mu and theta oscillations during action observation and their relation for the MNS. Second,applying robots as experimental stimuli in the presence of existing PubMed ID:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24710593 understanding in cognitive neuroscience of action perception,we aimed to inform robotics about how humans respond to robots of varying degrees of human likeness,what dependent measures could possibly be made use of as goldstandards for social robotics investigation,and accordingly for guiding the design of robots in the longterm. Lastly,the present study allowed us to do crossmethodology comparison,as we previously reported an fMRI study using the exact same agents as stimuli (Saygin et al.correct and middle pictures,respectively) and by the human “master,” following whom Repliee Q was modeled (Figure left image). We refer to these agents because the Robot,the Android (dressed up robot),along with the Human situations (despite the fact that the former two are in truth the s.