Action mirroring and action understanding: an ideomotor and attentional account

Research over the last years has provided compelling evidence that the perception of an action leads to an activation of the perceiver’s own motor system. Furthermore, it has been suggested that such a mirroring process supports the understanding of the other’s action. However, the precise neurocognitive mechanisms behind this process remained unclear. Moreover, the hypothesis that activation in the motor system is directly related to the ascription of an intention to another person has been repeatedly criticized on conceptual grounds. This article suggests a conceptual framework that deals with both issues. Applying the ideomotor theory to the realm of action perception, it is suggested that the activation of one’s own motor system through the perception of another person’s action leads to an activation of the associated representation of the action’s typical effect. This activation, in turn, modulates (visual) attention and leads to a facilitated processing of potentially relevant information in the environment and may so contribute to action understanding.