Part 1 (usually we center this left, and keep it bolded rather than underlined)
In “Action Observation and Acquired Motor Skills: An fMRI Study with Expert Dancers” by Calvo-Merino et al., (usually you have to list all of the researchers names the first time before saying et al. et al is used as an abbreviation after first stating all those included in the process) the process studied was action observation. Through studying the acquired motor skill, dancing, Calvo-Merino et al. sought to discover whether or not the system for action observation is influenced by an individual’s motor experience. Calvo Merino et al. hypothesized that if the individual’s brain system responsible for action observation is specifically tuned to the individual’s …show more content…
They also ensured that the faces of the dancers were blurred in order to emphasize body movement. Furthermore, in order to test the assumption that differences in brain activation were due to expertise levels alone, two non-expert control groups were tested to see if they experienced similar activity levels while watching both styles of dance. If they both experienced similar activity levels then it could be concluded that any differences in action observation activity were due to differences in the expertise levels of the two groups. The fMRI images were analyzed and the results demonstrated bilateral activation in the premotor cortex, bilateral activation in the intraparietal cortex and right superior parietal lobe. However, posterior parts of the superior temporal sulcus were also activated in the left hemisphere and it should be noted that the bilateral activations in the premotor and intraparietal cortex were larger in the left hemispheres than in the right. Individuals experienced greater activation levels in these classical mirror regions of the brain while observing the style of dance in which they had training. These results imply that action observation potentially …show more content…
“Experts See it All: Configural Effects in Action Observation” by Calvo-Merino et al. expanded on that knowledge by investigating how both visual and motor experience affect the perceptual mechanism that is responsible for the configural processing of actions. In their study, expert ballet dancers were matched with non-expert ballet dancers and they all watched pairs of upright and inverted point light female dance movements and unisex dance movement. Although some ballet movements are gender-specific, males and females train together and therefore they both have visual knowledge of each other’s moves. The “point light” method involved having the female dancers wear tight black clothing with reflecting markers attached to the clothes. Eight classical ballet movements were selected, all balancing the following criteria; speed of movement, displacement of the body and whether or not the movements were female-specific or unisex. Each dancer was then recorded performing each movement. It is worth noting that the differences between movements were very subtle and that dancers featured in the videos were female. The females possessed both visual and motor experience of the dance movements
In “Action Observation and Acquired Motor Skills: An fMRI Study with Expert Dancers” by Calvo-Merino et al., (usually you have to list all of the researchers names the first time before saying et al. et al is used as an abbreviation after first stating all those included in the process) the process studied was action observation. Through studying the acquired motor skill, dancing, Calvo-Merino et al. sought to discover whether or not the system for action observation is influenced by an individual’s motor experience. Calvo Merino et al. hypothesized that if the individual’s brain system responsible for action observation is specifically tuned to the individual’s …show more content…
They also ensured that the faces of the dancers were blurred in order to emphasize body movement. Furthermore, in order to test the assumption that differences in brain activation were due to expertise levels alone, two non-expert control groups were tested to see if they experienced similar activity levels while watching both styles of dance. If they both experienced similar activity levels then it could be concluded that any differences in action observation activity were due to differences in the expertise levels of the two groups. The fMRI images were analyzed and the results demonstrated bilateral activation in the premotor cortex, bilateral activation in the intraparietal cortex and right superior parietal lobe. However, posterior parts of the superior temporal sulcus were also activated in the left hemisphere and it should be noted that the bilateral activations in the premotor and intraparietal cortex were larger in the left hemispheres than in the right. Individuals experienced greater activation levels in these classical mirror regions of the brain while observing the style of dance in which they had training. These results imply that action observation potentially …show more content…
“Experts See it All: Configural Effects in Action Observation” by Calvo-Merino et al. expanded on that knowledge by investigating how both visual and motor experience affect the perceptual mechanism that is responsible for the configural processing of actions. In their study, expert ballet dancers were matched with non-expert ballet dancers and they all watched pairs of upright and inverted point light female dance movements and unisex dance movement. Although some ballet movements are gender-specific, males and females train together and therefore they both have visual knowledge of each other’s moves. The “point light” method involved having the female dancers wear tight black clothing with reflecting markers attached to the clothes. Eight classical ballet movements were selected, all balancing the following criteria; speed of movement, displacement of the body and whether or not the movements were female-specific or unisex. Each dancer was then recorded performing each movement. It is worth noting that the differences between movements were very subtle and that dancers featured in the videos were female. The females possessed both visual and motor experience of the dance movements