Predicting other people's action goals with low-level motor information

Falck-Ytter T. Predicting other people's action goals with low-level motor information. J Neurophysiol 107: 2923-2925, 2012. First published January 18, 2012; doi:10.1152/jn.00783.2011.-In support for the direct-matching hypothesis, Ambrosini et al. (2011) recently reported that goal-directed saccades during action observation were modulated by manipulations of basic motor information. This finding indicates that motor programs, activated by low-level visual descriptions of others' actions, are involved in predicting other people's action goals. Here, I put this result into a broader context, review alternative interpretations, and suggest strategies for future studies.