FIGURE 2.

The functional shift. A fundamental requirement for successful complementary actions is the capacity to smoothly and efficiently switch from observing another person’s gestures to planning a corresponding reciprocal action. TMS-induced MEPs were recorded from participants’ hand muscles in response to observing an actor grasping an object and then trying vainly to fulfill a task (e.g., pouring coffee) in a cup which was strategically placed out of her reach but in the video foreground, close to the observer’s right hand (Sartori et al., 2012, 2013b,c). The type of grasp observed and the one that was required were reciprocally mismatched in all the videos (i.e., a WHG performed by the actor vs. a PG requested of the observer, and vice versa).