{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,24]],"date-time":"2026-08-24T10:38:38Z","timestamp":1787567918855,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,10]],"date-time":"2025-02-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1739145600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,10]],"date-time":"2025-02-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1739145600000},"content-version":"am","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,10]],"date-time":"2025-02-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1739145600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100009629","name":"Caritro Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100009629","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["elifesciences.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:p>Recognizing goal-directed actions is a computationally challenging task, requiring not only the visual analysis of body movements, but also analysis of how these movements causally impact, and thereby induce a change in, those objects targeted by an action. We tested the hypothesis that the analysis of body movements and the effects they induce relies on distinct neural representations in superior and anterior inferior parietal lobe (SPL and aIPL). In four fMRI sessions, participants observed videos of actions (e.g. breaking stick, squashing plastic bottle) along with corresponding point-light-display (PLD) stick figures, pantomimes, and abstract animations of agent\u2013object interactions (e.g. dividing or compressing a circle). Cross-decoding between actions and animations revealed that aIPL encodes abstract representations of action effect structures independent of motion and object identity. By contrast, cross-decoding between actions and PLDs revealed that SPL is disproportionally tuned to body movements independent of visible interactions with objects. Lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC) was sensitive to both action effects and body movements. These results demonstrate that parietal cortex and LOTC are tuned to physical action features, such as how body parts move in space relative to each other and how body parts interact with objects to induce a change (e.g. in position or shape\/configuration). The high level of abstraction revealed by cross-decoding suggests a general neural code supporting mechanical reasoning about how entities interact with, and have effects on, each other.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.7554\/elife.98521","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,12]],"date-time":"2024-08-12T06:26:57Z","timestamp":1723444017000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.7554\/elife.98521","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Decoding the physics of observed actions in the human brain"],"prefix":"10.7554","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4358-9815","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Moritz F","family":"Wurm","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/05trd4x28","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"CIMeC \u2013 Center for Mind\/Brain Sciences, University of Trento","place":["Rovereto, Italy"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"},{"role":"corresponding-author","vocabulary":"crossref"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-8073-8135","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Doruk Yi\u011fit","family":"Erig\u00fc\u00e7","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/05trd4x28","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"CIMeC \u2013 Center for Mind\/Brain Sciences, University of Trento","place":["Rovereto, Italy"]},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/0387jng26","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences","place":["Leipzig, Germany"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"4374","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"bib1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1165","DOI":"10.1214\/aos\/1013699998","type":"journal-article","article-title":"The control of the false discovery rate in multiple testing under dependency","volume":"29","author":"Benjamini","year":"2001","journal-title":"The Annals of Statistics"},{"key":"bib2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"222","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bandl.2012.07.007","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Two action systems in the human brain","volume":"127","author":"Binkofski","year":"2013","journal-title":"Brain and Language"},{"key":"bib3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"18247","DOI":"10.1523\/JNEUROSCI.1322-13.2013","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Body and object effectors: the organization of object representations in high-level visual cortex reflects body-object interactions","volume":"33","author":"Bracci","year":"2013","journal-title":"The Journal of Neuroscience"},{"key":"bib4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"433","DOI":"10.1163\/156856897X00357","type":"journal-article","article-title":"The psychophysics toolbox","volume":"10","author":"Brainard","year":"1997","journal-title":"Spatial Vision"},{"key":"bib5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1148","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuroimage.2009.12.112","type":"journal-article","article-title":"ALE meta-analysis of action observation and imitation in the human brain","volume":"50","author":"Caspers","year":"2010","journal-title":"NeuroImage"},{"key":"bib6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"913","DOI":"10.1038\/13217","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Attribute-based neural substrates in temporal cortex for perceiving and knowing about objects","volume":"2","author":"Chao","year":"1999","journal-title":"Nature Neuroscience"},{"key":"bib7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3389\/fnhum.2013.00015","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Informational connectivity: identifying synchronized discriminability of multi-voxel patterns across the brain","volume":"7","author":"Coutanche","year":"2013","journal-title":"Frontiers in Human Neuroscience"},{"key":"bib8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"E5072","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1610344113","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Functional neuroanatomy of intuitive physical inference","volume":"113","author":"Fischer","year":"2016","journal-title":"PNAS"},{"key":"bib9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"455","DOI":"10.1080\/02643294.2022.2106126","type":"journal-article","article-title":"What tool representation, intuitive physics, and action have in common: the brain\u2019s first-person physics engine","volume":"38","author":"Fischer","year":"2021","journal-title":"Cognitive Neuropsychology"},{"key":"bib10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"198","DOI":"10.1016\/j.plrev.2023.08.017","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Physical reasoning is the missing link between action goals and kinematics: a comment on \u201cAn active inference model of hierarchical action understanding, learning, and imitation\u201d by Proietti et al","volume":"48","author":"Fischer","year":"2024","journal-title":"Physics of Life Reviews"},{"key":"bib11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"41","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cogbrainres.2004.12.001","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Brain mechanisms underlying perceptual causality","volume":"24","author":"Fugelsang","year":"2005","journal-title":"Brain Research. Cognitive Brain Research"},{"key":"bib12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"179","DOI":"10.1038\/nrn1057","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Neural mechanisms for the recognition of biological movements","volume":"4","author":"Giese","year":"2003","journal-title":"Nature Reviews. Neuroscience"},{"key":"bib13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1645","DOI":"10.1093\/brain\/awp080","type":"journal-article","article-title":"The neural basis of tool use","volume":"132","author":"Goldenberg","year":"2009","journal-title":"Brain"},{"key":"bib14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"20","DOI":"10.1016\/0166-2236(92)90344-8","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Separate visual pathways for perception and action","volume":"15","author":"Goodale","year":"1992","journal-title":"Trends in Neurosciences"},{"key":"bib15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"431","DOI":"10.1002\/hbm.21222","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Brain regions involved in human movement perception: a quantitative voxel-based meta-analysis","volume":"33","author":"Grosbras","year":"2012","journal-title":"Human Brain Mapping"},{"key":"bib16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"711","DOI":"10.1162\/089892900562417","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Brain areas involved in perception of biological motion","volume":"12","author":"Grossman","year":"2000","journal-title":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience"},{"key":"bib17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3056","DOI":"10.1523\/JNEUROSCI.2496-16.2017","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Neural representations of observed actions generalize across static and dynamic visual input","volume":"37","author":"Hafri","year":"2017","journal-title":"The Journal of Neuroscience"},{"key":"bib18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/1416950","type":"journal-article","article-title":"An experimental study of apparent behavior","volume":"57","author":"Heider","year":"1944","journal-title":"The American Journal of Psychology"},{"key":"bib19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"E9145","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1714471114","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Perceiving social interactions in the posterior superior temporal sulcus","volume":"114","author":"Isik","year":"2017","journal-title":"PNAS"},{"key":"bib20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-023-39062-8","type":"journal-article","article-title":"A shared neural code for the physics of actions and object events","volume":"14","author":"Karakose-Akbiyik","year":"2023","journal-title":"Nature Communications"},{"key":"bib21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pneurobio.2021.102128","type":"journal-article","article-title":"What modulates the mirror neuron system during action observation?: multiple factors involving the action, the actor, the observer, the relationship between actor and observer, and the context","volume":"205","author":"Kemmerer","year":"2021","journal-title":"Progress in Neurobiology"},{"key":"bib22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/acprof:oso\/9780195179088.001.0001","type":"book","volume-title":"The Case for Mental Imagery","author":"Kosslyn","year":"2006"},{"key":"bib23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"217","DOI":"10.1038\/nrn3008","type":"journal-article","article-title":"A new neural framework for visuospatial processing","volume":"12","author":"Kravitz","year":"2011","journal-title":"Nature Reviews. Neuroscience"},{"key":"bib24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"757","DOI":"10.7551\/mitpress\/11442.001.0001","type":"book-chapter","article-title":"Concepts of actions and their objects","volume-title":"The Cognitive Neurosciences","author":"Leshinskaya","year":"2020"},{"key":"bib25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"268","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tics.2015.03.006","type":"journal-article","article-title":"The lateral occipitotemporal cortex in action","volume":"19","author":"Lingnau","year":"2015","journal-title":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences"},{"key":"bib26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/9781009386630","type":"book","volume-title":"Action Understanding","author":"Lingnau","year":"2024"},{"key":"bib27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"979","DOI":"10.3758\/s13423-015-0842-3","type":"journal-article","article-title":"GRAPES\u2014Grounding representations in action, perception, and emotion systems: How object properties and categories are represented in the human brain","volume":"23","author":"Martin","year":"2016","journal-title":"Psychonomic Bulletin & Review"},{"key":"bib28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1641","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cub.2011.08.031","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Reconstructing visual experiences from brain activity evoked by natural movies","volume":"21","author":"Nishimoto","year":"2011","journal-title":"Current Biology"},{"key":"bib29","type":"software","article-title":"Motion_energy_matlab","volume-title":"GitHub","author":"Nishimoto","year":"2018","unstructured":"Nishimoto S, Lescroart M. 2018. Motion_energy_matlab. GitHub. 7848623. https:\/\/github.com\/gallantlab\/motion_energy_matlab."},{"key":"bib30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3389\/fninf.2016.00027","type":"journal-article","article-title":"CoSMoMVPA: multi-modal multivariate pattern analysis of neuroimaging data in matlab\/gnu octave","volume":"10","author":"Oosterhof","year":"2016","journal-title":"Frontiers in Neuroinformatics"},{"key":"bib31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"815","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuron.2006.02.004","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Patterns of fMRI activity dissociate overlapping functional brain areas that respond to biological motion","volume":"49","author":"Peelen","year":"2006","journal-title":"Neuron"},{"key":"bib32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2864","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1460-9568.2005.04106.x","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Specificity of regions processing biological motion","volume":"21","author":"Peuskens","year":"2005","journal-title":"The European Journal of Neuroscience"},{"key":"bib33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"100","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tics.2020.11.006","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Evidence for a third visual pathway specialized for social perception","volume":"25","author":"Pitcher","year":"2021","journal-title":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences"},{"key":"bib34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"435","DOI":"10.1098\/rstb.2002.1221","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Electrophysiology and brain imaging of biological motion","volume":"358","author":"Puce","year":"2003","journal-title":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences"},{"key":"bib35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"113","DOI":"10.1016\/S1364-6613(03)00003-2","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Return of the mental image: are there really pictures in the brain?","volume":"7","author":"Pylyshyn","year":"2003","journal-title":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences"},{"key":"bib36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"421","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neubiorev.2016.03.009","type":"journal-article","article-title":"On the neurocognitive origins of human tool use : a critical review of neuroimaging data","volume":"64","author":"Reynaud","year":"2016","journal-title":"Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews"},{"key":"bib37","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"197","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuroimage.2016.12.079","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Avoiding illusory effects in representational similarity analysis: what (not) to do with the diagonal","volume":"148","author":"Ritchie","year":"2017","journal-title":"NeuroImage"},{"key":"bib38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"146","DOI":"10.1007\/s00221-003-1588-0","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Two different streams form the dorsal visual system: anatomy and functions","volume":"153","author":"Rizzolatti","year":"2003","journal-title":"Experimental Brain Research"},{"key":"bib39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"211","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tics.2007.02.006","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Prediction of external events with our motor system: towards a new framework","volume":"11","author":"Schubotz","year":"2007","journal-title":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences"},{"key":"bib40","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3389\/fnhum.2010.00028","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Space and time in perceptual causality","volume":"4","author":"Straube","year":"2010","journal-title":"Frontiers in Human Neuroscience"},{"key":"bib41","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1167\/13.12.7","type":"journal-article","article-title":"A biological motion toolbox for reading, displaying, and manipulating motion capture data in research settings","volume":"13","author":"van Boxtel","year":"2013","journal-title":"Journal of Vision"},{"key":"bib42","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1101\/592410","type":"preprint","article-title":"Generalization asymmetry in multivariate cross86 classification: when representation A generalizes better to representation B than B to A","volume-title":"bioRxiv","author":"van den Hurk","year":"2019"},{"key":"bib43","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3434","DOI":"10.1093\/cercor\/bhy212","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Large-scale organization of the hand action observation network in individuals born without hands","volume":"29","author":"Vannuscorps","year":"2019","journal-title":"Cerebral Cortex"},{"key":"bib44","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"188","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuroimage.2015.12.012","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Reliability of dissimilarity measures for multi-voxel pattern analysis","volume":"137","author":"Walther","year":"2016","journal-title":"NeuroImage"},{"key":"bib45","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1191","DOI":"10.1162\/jocn_a_00401","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Action concepts in the brain: an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis","volume":"25","author":"Watson","year":"2013","journal-title":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience"},{"key":"bib46","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"117","DOI":"10.1109\/TAMD.2012.2232291","type":"journal-article","article-title":"A simple ontology of manipulation actions based on hand-object relations","volume":"5","author":"Worgotter","year":"2013","journal-title":"IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development"},{"key":"bib47","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"7727","DOI":"10.1523\/JNEUROSCI.0188-15.2015","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Decoding actions at different levels of abstraction","volume":"35","author":"Wurm","year":"2015","journal-title":"The Journal of Neuroscience"},{"key":"bib48","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-018-08084-y","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Distinct roles of temporal and frontoparietal cortex in representing actions across vision and language","volume":"10","author":"Wurm","year":"2019","journal-title":"Nature Communications"},{"key":"bib49","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuroimage.2019.116153","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Lateral occipitotemporal cortex encodes perceptual components of social actions rather than abstract representations of sociality","volume":"202","author":"Wurm","year":"2019","journal-title":"NeuroImage"},{"key":"bib50","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"103","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tics.2021.10.003","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Two \u201cwhat\u201d pathways for action and object recognition","volume":"26","author":"Wurm","year":"2022","journal-title":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences"},{"key":"bib51","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1462","DOI":"10.1093\/cercor\/bhac149","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Two distinct networks containing position-tolerant representations of actions in the human brain","volume":"33","author":"Yargholi","year":"2023","journal-title":"Cerebral Cortex"},{"key":"bib52","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"827","DOI":"10.1016\/j.visres.2011.01.007","type":"journal-article","article-title":"Simulation during observation of human actions--theories, empirical studies, applications","volume":"51","author":"Zentgraf","year":"2011","journal-title":"Vision Research"},{"key":"dataset1","type":"dataset","article-title":"Decoding the physics of observed actions in the human brain","volume-title":"Open Science Framework","author":"Wurm","year":"2024","unstructured":"Wurm MF, Erig\u00fc\u00e7 DY. 2024. Decoding the physics of observed actions in the human brain. Open Science Framework. https:\/\/osf.io\/am346\/. am346."}],"container-title":["eLife"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/cdn.elifesciences.org\/articles\/98521\/elife-98521-v1.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/cdn.elifesciences.org\/articles\/98521\/elife-98521-v1.xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/elifesciences.org\/articles\/98521","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,24]],"date-time":"2026-08-24T09:54:45Z","timestamp":1787565285000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/elifesciences.org\/articles\/98521"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,10]]},"references-count":53,"alternative-id":["10.7554\/eLife.98521"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.7554\/elife.98521","archive":["CLOCKSS"],"relation":{"has-preprint":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.1101\/2023.10.04.560860","asserted-by":"subject"}],"is-same-as":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.7554\/eLife.98521.3","asserted-by":"subject"}],"is-version-of":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.7554\/eLife.98521.1","asserted-by":"subject"},{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.7554\/eLife.98521.2","asserted-by":"subject"}],"is-supplemented-by":[{"id-type":"accession","id":"am346","asserted-by":"subject"}]},"ISSN":["2050-084X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2050-084X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,10]]},"assertion":[{"value":"single anonymised","name":"peer_review_transparency","label":"Peer review transparency","group":{"name":"peer_review_taxonomy"}},{"value":"other reviewer(s), editor","name":"peer_review_interaction","label":"Peer review interaction","group":{"name":"peer_review_taxonomy"}},{"value":"review summaries, review reports, author\/editor communication, reviewer identities reviewer opt in, editor identities","name":"peer_review_published","label":"Peer review published","group":{"name":"peer_review_taxonomy"}},{"value":"open (sign in with ORCID iD required)","name":"post_publication_commenting","label":"Post publication commenting","group":{"name":"post_publication_commenting"}}],"article-number":"RP98521"}}