H an action or other explicit reasons for imitating an action by carefully preparing the stimuli used; however, it was not possible to separate these two factors completely. However, this suggests a close association between familiarity and urge to imitate, even for meaningless actions. Furthermore, it has been argued that experience may explain the better imitation performance of meaningful gestures than of meaningless gestures (Rumiati and Tessari, 2002; Vogt et al., 2007). It has been X-396 web proposed that imitation skill relies on sensorimotor associations acquired through the experience of observing the contingent actions of others in response to one’s own actions; this is known as the associative sequence learning theory (Heyes, 2001; Heyes and Ray, 2004; Catmur et al., 2009). Similarly, ideomotor theory (Prinz, 1997; Stock and Stock, 2004; Shin et al., 2010) also explains why humans can imitate the actions of others (Brass and Heyes, 2005). These theories suggest that the internal representations of actions and the actions themselves are tightly linked, and that sensory feedback resulting from self-action is a crucial mediator of action control. The present findings support these theoretical frameworks and lead to the assumption that human brains are able to store sensorimotor-associated information. Based on these theoretical frameworks, it is possible that the present findings represent the individual imitation drive using this type of stored information.AcknowledgementsWe thank Dr. Keisetsu Shima for helpful suggestions regarding the manuscript. We also thank Dr. Akitake Kanno, Dr. Atushi Sekiguchi, Dr. Rui Nouchi, Dr. Hiroshi Hashizume, Dr. Ryouichi Yokoyama and Mr. Oliver Kenny for their technical support.FundingThis study was supported by KAKENHI (26118702 and 15H01771) from JSPS.Supplementary dataSupplementary data are available at SCAN online. Conflict of interest. None declared.
The social structures of many species, from insects (Yan et al., 2015) and fish (Fernald and Maruska, 2012) to primates (Ghazanfar and Santos, 2004) and human beings (Hill and Dunbar, 2003), are characterized by their profound hierarchical organization. This social stratification has important implications for healthand well-being, as animals and humans lower in social status are often found to have worse outcomes than those with relatively higher standing in the social hierarchy (Adler et al., 1994; Sapolsky, 2005). Interestingly, alterations in immune system processes, and particularly heightened levels of inflammation, may provide a biological link between lower social status and poor physicalReceived: 3 March 2015; Revised: 8 January 2016; Accepted: 8 MarchC V The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: [email protected]|Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2016, Vol. 11, No.and emotional outcomes (Kemeny, 2009) . Indeed, mice that are consistently subjected to social defeat (a rodent model of low social status) show greater inflammatory dysregulation (Blanchard et al., 1993; Powell et al., 2009), and lower-ranking female macaques have been shown to have greater expression of genes involved in inflammation than higher-ranking females (Tung et al., 2012). In humans, subjective ratings of social status have been associated with increases in stressor-evoked inflammation, such that lower-status individuals show a more pronounced inflammatory response to a laboratory Necrostatin-1 supplier stressor than individuals w.H an action or other explicit reasons for imitating an action by carefully preparing the stimuli used; however, it was not possible to separate these two factors completely. However, this suggests a close association between familiarity and urge to imitate, even for meaningless actions. Furthermore, it has been argued that experience may explain the better imitation performance of meaningful gestures than of meaningless gestures (Rumiati and Tessari, 2002; Vogt et al., 2007). It has been proposed that imitation skill relies on sensorimotor associations acquired through the experience of observing the contingent actions of others in response to one’s own actions; this is known as the associative sequence learning theory (Heyes, 2001; Heyes and Ray, 2004; Catmur et al., 2009). Similarly, ideomotor theory (Prinz, 1997; Stock and Stock, 2004; Shin et al., 2010) also explains why humans can imitate the actions of others (Brass and Heyes, 2005). These theories suggest that the internal representations of actions and the actions themselves are tightly linked, and that sensory feedback resulting from self-action is a crucial mediator of action control. The present findings support these theoretical frameworks and lead to the assumption that human brains are able to store sensorimotor-associated information. Based on these theoretical frameworks, it is possible that the present findings represent the individual imitation drive using this type of stored information.AcknowledgementsWe thank Dr. Keisetsu Shima for helpful suggestions regarding the manuscript. We also thank Dr. Akitake Kanno, Dr. Atushi Sekiguchi, Dr. Rui Nouchi, Dr. Hiroshi Hashizume, Dr. Ryouichi Yokoyama and Mr. Oliver Kenny for their technical support.FundingThis study was supported by KAKENHI (26118702 and 15H01771) from JSPS.Supplementary dataSupplementary data are available at SCAN online. Conflict of interest. None declared.
The social structures of many species, from insects (Yan et al., 2015) and fish (Fernald and Maruska, 2012) to primates (Ghazanfar and Santos, 2004) and human beings (Hill and Dunbar, 2003), are characterized by their profound hierarchical organization. This social stratification has important implications for healthand well-being, as animals and humans lower in social status are often found to have worse outcomes than those with relatively higher standing in the social hierarchy (Adler et al., 1994; Sapolsky, 2005). Interestingly, alterations in immune system processes, and particularly heightened levels of inflammation, may provide a biological link between lower social status and poor physicalReceived: 3 March 2015; Revised: 8 January 2016; Accepted: 8 MarchC V The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: [email protected]|Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2016, Vol. 11, No.and emotional outcomes (Kemeny, 2009) . Indeed, mice that are consistently subjected to social defeat (a rodent model of low social status) show greater inflammatory dysregulation (Blanchard et al., 1993; Powell et al., 2009), and lower-ranking female macaques have been shown to have greater expression of genes involved in inflammation than higher-ranking females (Tung et al., 2012). In humans, subjective ratings of social status have been associated with increases in stressor-evoked inflammation, such that lower-status individuals show a more pronounced inflammatory response to a laboratory stressor than individuals w.
