"Sleights of Mind"

You should probably buy this book. Why? Two reasons:

1. It's the first book dedicated to discussing the neuroscience of magic.
   
2. I'm featured prominently within its pages.

While Amazon.com is processing your order, I encourage you to watch this segment from the PBS Horizon program.

Do newborns imitate?

Recently, a group of scientists including prominent mirror neuron researcher, Vittorio Gallese, published an article purporting to demonstrate social interaction between identical twin fetuses in the uterus (at a time in their development before they have even the most basic reflexes). While their conclusions were highly dubious, their study is not actually the focus of this blog entry. Instead, I want to address something that they bring up in the fourth sentence of their introductory remarks. Castiello et al. (2010) state that, "even hours after birth, newborns have been found to show preparedness for social interaction that, among other things, is expressed in their imitation of facial gestures" (p. 1).

It seems that nearly every researcher in the fields of embodiment and comparative psychology has accepted this idea, that neonates are wired to imitate, wholeheartedly, yet the evidence cited to support this position is surprisingly scant. Namely, researchers cite the iconic work of Meltzoff and Moore (1977) published in Science, which suggested that newborns are capable of imitating facial gestures. Specifically, it was suggested that infants were capable of imitating both tongue protrusions (TPs) and mouth opening (MO). You may have seen Figure 1 from Meltzoff and Moore (1977) in many textbooks.

In their primer on infant cognition, Moll and Tomasello (2010) interpreted this finding as evidence that, “infants had an innate understanding that other persons are ‘like me,’ which constitutes a critical basis for deeper intersubjective understanding later in life” (p. R873). Is this interpretation warranted, though?

A good amount of research has been carried out since Meltzoff and Moore’s initial publication, and much of it indicates that Meltzoff was way off base, yet this research has captured almost no attention. It’s been all but ignored by mirror neuron researchers who cite the Meltzoff work as if it is without question. I contend that Meltzoff’s work has been thoroughly debunked, and I’d like to briefly lay out some of the evidence here.

The first question is, can Meltzoff’s findings be relicated? The answer: not exactly. Anisfeld (1996) reviewed the literature on infant imitation, reporting that MO imitation (and other frequently investigated varieties of imitation) is rare while TP imitation is robust. See a problem yet? Infants only imitate one behavior? Awfully strange, considering that imitation of this one behavior serves no discernible evolutionary purpose. That leads to the second question: Why might an infant appear to be imitating this behavior?

The answer to this question is actually quite interesting. It’s important to note that TP imitation is relatively short-lived. Infants quit imitating tongue protrusions around the age of 2 or 3 months (Jacobson, 1979). Oddly enough, this decline happens to coincide with the development of reaching behaviors. Thus, up until this development, infants primarily interact with the world via their mouths. Might it be the case that TPs are simply the result of stimulation? Indeed, in a beautiful set of experiments, Jones (1996) showed that a blinking light (a completely non-social stimulus) elicited tongue protrusions (at least for infants who showed interest in the blinking light) and that infants were more attracted to faces with a protruding tongue than faces with an open mouth. This points to tongue protrusion as a result of stimulation, not imitation. Finally, she showed that the development of reaching behavior coincided with the decline of TP responses to interesting objects within the infants’ reach.

Thus, imitation of TPs is simply coincidental, and it is unlikely to be imitation, at all. Are we wired to imitate or do we learn to imitate? Given the first option’s foundation on grains of sand, I lean toward the second option.

References:

Anisfeld, M. (1996). Only tongue protrusion modeling is matched by neonates. Developmental Review, 16, 149-161. [Link to Abstract]

Castiello, U., Becchio, C., Zoia, S., Nelini, C., Sartori, L., Blason, L., et al. (2010). Wired to be social: The ontogeny of human interaction. PLoS One, 5, e13199. [Link to Open Access Entry]

Jacobson, S. W. (1979). Matching behavior in the young infant. Child Development, 50, 425-430. [Link to PDF]

Jones, S. S. (1996). Imitation or exploration? Young infants' matching of adults' oral gestures. Child Development, 67, 1952-1969. [PDF]

Meltzoff, A. N., & Moore, M. K. (1977). Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates. Science, 198, 75-78. [PDF]

Moll, H., & Tomasello, M. (2010). Infant cognition. Current Biology, 20, R872-R875. [Link to Abstract]

Let the Blogging Resume

I've neglected this blog for too long. I must come to my senses on this. Unfortunately, this semester is kicking me in the head, so there's no way for me to keep up with the blogging schedule I was able to establish over the summer. I'm planning to resume blogging, but with a reduced schedule...Possibly one or two posts per week. Thank you for your kind attention. I hope that you continue to drop by.

More Time Off

The new school year has me completely swamped, which means that I've neglected this blog terribly. For the next week, I'll be attending the conference of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, and will likely be unable to attend to this blog in any meaningful fashion. To keep you occupied, here is a collection of videos from the 2007 Magic of Consciousness Symposium organized by the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, featuring a number of well-known magicians opining on the psychological basis of what they do.

James Randi on Assumptions:



Apollo Robbins:



Teller:



More from James Randi:



Johnny Thompson:



Mac King:

Friday Magic Showcase: Blood

This Friday Magic Showcase is devoted to magicians who aren't afraid to push the envelope, who willingly present their audiences with discomforting, disturbing situations. If you're not comfortable with a little gore, then this may not be the blog entry for you. I'll begin with a relatively benign, dark effect performed by the Scottish magic team, Barry & Stuart. Here is their "Suicide in C-Sharp."

Turning away from the light-hearted presentation of gory magic, we must not ignore the most notable purveyor of "horror magic," the Peruvian magician, Richiardi. He took audience discomfort to a new level by rarely providing any closure on the gruesome acts he performed. The audience was often left wondering about the reality of what they had just witnessed. Here is his contribution to the sawing illusion, with commentary by Teller.


Another great Richiardi video can be found here, in a clip from his TV show, "Chamber of Horrors." Finally, Penn & Teller rarely shy away from gore in their magic. Here is their homage to Richiardi.

Friday Magic Showcase: Christopher Hart

The video does a good job of introducing this week's Friday Magic Showcase, Christopher Hart. My only questions is, which came first?...this act or his film career?

Lennart Green Presentation @ "TED Talks"

This video has been sitting in my inbox for months, now. I just took the time to watch it yesterday. Lennart Green, one of the world's foremost card magicians, was invited to perform at the well-known "TED Talks." In this presentation, which is mostly performance-based, Lennert relates his magic to evolutionary short-cuts. It's definitely worth watching and is a great example of how magicians take advantage of our inability to recognize or understand randomness. I'll expound on this perceptual limitation in a blog entry later this week.

Mirror Neurons & Sign Language

The discovery in the early 90s of mirror neurons in macaques, neurons that fired both when the monkeys were performing a specific goal-directed hand action and when they viewed another monkey performing the same action, spurred a great deal of research and theorizing in the psychology and neuroscience communities. Unfortunately, many of the theories derived from the discovery of mirror neurons stepped away from the original empirical findings of Di Pellegrino et al. (1992), presuming at the outset (sans evidence) that mirror neurons in humans have evolved dramatically from those found in monkeys. That said, theorists have suggested (among other things) that mirror neurons are the source of human empathy, the evolutionary precursor to language (via action understanding), and that a mirror neuron deficiency is the cause of autism. These theories are all well and good...except that they all assume mirror neurons have behavioral consequences beyond those seen in monkeys, and they assume that humans have large circuits of mirror neurons (which have never been found in the human brain). Hickok (2009) provides one of the most well-constructed critiques of the limitations and exaggerations inherent to theories of action understanding through mirror neuron activity.

Germane to my field of study is the proposition that mirror neurons form the foundation for language (and serve an important role in the understanding of speech, providing the neural basis for the motor theory of speech perception, previously discussed here). It has been suggested that the earliest forms of communication were likely to be gestural (Arbib, 2002; Corballis, 2003; Fogassi & Ferrari, 2007). Arbib (2002) outlined seven theoretical stages in the evolution of linguistic capabilities. The first four stages involve adaptations in the ability to grasp objects with the hand and understand the grasping behaviors of other animals. Each of these evolutionary steps entails a further development of the Broca’s area homolog, including the development of mirror systems, yielding the ability to interpret the actions of others through simulation. As Arbib explained, “The evolution of mirror neurons extended ‘knowing’ from the individual to the social,” (pp. 14). Further imitative abilities allowed for a rudimentary manual communication system. As Corballis (2003) pointed out, modern wild chimpanzees exhibit a variety of manual gestures. He posited that they are one evolutionary component away from the ability to communicate effectively through mime: bipedalism. Indeed, it is likely that the earliest bipedal hominids communicated through pantomime, and this communication was accompanied by facial expressions and simple vocalizations that provided emotional valance (Fogassi & Ferrari, 2007).

A paper in press at Brain & Language (which I've made available here) examines one of the core premises of the Arbib theory of language evolution. If mirror neurons are at the heart of communication (allowing language recognition through simulation), and if language evolved from gesture, then a language that is overtly gestural, such as sign language, should be largely reliant on mirror neurons and mirror networks in the brain. Knapp and Corina (in press) evaluated three predictions derived from the mirror neuron theory of language, primarily through an examination of research in sign language:

1. "Damage to the human mirror neuron system should non-selectively disrupt both sign language and non-linguistic action processing."
2. "Within the domain of sign language, a given mirror neuron locus should mediate both perception and production."
3. "The action-based tuning curves of individual mirror neurons should support the highly circumscribed set of motions that form the ‘‘vocabulary of action” for signed languages."

A thorough examination of the literature revealed that only one of these predictions was supported by current evidence. The second prediction receives a modicum of support from research employing fMRI. Unfortunately, fMRI is essentially useless when it comes to validating mirror neuron theories, as it lacks the resolution necessary to pinpoint activity at the level of the individual neuron. Even though an individual voxel may demonstrate activation during both perception and performance, one cannot assume that this pattern is indicative of mirror neurons. It could simply be the case that neurons active during perception happen to be near neurons active during performance.

As I see it, this paper is something of a nail-in-the-coffin for the mirror neuron theory of language understanding. A language that should be most in-touch with the theoretical origin of spoken language, sign language, does not appear to be moderated by mirror neurons or mirror networks in the brain. Do we need to continue this fiasco?

References:

Arbib, M. (2002). The mirror system, imitation, and the evolution of language. In C. Nhaniv & K. Dautenhahn (Eds.), Imitation in Animals and Artifacts. The MIT Press.

Corballis, M. C. (2003). From mouth to hand: Gesture, speech, and the evolution of right-handedness. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 26, 199-260.

Di Pellegrino, G., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., Gallese, V., & Rizzolatti, G. (1992). Understanding motor events: A neurophysiological study. Experimental Brain Research, 91, 176-180.

Fogassi, L. & Ferrari, P. F. (2007). Mirror neurons and the evolution of embodied language. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 136-141.

Hickok, G. (2009). Eight problems for the mirror neuron theory of action understanding in monkeys and humans. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21, 1229-1243. (link)

Knapp, H. P. & Corina, D. P. (in press). A human mirror neuron system for language: Perspectives from signed languages of the deaf. Brain & Language. (link)

Taking the week off.

My master's thesis defense is scheduled for next Monday. That said, I'm taking this week off from blogging, returning next week with renewed vigor. Thank you for your kind attention.

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Soma

Well, the results are in for FISM. Congratulations to Shawn Farquhar for winning the Grand Prix in close-up! Han Seol-Hui tied for first place in the "Manipulation" category, and Julius Frack won in the "Stage Illusion" category. For the list of other award-winners, head on over to Tim Ellis' blog entry here. The Grand Prix award for stage magic went to a magician I haven't featured here: Soma. So, in honor of his accomplishment, the final "Stay-At-Home FISM 2009" entry is dedicated to him. Soma represented Hungary in the "General Magic" category. From his website:

Throughout the past decade Soma has developed a unique way of entertainment, which took him all around the world. His original phone-act, acclaimed by his peers as "magic as unique, and as original as it gets", appeared in gala-shows and magic conventions all around Europe, the United States and Asia. He has won many prizes in many countries.

The main objective of Soma's magic is to deliver an experience never seen before. A professional way of entertainment: That is the purest expression of what he does.

Here is the act with which Soma won the FISM 2009 Grand Prix for Stage Magic:

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Xavier Tapias

Xavier Tapias, of Spain, does recycling magic. His goal is to create magical events using ordinary objects, and to this end he has won a number of awards, including the "Silver Magic Wand" award at the Monte Carlo Magic Stars Festival in Monaco. In 1993, Tapias became the CEO of a toy company which produces automated toys for display windows. As a result of this venture, his magic act has become quite high-tech, employing many animatronics, and the company has shifted its focus away from toys, primarily producing electronic magical effects for magicians. Tapias is competing in the "General Magic" category. Here is his competition act, "The Robot."

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Shawn Farquhar

From Canada, competing for an award in the "Card Magic" category is Shawn Farquhar. I've been a fan of Farquhar for some time, now. He has the rare quality of being able to connect with an entire audience on an emotional level from the moment he walks out on stage. He's insanely likable and talented. From his website:

Shawn Farquhar has been entertaining audiences around the globe for over two decades. His magic has been seen on Television shows like the X-Files and Highlander, in Motion Pictures like Spooky House and the Fly II, for corporate clients like IBM and Konica, and on the most luxurious cruise vessels such as Norwegian Star and Radiance of the Seas.

The Canadian Association of Magicians awarded Shawn the MAGICIAN OF THE YEAR, the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians awarded him the GRAND PRIX D'HONNEUR and the International Brotherhood of Magicians awarded him both STAGE MAGICIAN and SLEIGHT OF HAND MAGICIAN OF THE YEAR, making him the ONLY magician in history to win BOTH world championships!

Here's a portion of the act Shawn competed with :



Update: Word on the street is that Shawn has made it to the finals of the Grand Prix contest.

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Han Seol-Hui

I've tried to delay gratification on this find for a while, now. I can't wait any longer...I must share this act with you. Han Seol-Hui is representing Korea in the "Manipulation" category (stage sleight of hand). I think he's a real contender for the top prize. I've seen CD manipulators before, but he is head and shoulders above the rest. If anything, he's a little too fast. You miss a lot of what he's doing. Still, an impressive demonstration. I hope you enjoy Han Seol-Hui.

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Yves Doumergue

In the second day of the close-up competitions, French magician Yves Doumergue drew a lot of attention. Competing in the "Parlour Magic" category, Doumergue's act involved a traditional plot with a not-so-traditional ending. As reported by Craig Mitchell:

3 volunteers are brought onstage and requested to selected a dynamite looking firecracker. 4 are real and one is a dud ( he lights one to prove it - literally shaking the CNCC convention centre to its core with an enormous bang ) The volunteers each take one - the last spectator inadvertently providing the magician with incorrect information as to what number he has selected. With the magician now reaching for one of the remaining sticks ( using incorrect information as to what sticks remain ) - he places it in his mouth and begins to light it. Some members of the audience are horrified - not knowing whether to intervene to prevent a ghastly accident. A scream is heard and the magician's face is covered in blood ... he had planned it all and knew exactly which one to choose.

I can't help but be reminded of this often-fumbled magic trick (not for the squeamish), except that, in Doumergue's case, the failure was staged. No video is available of Doumergue's fire-cracker trick, but here's his well-known version of the torn and restored card.

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Julius Frack

Julius Frack is a veteran FISM competitor from Germany, usually competing with an act he calls, "The Mad Tailor." From Magic-Gala.com:

In this performance Julius Frack is manically dancing around his attic in an eccentric tail-coat, magically designing an exquisite dress for his mannequin. His thimbles move to the rhythm of the music and his scissors mysteriously float shaping his vision. With this act he won several awards in international contests and a high reputation in the world of magic. In 2005 the young magic pro’s new full-evening show “Imagi©nations” started on a tour around theatres in Germany.

This year, he is competing in the "stage illusion" category, leading me to believe that he will probably be presenting a different act. His unique suspension illusion (seen below) could do him well in this category!

Stay-at-Home FISM 2009: Jeremy Pei

Jeremy Pei is representing Singapore in the "parlour magic" category at FISM. Yesterday, Craig Mitchell reported that Pei's competition act included a high-energy combination of rope magic, the classic cups and balls effect (seen multiple times on this blog), and a miniature linking rings routine. According to Pei's website:

Since 1997, Jeremy has made several milestones for himself. He won several local and international awards for his performances. Jeremy is the First and Only Magician in Singapore’s history to win the Singapore Association of Magicians “Magician of the Year” Award for 3 consecutive years! He made appearances on local and foreign television broadcasts, newspapers and magazines. He was also invited as special guest speaker, lecturer and consultant in Singapore and overseas.

Here is a portion of his act featuring a re-thinking of the "Professor's Nightmare" rope trick.

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Politics

source: the Taipei Times

Uh oh. It looks as if things have taken a turn for the worst at the FISM competitions in Beijing. From Tim Ellis at MagicUnlimited:

There was one incident that was so unexpected it left the room literally in shock.

After a contestant did an act featuring a travel theme where he gave a list of the countries he wanted to visit (which included Taiwan) a Chinese registrant leapt up from the audience, raced back stage and literally dragged the contestant back on demanding that he apologise because “Taiwan is not a country!!!”

Some of the other Chinese in the audience (including some of the cameramen) cheered, but the rest of the room sat with jaws gaping... and in one moment the beautiful veil of happiness FISM Beijing had woven over the last few days was ripped aside.

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Kiko Pastur

The wonderful thing about FISM is that it provides a venue for lesser-known magicians from outside the US to gain worldwide recognition. This is the case with one of Spain's competitors in the close-up category. Competing for a prize in card magic is Kiko Pastur. I don't speak Spanish, so I have had a difficult time finding any information on Kiko other than video clips of his act. From his website, I've been able to glean that he's collaborating with a jazz composer to develop a show marrying illusion and jazz. In the close-up setting, there is indeed a strong relationship between magic and jazz, with the trajectory of a magical effect being easily modified in real time to fit the mood of the audience (and the performer). Enjoy Kiko Pastur.

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Timo Marc

Today is the first day of competition at FISM, beginning early in the morning with the first round of stage magic competitors. Magicians compete for awards in a number of different categories, including "general magic," "manipulation" (which is essentially stage sleight-of-hand), and "stage illusion." Competing in the "general magic" category, representing Germany, is Timo Marc. Since 2005, Marc has been winning competitions all over the world with his "21st Century Magic." Notably, he received the prestigious Siegfried & Roy SARMOTI prize at the 2008 World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas, in recognition of his creative, high-tech style of magic.

Friday Magic Showcase: Norbert Ferré

In order to get you excited for next week's "Stay-At-Home FISM 2009," this week's Friday Magic Showcase is Norbert Ferré, winner of the 2006 FISM Grand Prix award for stage magic. This will give you just a taste of what to expect from the FISM competitors I profile in the next few days.