The representational space of observed actions

Abstract

Categorizing and understanding other people’s actions is a key human capability. Whereas there exists a growing literature regarding the organization of objects, the representational space underlying the organization of observed actions remains largely unexplored. Here we examined the organizing principles of a large set of actions and the corresponding neural representations. Using multiple regression representational similarity analysis of fMRI data, in which we accounted for variability due to major action components (body parts, scenes, movements, objects, sociality, transitivity) and three control models (distance between observer and actor, number of people, HMAX-C1), we found that the semantic dissimilarity structure was best captured by patterns of activation in the lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC). Together, our results demonstrate that the organization of observed actions in the LOTC resembles the organizing principles used by participants to classify actions behaviorally, in line with the view that this region is crucial for accessing the meaning of actions.