Synchronisation and Contagion of Movement and Action in Human and Non-human Animals
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Human-Animal Interactions, Animal Behaviour and Emotion".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 November 2022) | Viewed by 7801
Special Issue Editors
Interests: dog; pets; humans; motor resonnance; social cognition; communication
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Social behaviors are partly driven by behavioral synchronization/mimicry/interpersonal motor alignment for dyads and can lead to collective movements at group levels. Many species are concerned, and such behaviors—and their underlying cognitive processes—can occur both within and between species. They are adaptive, with clear beneficial issues, such as decreasing predation pressure, allowing better care of offspring, and increasing social cohesion between interacting partners.
How recruitment of one or more partners operates is still unclear. Several hypotheses have been suggested, including automatic imitation, or temporal processing for detecting the timing of events and their rhythmic properties, and motor resonance/contagion, i.e., a direct link between the perception of an action and its execution (e.g., mirror neurons system). Is there any effect of ontogeny or of experience on mimicry? How did such behaviors and cognitive mechanisms evolve, and are there any differences between species? In which cases is such perception–action coupling between individuals conscious or not?
Original manuscripts that address any aspects of synchronization and contagion of movement and action in human and nonhuman animals are invited in this Special Issue, both at behavioral and cognitive process levels. Topics of special interest are behavioral synchronization/mimicry, all collective movements, social referencing, effect of leadership, effect of familiarity/affiliation/closeness/attraction, effect of the nature or size of the stimulus/model, developmental or evolutionary issues, cognitive mechanisms at play, clarification of related concepts, evaluation of the power/importance of such mechanisms, beneficial and detrimental outcomes, all this at dyadic and group levels, in laboratory or field setup, for any species. How such processes can be implemented for behavioral changes both in human and nonhuman animals (food diet, mental or motor diseases, low carbon and pro-environmental behaviors, etc.) is also of interest, as is social influence thought various media (e.g., rhythm, actual observation, video, or imagination for people). Any gesture or social behavior can be targeted, such as feeding habits, tool use, play, walk, sports, mania, fashion, commercial behaviors (selling/buying), to any good or mistreatment of animals or people.
Dr. Florence Gaunet
Dr. Charlotte Duranton
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- behavioral synchronization
- mimicry
- interpersonal motor alignment
- motor contagion
- leadership
- affiliation
- social cognition
- social influence
- development
- phylogeny
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