Predictive processing in biological motion perception: Evidence from human behavior

Biological motion perception plays a crucial role in understanding the actions of other animals, facilitating effective social interactions. While foundation of biological motion perception is rooted in bottom-up processes, as evidenced by point-light display studies, real-world complexities necessitate the involvement of top-down processes, such as attention and expectation. This study investigates the impact of expectations on biological motion perception using a cued individuation task with point-light display stimuli. We conducted three experiments, each providing advance information about distinct aspects of the subsequent biological motion stimuli – specifically information about action, emotion, and gender. Our results revealed a pattern in the action experiment, where participants demonstrated significantly slower response times for incongruent trials than congruent ones, but only under the 75% cue validity condition. This effect was notably absent in the emotion and gender experiments. Our exploration underscores the multi-faceted nature of biological motion perception, highlighting that while the brain adeptly harnesses prior cues to anticipate and interpret stimuli, the nature and reliability of these cues play a pivotal role on their effects. Specifically, action-related information stands out as an important modulator, possibly due to its evolutionary significance and unique neural processing pathway. These findings not only agree with the principles of predictive processing but also pave the way for future research, emphasizing the need to utilize naturalistic, complex stimuli together with neuroimaging methods to create more comprehensive models of biological motion perception.