Investigating the fundamental biological mechanisms underlying motor function and social cognition

对人类行为的实验研究以及在发育和神经退化条件下遇到的困难证明了社会认知和运动功能之间的关系。目前的研究结果暗示了一个重要的概念：某些社会认知过程背后的机制与运动系统持有的信息整合在一起。然而，这种关系的程度尚未完全揭开。例如，目前还不知道这种关系是否存在于社会认知和运动过程中所包含的各种能力中，或者是否涉及特定的机制。伯明翰大学的这项跨学科项目将整合多个研究小组在认知心理学、运动控制和遗传学方面的专业知识，以阐明支持社会认知和运动功能共同变化的基本生物学机制，这需要进一步的研究来开发普通人群中共同出现的社会认知和运动差异的机械解释。该项目将由三种方法组成：(1)一系列行为、认知和自我报告测量与复杂的统计模型相结合，以揭示支撑运动和社会认知能力共同差异的机制；(2)采用新的测量策略，利用生理测量和分层回归模型来量化述情障碍在多大程度上调节社会认知和运动能力之间的关系；以及(3)对自闭症谱系障碍和帕金森病进行比较的遗传学调查，试图揭示重叠的遗传和生物学途径，以进一步洞察所观察到的关系背后的生物过程。

Experimental studies of human behaviour and the difficulties experienced in developmental and neurodegenerative conditions have evidenced a relationship between social cognition and motor function. Current research findings imply an important concept: the mechanisms underlying certain socio-cognitive processes are integrated with information held by motor systems. However, the extent of the relationship is yet to be fully uncovered. For example, it is not known whether the relationship is present for the wide variety of abilities encapsulated within socio-cognitive and motor processes or whether specific mechanisms are involved. Further research is needed for the development of mechanistic explanations for co-occurring socio-cognitive and motor differences within the general population.This interdisciplinary project at the University of Birmingham will integrate expertise in cognitive psychology, motor control and genetics from a number of research groups to elucidate the fundamental biological mechanisms that underpin covariation in social cognition and motor function. The project will be comprised of 3 approaches: (1) a battery of behavioural, cognitive and self-report measures combined with sophisticated statistical models to uncover the mechanisms underpinning shared variation in motor and socio-cognitive abilities, (2) the employment of novel measurement strategies utilising physiological measurements with hierarchical regression models to quantify the extent to which the relationship between socio-cognitive and motor ability is mediated by alexithymia, and (3) a genetic investigation comparing Autism Spectrum Disorder and Parkinson's Disease, two conditions in which motor and social differences are prevalent, in an attempt to uncover overlapping genetic and biological pathways to provide further insight into biological processes underlying the relationships observed.