Early categorization of social affordances during the visual encoding of bodily stimuli

Interpersonal interactions rely on various communication channels, both verbal and non-verbal (i.e. facial expressions, body postures, hand movements), through which information regarding one’s intentions and emotions is transmitted. EEG studies show that the visual perception of salient stimuli such as hands modulates the amplitude of the N190 and the EPN components. Most seminal neurocognitive models have focused on face perception, whereas no study has tested the dynamics of social action representation conveyed by hand gestures.