Investigating the neurophysiology behind our action encoding system offers a way of probing the underlying mechanisms regarding how we understand seen action. The ability to mentally simulate action (motor simulation) is a strong proposal to understand how we interpret others’ actions. The process of how we generate accurate motor simulations is proposed to be reliant on the context of the movement and sensory feedback from the limb. However, the neurophysiological mechanisms behind motor simulation are not yet understood. Known motor physiology for right-handed individuals show there is a left parietal-frontal network for the mental simulation of skilled movements; however, it remains unclear whether this is due to right limb dominance of the observer’s motor system because action simulation research has been focused primarily on right-handed individuals. The goal of this dissertation is to understand the underlying neurophysiology of the motor simulation process during action encoding. Generally, we propose different strategies of action simulation between right and left handed individuals. More specifically, we propose that right-handed individuals rely on their motor dominant left hemisphere for action encoding and motor simulation, while left-handed individuals will rely on their motor dominant right hemisphere. We will test this by evaluating neurobehavioral patterns of potential symmetry and asymmetry of motor simulation and action encoding based on patterns of limb dominance. We will also evaluate how impaired sensory feedback affects motor simulations, which can reveal how limb state affects the simulation process. The results of this series of studies will fill a void in our basic understanding of the motor simulation process and may generalize to populations with upper limb functional loss. Specifically, those with different hand dominance may require different rehabilitation programs in order to retrain an affected limb.

Cette thèse porte sur la modélisation du comportement humain dans les simulations de combat naval. Au sein de l'entreprise DCNS, les simulations de combat naval permettent d'évaluer les performances opérationnelles des navires militaires, dans un scénario donné. Les simulations actuelles ne permettent pas de prendre en compte l'analyse et la décision d'un opérateur, qui peuvent parfois conduire à des réactions inattendues. Le but de cette thèse est donc de modéliser le comportement d'un opérateur pour les simulations de combats navals.Pour représenter les connaissances, la logique non monotone la plus employée a été utilisée: la logique des défauts. Une prise en compte du temps a été ajoutée à cette logique des défauts. La logique des défauts va permettre de calculer des extensions. Chaque extension correspond à une action possible pour l'opérateur.Une méthode qui permet de choisir une extension a été définie. Cette méthode simule la décision de l'opérateur et elle prend en compte le caractère de l'opérateur. / This thesis deals with the modelling of operator behavior in naval action simulations. At DCNS, simulations of naval action estimate the operational performance of warships or submarines for a given scenario. However, the current simulations do not take into account the analysis and the decision of an operator, which can produce unexpected reactions. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a system allowing to model the behavior of an operatorin the naval action simulations.To represent knowledge, the most widely known non-monotonic logic is used : the default logic. A consideration of time is added to this logic. The default logic allows to calculate extensions. Each extension represents a possible action for the operator.A method to choose an extension is dened, which allows to simulate the decision of the operator and it handles the operator character.

Research on embodied approaches to language comprehension suggests that we understand linguistic descriptions of actions by mentally simulating these actions. Evidence is provided by the action-sentence compatibility effect (ACE) which shows that sensibility judgments for sentences are faster when the direction of the described action matches the response direction. In two experiments, we investigated whether the ACE relies on actions or on intended action effects. Participants gave sensibility judgments of auditorily presented sentences by producing an action effect on a screen at a location near the body or far from the body. These action effects were achieved by pressing a response button that was located in either the same spatial direction as the action effect, or in the opposite direction. We used a go/no-go task in which the direction of the to-be-produced action effect was either cued at the onset of each sentence (Experiment 1) or at different points in time before and after sentence onset (Experiment 2). Overall, results showed a relationship between the direction of the described action and the direction of the action effect. Furthermore, Experiment 2 indicated that depending on the timing between cue presentation and sentence onset, participants responded either faster when the direction of the described action matched the direction of the action effect (positive ACE), or slower (negative ACE). These results provide evidence that the comprehension of action sentences involves the activation of representations of action effects. Concurrently activated representations in sentence comprehension and action planning can lead to both priming and interference, which is discussed in the context of the theory of event coding.