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During orchestral performance, conductors play a role in which they provide their interpretations of the musical composition, communicating these interpretational intentions via their body movement. Pedagogical sources propose movement emblems for stock actions by which a conductor may deliver compositional and interpretational features in conducting practise. This thesis reports a mixed-methods study which provides empirical observations on the kinematic features evident in conducting practise, and which aims to explore the connection between such movements with compositional features and conductors’ interpretative intentions. Six conductors’ interpretational intentions were collected in interviews, and their conducting movements were recorded using a Qualisys motion capture system, while they worked on excerpts of repertoire by Mozart, Dvořák, and Bartók with a small string ensemble. In the interviews, conductors reported their general thoughts and beliefs about conducting. They were also prompted to identify the compositional events which they sought to highlight in their conducting, and to describe the conducting strategies they intended to use to highlight these musical events. The resulting qualitative data were thematically analysed. The conductor-identified compositional features were also used to guide kinematic investigations, using an innovative analysis method original to this project, Deviation Point Analysis (DPA). Conductors’ movements are described using four dependent variables of baton tip (movement distance, speed, acceleration, and jerk). Results are reported for two-way repeated measures ANOVAs (repertoire x trial), and for t-tests revealing significant differences between cross-correlation coefficients for within-conductor trial pairs and between-conductor trial pairs. Further examination of the data using DPA serves to distinguish time-points with observable kinematic deviations from the conducting trials. These kinematic deviations were compared with conductors’ stated intentions. Prominent clusters of kinematic deviations were seen to be associated with key musical events which conductors intended to emphasize temporal, melodic, dynamic, and instrumental aspects. Minor clusters of kinematic deviations were seen to be connected with interpretational intentions in a less stable manner, some occurring remotely from the conductor-identified locations. DPA method and findings are fully reported. The implications, advantages and limitations of this novel analysis approach are also discussed.

Our ability to interact with the environment requires the integration of multisensory information for the construction of spatial representations. The peripersonal space (i.e., the sector of space closely surrounding one's body) and the integrative processes between visual and tactile inputs originating from this sector of space have been at the center of recent years investigations. Neurophysiological studies provided evidence for the presence in the monkey brain of bimodal neurons, which are activated by tactile as well as visual information delivered near to a specific body part (e.g., the hand). Neuropsychological studies on right brain-damaged patients who present extinction and functional neuroimaging findings suggest the presence of similar bimodal systems in the human brain. Studies on the effects of tool-use on visual-tactile interaction revealed similar dynamic properties of the peripersonal space in monkeys and humans. The functional role of the multisensory coding of peripersonal space is, in our hypothesis, that of providing the brain with a sensori-motor interface for body-objects interactions. Thus, not only it could be involved in driving involuntary defensive movements in response to objects approaching the body, but could be also dynamically maintained and updated as a function of manual voluntary actions performed towards objects in the reaching space. We tested the hypothesis of an involvement of peripersonal space in executing both voluntary and defensive actions. To these aims, we joined a well known cross-modal congruency effect between visual and tactile information to a kinematic approach to demonstrate that voluntary grasping actions induce an on-line re-weighting of multisensory interactions in the peripersonal space. We additionally show that this modulation is handcentred. We also used a motor evoked potentials approach to investigate which coordinates system is used to code the peripersonal space during motor preparation if real objects rapidly approach the body. Our findings provide direct evidence for automatic hand-centred coding of visual space and suggest that peripersonal space may also serve to represent rapidly 3 approaching and potentially noxious objects, thus enabling the rapid selection of appropriate motor responses. These results clearly show that peripersonal space is a multisensori-motor interface that might have been selected through evolution for optimising the interactions between the body and the objects in the external world.

Actions are goal-directed. It can be the goal of an action to change the environment (i.e. to produce an effect), but also to change one´s own situation in the environment (i.e. to move to a physical target). Previous research has shown that kinematics of actions directed towards physical targets are not only mere reactions to such targets. Instead, targets evoke intentional goals. Representations of such intentional goals influence action execution. However, thus far, most studies in the context of the ideomotor theory of action control have focused on the influence of anticipated action effects on action planning. The role of targets as action goals as well as the role of goal anticipations on overt action execution has mostly been neglected. In this dissertation the role of goal representations in action control was investigated. The ideomotor theory served as a theoretical framework. It was assumed that targets function as action goals similar to action effects and that action goals influence action execution by the anticipation of upcoming events. Action execution towards targets and towards effects was compared. This was done in the temporal and the spatial domain. Furthermore, goal representations were manipulated in order to evaluate their influence on action execution and to disentangle the role of physical target characteristics and the role of goal representations. The findings obtained strengthen the assumption that goal representations play an important role in action control. First, both targets and effects can be viewed as goals of an action in the temporal and spatial domain. Second, movement kinematics are shaped by the way targets are represented as action goals, rather than by physically target properties. In conclusion, as goal representations are formed before the action is actually executed they influence action execution by the anticipation of upcoming events. The ideomotor theory of action control should incorporate action targets as goals similar to action effects.

Notre habilité à interagir avec les objets du monde nécessite l’intégration d’informations provenant de différents canaux sensoriels, dans le cadre de la construction d’une représentation de l’espace en particulier des informations visuelles et tactiles. L’espace péri personnel et l’intégration visuo-tactile ont été l’objet d’importantes recherche récemment. Des études neuro physiologiques chez le primate non-humain ont montré l’existence de neurones bi modaux activés à la fois par des stimulations tactiles et par des stimulations visuelles si ces dernières étaient présentées près d’une partie du corps (par exemple la main). Il a été proposé que ces neurones bi-modaux constituent le substrat neuronal de la représentation de l’espace péri personnel. Les études neuropsychologiques menées chez des patients présentant une extinction cross-modale consécutive à une lésion pariétale droite ont permis de suggérer l’existence du même type de représentation de l’espace péri personnel chez l’homme. Les données issues des études en neuro imagerie fonctionnelle sont venues par la suite conforter cette idée. Plus récemment, à travers l’utilisation d’outils, des données acquises chez le primate humain et non humain ont révélé les propriétés dynamiques de cette représentation spatiale. Selon notre hypothèse la représentation de l’espace péri personnel est une interface présidant aux interactions du corps avec les objets du monde externe. Nous avons donc évalué le rôle et l’état de l’espace péri personnel lors de l’exécution de mouvements volontaires vers des objets (comme une simple saisie) et lors de mouvements involontaires d’évitement. Lors d’une première série d’expériences nous avons étudié les coordonnées spatiales du codage des objets qui soudainement se rapprochent du corps grâce à la mesure des potentiels évoqués moteurs. Cette étude a révélé que l’espace péri personnel joue un rôle dans la représentation des objets approchant le corps et dans la sélection des mouvements appropriés en réponse. Lors d’une seconde série d’expériences nous avons utilisé un paradigme d’interférence visuo-tactile couplé à l’enregistrement cinématique des mouvements de saisie afin d’examiner la représentation de l’espace péri personnel lors de 1 l’exécution d’actions volontaires. Cette approche novatrice nous a permis de mettre en évidence que l’action volontaire induit un recodage en ligne de l’interaction visuo-tactile dans l’espace de préhension. Ce recodage de l’action s’effectue en coordonnées centrées sur la partie du corps qui exécute l’action. En conclusion nos études expérimentales démontrent que l’espace péri personnel est une interface multi sensorielle qui a été sélectionnée à travers l’évolution non seulement pour la gestion des mouvements d’évitement et de défense mais également pour l’exécution d’actions volontaires. / Our ability to interact with the environment requires the integration of multisensory information for the construction of spatial representations. The peripersonal space (i.e., the sector of space closely surrounding one’s body) and the integrative processes between visual and tactile inputs originating from this sector of space have been at the center of recent years investigations. Neurophysiological studies provided evidence for the presence in the monkey brain of bimodal neurons, which are activated by tactile as well as visual information delivered near to a specific body part (e.g., the hand). Neuropsychological studies on right brain-damaged patients who present extinction and functional neuroimaging findings suggest the presence of similar bimodal systems in the human brain. Studies on the effects of tool-use on visual-tactile interaction revealed similar dynamic properties of the peripersonal space in monkeys and humans. The functional role of the multisensory coding of peripersonal space is, in our hypothesis, that of providing the brain with a sensori-motor interface for body-objects interactions. Thus, not only it could be involved in driving involuntary defensive movements in response to objects approaching the body, but could be also dynamically maintained and updated as a function of manual voluntary actions performed towards objects in the reaching space. We tested the hypothesis of an involvement of peripersonal space in executing both voluntary and defensive actions. To these aims, we joined a well known cross-modal congruency effect between visual and tactile information to a kinematic approach to demonstrate that voluntary grasping actions induce an on-line re-weighting of multisensory interactions in the peripersonal space. We additionally show that this modulation is handcentred. We also used a motor evoked potentials approach to investigate which coordinates system is used to code the peripersonal space during motor preparation if real objects rapidly approach the body. Our findings provide direct evidence for automatic hand-centred coding of visual space and suggest that peripersonal space may also serve to represent rapidly 3 approaching and potentially noxious objects, thus enabling the rapid selection of appropriate motor responses. These results clearly show that peripersonal space is a multisensori-motor interface that might have been selected through evolution for optimising the interactions between the body and the objects in the external world.

Actions are goal-directed. It can be the goal of an action to change the environment (i.e. to produce an effect), but also to change one´s own situation in the environment (i.e. to move to a physical target). Previous research has shown that kinematics of actions directed towards physical targets are not only mere reactions to such targets. Instead, targets evoke intentional goals. Representations of such intentional goals influence action execution. However, thus far, most studies in the context of the ideomotor theory of action control have focused on the influence of anticipated action effects on action planning. The role of targets as action goals as well as the role of goal anticipations on overt action execution has mostly been neglected. In this dissertation the role of goal representations in action control was investigated. The ideomotor theory served as a theoretical framework. It was assumed that targets function as action goals similar to action effects and that action goals influence action execution by the anticipation of upcoming events. Action execution towards targets and towards effects was compared. This was done in the temporal and the spatial domain. Furthermore, goal representations were manipulated in order to evaluate their influence on action execution and to disentangle the role of physical target characteristics and the role of goal representations. The findings obtained strengthen the assumption that goal representations play an important role in action control. First, both targets and effects can be viewed as goals of an action in the temporal and spatial domain. Second, movement kinematics are shaped by the way targets are represented as action goals, rather than by physically target properties. In conclusion, as goal representations are formed before the action is actually executed they influence action execution by the anticipation of upcoming events. The ideomotor theory of action control should incorporate action targets as goals similar to action effects.