motor simulation or resonance

Many names for more or less the same phenomenon: motor simulation, motor resonance, embodiment; simulating the actions in our bodies, by embodying the perception. Motor simulation has implications beyond understanding action. It affects our predictions and expectations about action

Basketball players have that visual experience, but compared to coaches or sports reporters they also have the extensive insider knowledge (insider motor understanding of the body kinematics underlying basketball shots)—they know what it feels like to shoot a basket, and developed good intuitions about which shots they take themselves will make the basket.

It suggests that we map body action that we see onto our own body’s action system. Perception of action acquires meaning through motor understanding. Experts with more articulated motion systems perceive more meaning in what they see.