How deep is the linkage between action and perception? Much is known about how perception impacts on action, much less about how action affects perception. Does action performance influence perception? Do motor processes and representations typically involved in planning and performing action influence perceptual experience?

Answering these questions is the main aim of the current project. We investigate action and perception processes by using psychophysical as well as neurostimulation techniques.

What enables individuals to act together? Recent discoveries suggest that a variety of mechanisms are involved. But something fundamental is yet to be investigated. In joint action, agents represent a collective goal, or so it is often assumed. But how, if at all, are collective goals represented in joint action and how do such representations impact performance?​

The aim of the present project is to ansering these questions by using behavioral, cinematic recording, neurostimulation and neuroimaging techniques.

In recent years, several studies evidenced observing someone else expressing an emotion elicits viscero-motor processing and representations in the observers’ brain that would occur if the observers themselves were experiencing that emotion. This project aim to investigate whether and how these viscero-motor processes and representation may directly impact our experience. To this aim, we will use behavioural as well as eye tracking techniques.

The ability to ascribe mental states – such as beliefs, desires and intentions – to explain, predict, and justify behavior as been called ‘Theory Of Mind’ (TOM). Since during others’ action observation human brain recruits motor representations it is plausible to ask whether the motor system has a role in mental states’ ascription.​

This project aims to investigate this hypothesis by using behavioural as well as virtual reality techniques.