FIS 3 Advanced Grant -JOINT
About
Project Leader: Corrado Sinigaglia
JOINT will develop a minimal account of joint action based on the PI’s recent work on collective goals. This account will be tested through behavioral, electrophysiological—including dual EEG and DES—and neuroimaging studies comparing agents acting with a collective goal with agents acting in parallel. These studies will identify the psychological and neural processes underlying genuine joint action and clarify how they interact. The framework will also enable us to investigate the evolutionary pathways from parallel to joint action in mice and non-human primates, as well as the developmental trajectories of joint action in typically developing (TD) children and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This may reveal whether the social difficulties associated with ASD partly arise from specific impairments in joint action.
Funding
2026-2031 – FIS3 Advanced (Italian Ministry of University and Research) 1.504.620,00 €
Research
JOINT is organised around four research areas.
1. Collective goals and the nature of joint action
This strand develops the project’s theoretical foundation. It asks what distinguishes joint action from parallel action without assuming in advance that joint action must depend on sophisticated shared intentions.
The project develops the Collective Goal Account, according to which agents act jointly when their actions are directed toward a collective goal. This account allows researchers to investigate different psychological and neural processes that may support joint action, from motor preparation to higher-level planning.
Key topics
Philosophical foundations of joint action
Collective goals and the joint–parallel distinction
Testable psychological and neural hypotheses
Collaborators
Prof. Michael Bratman — Stanford University
Prof. Stephen Butterfill — University of Warwick
Prof. Giacomo Rizzolatti — University of Parma
2. Human joint action: behavioural, electrophysiological (dual EEG, DES) and neuroimaging studies
This strand tests the Collective Goal Account in adult participants. Pairs of participants perform coordinated tasks in a video-game setting, either jointly or in parallel. The experiments compare conditions in which two agents share a collective goal with conditions in which they pursue individual goals while still needing to coordinate.
Using an integrated multidisciplinary approach—including dual-EEG, fMRI, and direct electrical stimulation (DES) brain-mapping studies—the project investigates how collective goals influence action preparation, predictability, response variability, and brain functional connectivity.
Key topics
Collective goals in human joint action
Action preparation and predictability
Neural dynamics and functional connectivity
Collaborators
Prof. Lorenzo Bello — University of Milan
Prof. Marta Bortoletto — IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca
Prof. Gabriella Cerri — University of Milan
Prof. Emiliano Ricciardi — IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca
3. Evolutionary pathways to joint action
This strand explores whether mice and non-human primates can move beyond coordination and engage in genuine joint action. Mice and macaque monkeys will perform tasks in which they either pursue a collective goal or act in parallel toward individual goals.
The aim is to test whether behavioural and brain markers of collective-goal representation can be found outside humans, and whether these markers reveal evolutionary building blocks of joint action.
Key topics
Collective goals in non-human animals
Behavioral and neural markers
Evolutionary building blocks of joint action
Collaborators
Prof. Alexandra Battaglia-Mayer — Sapienza University of Rome
Prof. Diego Scheggia – University of Milan
4. Developmental trajectories and autism spectrum disorder
This strand applies the project’s theory and methods to the study of social development. It investigates how children acquire the capacity to act jointly, and whether difficulties with collective goals may contribute to altered social interaction in autism spectrum disorder.
The project will compare typically developing children and children with ASD as they perform joint and parallel versions of the experimental task. The aim is to understand whether social difficulties in ASD may partly arise from mutual challenges in forming or responding to collective goals.
Key topics
Development of joint action
Collective goal acquisition
Joint action in autism spectrum disorder
Collaborators
Scientific Institute IRCCS E. Medea
Luca Casartelli — IRCCS E. Medea
Laura Villa — IRCCS E. Medea
People
Principal Investigator
Prof. Corrado Sinigaglia
Università degli Studi di Milano
CIA Lab / PHILAB
Collaborating researchers and institutions
Prof. Lorenzo Bello
Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan
Neurosurgical Oncology Unit, IRCCS Ospedale Galeazzi–Sant’Ambrogio
Research topics: awake neurosurgery, intraoperative brain mapping, functional connectivity, motor and cognitive networks, preservation of cognitive functions during neurosurgery
Prof. Michael E. Bratman
Stanford University, Department of Philosophy
Research topics: philosophy of action, intention and planning, shared agency, practical rationality, individual and institutional agency
Prof. S. A. Butterfill
University of Warwick
Research topics: collective goals, motor representation, acting together
Prof. G. Rizzolatti
University of Parma
Research topics: mirror neurons, social cognition, action understanding
Prof. M. Bortoletto
MomiLab, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca
Research topics: dual-EEG, TMS-EEG, joint action
Prof. Alexandra Battaglia-Mayer
Sapienza University of Rome
Research topics: non-human primates, dyadic action, joint action
Prof. Gabriella Cerri
Department of Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine, University of Milan
Director, MoCA Laboratory — Motor, Cognition and Action Laboratory, affiliated with IRCCS Ospedale Galeazzi–Sant’Ambrogio
Research topics: motor control, action cognition, intraoperative neurophysiology, functional brain mapping, brain plasticity and motor–cognitive networks
Prof. Diego Scheggia
Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Milan
Research topics: social decision-making, prosocial behaviour, social learning, affective-state recognition, neural circuits of social cognition
Scientific Institute IRCCS E. Medea
Research topics: neurodevelopment, autism spectrum disorder, paediatric neuroscience
Luca Casartelli and Laura Villa
IRCCS E. Medea
Research topics: autism spectrum disorder, child development, social interaction
Advisory Board
The project is supported by an international Advisory Board connected to PHILAB:
Cristina Bicchieri — University of Pennsylvania
Chris D. Frith — University College London
Edouard Machery — University of Pittsburgh
Kristie Miller — University of Sydney
Carlo Miniussi — CIMEC, University of Trento
Alva Noë — University of California, Berkeley
Natalie Sebanz — Central European University
Barry C. Smith — University of London
Juergen Streeck — University of Texas at Austin
News and Events
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