Hein van Schie - Goal United: Unifying principles in action, imitation and social interaction

Recent studies in behavioral and cognitive neuroscience reveal a central and organizing role of goals in human action. Comparable hierarchical principles and neural mechanisms appear to underlie various forms of action processing ranging from planning to execution, observation to imitation, and solo to joint action. In this presentation I will outline different neurocognitive mechanisms supporting action goals and make a distinction between: (i) processes supporting target – effector interactions (e.g. how to grasp a cup), and (ii) processes controlling the desired worldly consequences of actions (e.g. catching a wasp).