The embodied brain: towards a radical embodied cognitive neuroscience

The anatomical structure of sex differences in trust propensity: A voxel-based morphometry study

Trust is a key component of human relationships. Sex differences in trust behavior have been elucidated by parental investment theory and social role theory, attributing men's higher trust propensity to their increased engagement in physically and socially risky activities aimed at securing additional resources. Although sex differences in trust behavior exist and the neuropsychological signatures of trust are known, the underlying anatomical structure of sex differences is still unexplored. Our study aimed to investigate the anatomical structure of sex differences in trust behavior toward strangers (i.e., trust propensity, TP) by employing voxel-based morphometry (VBM) in a sample of healthy young adults. We collected behavioral data for TP as measured with participants in the role of trustors completing the one-shot trust game (TG) with anonymous partners as trustees. We conducted primary region of interest (ROI) and exploratory whole-brain (WB) VBM analyses of high-resolution structural images to test for the association between TP and regional gray matter volume (GMV) associated with sex differences. Confirming previous studies, our behavioral results demonstrated that men trusted more than women during the one-shot TG. Our WB analysis showed a greater GMV related to TP in men than women in the precuneus (PreC), whereas our ROI analysis in regions of the default-mode network (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex [dmPFC], PreC, superior temporal gyrus) to simulate the partner's trustworthiness, central-executive network (ventrolateral PFC) to implement a calculus-based trust strategy, and action-perception network (precentral gyrus) to performance cost-benefit calculations, as proposed by a neuropsychoeconomic model of trust. Our findings advance the neuropsychological understanding of sex differences in TP, which has implications for interpersonal partnerships, financial transactions, and societal engagements.

Theoretical strategies for an embodied cognitive neuroscience: Mechanistic explanations of brain-body-environment systems

Cognitive neuroscience seeks to explain mind, brain, and behavior. But how do we generate explanations? In this integrative theoretical paper, we review the commitments of the 'New Mechanist' movement within the philosophy of science, focusing specifically on the role of mechanistic models in scientific explanation. We highlight how this approach differs from other explanatory approaches within the field, showing its unique contributions to the efforts of scientific explanation. We then argue that the commitments of the Embodied Cognition framework converge with the commitments of the New Mechanist movement in a way that provides a necessary explanatory strategy available to cognitive neuroscience. We then discuss a number of consequences of this convergence, including issues related to the inadequacy of statistical prediction, neuroscientific reduction, the autonomy of psychology from neuroscience, and psychological and neuroscientific ontology. We hope that our integrative thesis provides researchers with a theoretical strategy for an embodied cognitive neuroscience.

Closing the loop: High-speed robotics with accelerated neuromorphic hardware

The BrainScaleS-2 system is an established analog neuromorphic platform with versatile applications in the diverse fields of computational neuroscience and spike-based machine learning. In this work, we extend the system with a configurable realtime event interface that enables a tight coupling of its distinct analog network core to external sensors and actuators. The 1,000-fold acceleration of the emulated nerve cells allows us to target high-speed robotic applications that require precise timing on a microsecond scale. As a showcase, we present a closed-loop setup for commuting brushless DC motors: we utilize PyTorch to train a spiking neural network emulated on the analog substrate to control an electric motor from a sensory event stream. The presented system enables research in the area of event-driven controllers for high-speed robotics, including self-supervised and biologically inspired online learning for such applications.

Artificial cognition vs. artificial intelligence for next-generation autonomous robotic agents

The trend in industrial/service robotics is to develop robots that can cooperate with people, interacting with them in an autonomous, safe and purposive way. These are the fundamental elements characterizing the fourth and the fifth industrial revolutions (4IR, 5IR): the crucial innovation is the adoption of intelligent technologies that can allow the development of cyber-physical systems, similar if not superior to humans. The common wisdom is that intelligence might be provided by AI (Artificial Intelligence), a claim that is supported more by media coverage and commercial interests than by solid scientific evidence. AI is currently conceived in a quite broad sense, encompassing LLMs and a lot of other things, without any unifying principle, but self-motivating for the success in various areas. The current view of AI robotics mostly follows a purely disembodied approach that is consistent with the old-fashioned, Cartesian mind-body dualism, reflected in the software-hardware distinction inherent to the von Neumann computing architecture. The working hypothesis of this position paper is that the road to the next generation of autonomous robotic agents with cognitive capabilities requires a fully brain-inspired, embodied cognitive approach that avoids the trap of mind-body dualism and aims at the full integration of Bodyware and Cogniware. We name this approach Artificial Cognition (ACo) and ground it in Cognitive Neuroscience. It is specifically focused on proactive knowledge acquisition based on bidirectional human-robot interaction: the practical advantage is to enhance generalization and explainability. Moreover, we believe that a brain-inspired network of interactions is necessary for allowing humans to cooperate with artificial cognitive agents, building a growing level of personal trust and reciprocal accountability: this is clearly missing, although actively sought, in current AI. The ACo approach is a work in progress that can take advantage of a number of research threads, some of them antecedent the early attempts to define AI concepts and methods. In the rest of the paper we will consider some of the building blocks that need to be re-visited in a unitary framework: the principles of developmental robotics, the methods of action representation with prospection capabilities, and the crucial role of social interaction.

Neuro-Psychomotor intervention in children with neurodevelopmental disorders: An exploratory study by using parent-report tools

Neurodevelopmental disorders are a group of complex conditions with onset in the developmental period, that produce impairments of global functioning. For these features, the rehabilitative approaches should be flexible, tailored to the individual characteristics of each patient, and characterized by a standardized multidimensional view, for taking into consideration all the several areas of neurodevelopment. This single-arm clinical trial aims to investigate the features, feasibility, and limitations of Neuro-Psychomotor (NPM) intervention, an Italian naturalistic model for children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders. 30 children (16 with Mixed Specific Developmental Disorder vs 14 with Intellectual Disability) were recruited and their parents filled out two validated tools questionnaires (Developmental Profile-3 and Sensory Processing Measure), before and after 6 months of NPM intervention. Although with some limitations, findings showed that NPM intervention is reliable, flexible, and helpful for children with different neurodevelopmental disorders. Further studies are necessary to investigate its efficacy on a larger sample.

Cognitive abilities are associated with specific conjunctions of structural and functional neural subnetworks

Cognitive neuroscience assumes that different mental abilities correspond to at least partly separable brain subnetworks and strives to understand their relationships. However, single-task approaches typically revealed multiple brain subnetworks to be involved in performance. Here, we chose a bottom-up approach of investigating the association between structural and functional brain subnetworks, on the one hand, and domain-specific cognitive abilities, on the other. Structural network was identified using machine-learning graph neural network by clustering anatomical brain properties measured in 838 individuals enroled in the WU-Minn Young Adult Human Connectome Project. Functional network was adapted from seven Resting State Networks (7-RSN). We then analyzed the results of 15 cognitive tasks and estimated five latent abilities: fluid reasoning (Gf), crystallized intelligence (Gc), memory (Mem), executive functions (EF), and processing speed (Gs). In a final step we determined linear associations between these independently identified ability and brain entities. We found no one-to-one mapping between latent abilities and brain subnetworks. Analyses revealed that abilities are associated with properties of particular combinations of brain subnetworks. While some abilities are more strongly associated to within-subnetwork connections, others are related with connections between multiple subnetworks. Importantly, domain-specific abilities commonly rely on node(s) as hub(s) to connect with other subnetworks. To test the robustness of our findings, we ran the analyses through several defensible analytical decisions. Together, the present findings allow a novel perspective on the distinct nature of domain-specific cognitive abilities building upon unique combinations of associated brain subnetworks.

Body as First Teacher: The Role of Rhythmic Visceral Dynamics in Early Cognitive Development

Embodied cognition-the idea that mental states and processes should be understood in relation to one's bodily constitution and interactions with the world-remains a controversial topic within cognitive science. Recently, however, increasing interest in predictive processing theories among proponents and critics of embodiment alike has raised hopes of a reconciliation. This article sets out to appraise the unificatory potential of predictive processing, focusing in particular on embodied formulations of active inference. Our analysis suggests that most active-inference accounts invoke weak, potentially trivial conceptions of embodiment; those making stronger claims do so independently of the theoretical commitments of the active-inference framework. We argue that a more compelling version of embodied active inference can be motivated by adopting a diachronic perspective on the way rhythmic physiological activity shapes neural development in utero. According to this visceral afferent training hypothesis, early-emerging physiological processes are essential not only for supporting the biophysical development of neural structures but also for configuring the cognitive architecture those structures entail. Focusing in particular on the cardiovascular system, we propose three candidate mechanisms through which visceral afferent training might operate: (a) activity-dependent neuronal development, (b) periodic signal modeling, and (c) oscillatory network coordination.

From Brain-Body Function to Conscious Interactions

In this review, we discuss empirical results inspiring the introduction of a formal mathematical multilayer model for the biological neuroscience of conscious experience. First, we motivate the discussion through evidence regarding the dynamic brain. Second, we review different brain-body couplings associated with conscious experience and its potential role in driving brain dynamics. Third, we introduce the machinery of multilayer networks to account for several types of interactions in brain-body systems. Then, a multilayer structure consists of two main generalizations: a formal semantic to study biological systems, and an integrative account for several signatures and models of consciousness. Finally, under this framework, we define composition of layers to account for entangled features of brain-body systems related to conscious experience. As such, a multilayer mathematical framework is highly integrative and thus may be more complete than other models. In this short review, we discuss a variety of empirical results inspiring the introduction of a formal mathematical multilayer model for the biological neuroscience of conscious experience.

Context-sensitive computational mechanistic explanation in cognitive neuroscience

Mainstream cognitive neuroscience aims to build mechanistic explanations of behavior by mapping abilities described at the organismal level via the subpersonal level of computation onto specific brain networks. We provide an integrative review of these commitments and their mismatch with empirical research findings. Context-dependent neural tuning, neural reuse, degeneracy, plasticity, functional recovery, and the neural correlates of enculturated skills each show that there is a lack of stable mappings between organismal, computational, and neural levels of analysis. We furthermore highlight recent research suggesting that task context at the organismal level determines the dynamic parcellation of functional components at the neural level. Such instability prevents the establishment of specific computational descriptions of neural function, which remains a central goal of many brain mappers - including those who are sympathetic to the notion of many-to-many mappings between organismal and neural levels. This between-level instability presents a deep epistemological challenge and requires a reorientation of methodological and theoretical commitments within cognitive neuroscience. We demonstrate the need for change to brain mapping efforts in the face of instability if cognitive neuroscience is to maintain its central goal of constructing computational mechanistic explanations of behavior; we show that such explanations must be contextual at all levels.

Looking forward to a decade of the biopsychosocial model

The topic of this article is the biopsychosocial model. My main contention is that - notwithstanding doubts as to what exactly it is, or indeed whether it is anything - there is a coherent account of it, in terms of both applications to particular health conditions and mechanisms with wide application. There is accumulating evidence from recent decades that psychosocial as well as biological factors are implicated in the aetiology and treatment of a large range of physical as well as mental health conditions. The original proposer of the biopsychosocial model, George Engel, back in 1977, was substantially correct about what he saw was on its way.

Systemic physiology augmented functional near-infrared spectroscopy: a powerful approach to study the embodied human brain

In this Outlook paper, we explain why an accurate physiological interpretation of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) neuroimaging signals is facilitated when systemic physiological activity (e.g., cardiorespiratory and autonomic activity) is measured simultaneously by employing systemic physiology augmented functional near-infrared spectroscopy (SPA-fNIRS). The rationale for SPA-fNIRS is twofold: (i) SPA-fNIRS enables a more complete interpretation and understanding of the fNIRS signals measured at the head since they contain components originating from neurovascular coupling and from systemic physiological sources. The systemic physiology signals measured with SPA-fNIRS can be used for regressing out physiological confounding components in fNIRS signals. Misinterpretations can thus be minimized. (ii) SPA-fNIRS enables to study the embodied brain by linking the brain with the physiological state of the entire body, allowing novel insights into their complex interplay. We envisage the SPA-fNIRS approach will become increasingly important in the future.

Protocol of the Healthy Brain Study: An accessible resource for understanding the human brain and how it dynamically and individually operates in its bio-social context

The endeavor to understand the human brain has seen more progress in the last few decades than in the previous two millennia. Still, our understanding of how the human brain relates to behavior in the real world and how this link is modulated by biological, social, and environmental factors is limited. To address this, we designed the Healthy Brain Study (HBS), an interdisciplinary, longitudinal, cohort study based on multidimensional, dynamic assessments in both the laboratory and the real world. Here, we describe the rationale and design of the currently ongoing HBS. The HBS is examining a population-based sample of 1,000 healthy participants (age 30–39) who are thoroughly studied across an entire year. Data are collected through cognitive, affective, behavioral, and physiological testing, neuroimaging, bio-sampling, questionnaires, ecological momentary assessment, and real-world assessments using wearable devices. These data will become an accessible resource for the scientific community enabling the next step in understanding the human brain and how it dynamically and individually operates in its bio-social context. An access procedure to the collected data and bio-samples is in place and published on https://www.healthybrainstudy.nl/en/data-and-methods/access.

Trail registration:https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/7955.

Osteopathy and Mental Health: An Embodied, Predictive, and Interoceptive Framework

Globally, mental and musculoskeletal disorders present with high prevalence, disease burden, and comorbidity. In order to improve the quality of care for patients with persistent physical and comorbid mental health conditions, person-centered care approaches addressing psychosocial factors are currently advocated. Central to successful person-centered care is a multidisciplinary collaboration between mental health and musculoskeletal specialists underpinned by a robust therapeutic alliance. Such a collaborative approach might be found in osteopathy, which is typically utilized to treat patients with musculoskeletal disorders but may arguably also benefit mental health outcomes. However, research and practice exploring the reputed effect of osteopathy on patients with mental health problems lack a robust framework. In this hypothesis and theory article, we build upon research from embodied cognition, predictive coding, interoception, and osteopathy to propose an embodied, predictive and interoceptive framework that underpins osteopathic person-centered care for individuals with persistent physical and comorbid mental health problems. Based on the premise that, for example, chronic pain and comorbid depression are underlined by overly precise predictions or imprecise sensory information, we hypothesize that osteopathic treatment may generate strong interoceptive prediction errors that update the generative model underpinning the experience of pain and depression. Thus, physical and mental symptoms may be reduced through active and perceptual inference. We discuss how these theoretical perspectives can inform future research into osteopathy and mental health to reduce the burden of comorbid psychological factors in patients with persistent physical symptoms and support person-centered multidisciplinary care in mental health.

Bridging the gap between emotion and joint action

Our daily human life is filled with a myriad of joint action moments, be it children playing, adults working together (i.e., team sports), or strangers navigating through a crowd. Joint action brings individuals (and embodiment of their emotions) together, in space and in time. Yet little is known about how individual emotions propagate through embodied presence in a group, and how joint action changes individual emotion. In fact, the multi-agent component is largely missing from neuroscience-based approaches to emotion, and reversely joint action research has not found a way yet to include emotion as one of the key parameters to model socio-motor interaction. In this review, we first identify the gap and then stockpile evidence showing strong entanglement between emotion and acting together from various branches of sciences. We propose an integrative approach to bridge the gap, highlight five research avenues to do so in behavioral neuroscience and digital sciences, and address some of the key challenges in the area faced by modern societies.

How context changes the neural basis of perception and language

Cognitive processes-from basic sensory analysis to language understanding-are typically contextualized. While the importance of considering context for understanding cognition has long been recognized in psychology and philosophy, it has not yet had much impact on cognitive neuroscience research, where cognition is often studied in decontextualized paradigms. Here, we present examples of recent studies showing that context changes the neural basis of diverse cognitive processes, including perception, attention, memory, and language. Within the domains of perception and language, we review neuroimaging results showing that context interacts with stimulus processing, changes activity in classical perception and language regions, and recruits additional brain regions that contribute crucially to naturalistic perception and language. We discuss how contextualized cognitive neuroscience will allow for discovering new principles of the mind and brain.

The Embodied-Enactive-Interactive Brain: Bridging Neuroscience and Creative Arts Therapies

The recognition and incorporation of evidence-based neuroscientific concepts into creative arts therapeutic knowledge and practice seem valuable and advantageous for the purpose of integration and professional development. Moreover, exhilarating insights from the field of neuroscience coincide with the nature, conceptualization, goals, and methods of Creative Arts Therapies (CATs), enabling comprehensive understandings of the clinical landscape, from a translational perspective. This paper contextualizes and discusses dynamic brain functions that have been suggested to lie at the heart of intra- and inter-personal processes. Touching upon fundamental aspects of the self and self-other interaction, the state-of-the-art neuroscientific-informed views will shed light on mechanisms of the embodied, predictive and relational brain. The conceptual analysis introduces and interweaves the following contemporary perspectives of brain function: firstly, the grounding of mental activity in the lived, bodily experience will be delineated; secondly, the enactive account of internal models, or generative predictive representations, shaped by experience, will be defined and extensively deliberated; and thirdly, the interpersonal simulation and synchronization mechanisms that support empathy and mentalization will be thoroughly considered. Throughout the paper, the cross-talks between the brain and the body, within the brain through functionally connected neural networks and in the context of agent-environment dynamics, will be addressed. These communicative patterns will be elaborated on to unfold psychophysiological linkage, as well as psychopathological shifts, concluding with the neuroplastic change associated with the formulation of CATs. The manuscript suggests an integrative view of the brain-body-mind in contexts relevant to the therapeutic potential of the expressive creative arts and the main avenues by which neuroscience may ground, enlighten and enrich the clinical psychotherapeutic practice.

Positive emotion induction improves cardiovascular coping with a cognitive task

Feeling positive emotions seems to favour an adaptive cardiovascular response (greater heart rate variability, HRV), associated with improved cognitive performance. This study aims to test whether the induction of a positive emotional state produce such cardiovascular response and therefore, enhance coping and performance in Tower of Hanoi (ToH). Forty-two Participants were randomly distributed into two groups (Experimental and Control). Experimental group was subjected to the evocation of a memory of success, while control group was subjected to an attentional task before performing ToH. Heart Rate Variability (HRV), activity of the zygomatic major muscle (ZEMG) and emotions were measured. Emotional induction increased ZEMG activity, feelings of emotional valence and HRV, but the performance in ToH was not different from control. Experiencing positive emotions seems to favour an adaptive psychophysiological response when faced with a complex cognitive task. These results are discussed in relation to clinical practice and health.

Healthy Teleworking: Towards Personalized Exercise Recommendations

Home-based teleworking, associated with sedentary behavior, may impair self-reported adult health status. Current exercise recommendations, based on universal recipes, may be insufficient or even misleading to promote healthy teleworking. From the Network Physiology of Exercise perspective, health is redefined as an adaptive emergent state, product of dynamic interactions among multiple levels (from genetic to social) that cannot be reduced to a few dimensions. Under such a perspective, fitness development is focused on enhancing the individual functional diversity potential, which is better achieved through varied and personalized exercise proposals. This paper discusses some myths related to ideal or unique recommendations, like the ideal exercise or posture, and the contribution of recent computer technologies and applications for prescribing exercise and assessing fitness. Highlighting the need for creating personalized working environments and strengthening the active contribution of users in the process, new recommendations related to teleworking posture, home exercise counselling, exercise monitoring and to the roles of healthcare and exercise professionals are proposed. Instead of exercise prescribers, professionals act as co-designers that help users to learn, co-adapt and adequately contextualize exercise in order to promote their somatic awareness, job satisfaction, productivity, work–life balance, wellbeing and health.

NeuroKit2: A Python toolbox for neurophysiological signal processing

NeuroKit2 is an open-source, community-driven, and user-centered Python package for neurophysiological signal processing. It provides a comprehensive suite of processing routines for a variety of bodily signals (e.g., ECG, PPG, EDA, EMG, RSP). These processing routines include high-level functions that enable data processing in a few lines of code using validated pipelines, which we illustrate in two examples covering the most typical scenarios, such as an event-related paradigm and an interval-related analysis. The package also includes tools for specific processing steps such as rate extraction and filtering methods, offering a trade-off between high-level convenience and fine-tuned control. Its goal is to improve transparency and reproducibility in neurophysiological research, as well as foster exploration and innovation. Its design philosophy is centred on user-experience and accessibility to both novice and advanced users.

Abel: Integrating Humanoid Body, Emotions, and Time Perception to Investigate Social Interaction and Human Cognition

Humanoids have been created for assisting or replacing humans in many applications, providing encouraging results in contexts where social and emotional interaction is required, such as healthcare, education, and therapy. Bioinspiration, that has often guided the design of their bodies and minds, made them also become excellent research tools, probably the best platform by which we can model, test, and understand the human mind and behavior. Driven by the aim of creating a believable robot for interactive applications, as well as a research platform for investigating human cognition and emotion, we are constructing a new humanoid social robot: Abel. In this paper, we discussed three of the fundamental principles that motivated the design of Abel and its cognitive and emotional system: hyper-realistic humanoid aesthetics, human-inspired emotion processing, and human-like perception of time. After reporting a brief state-of-the-art on the related topics, we present the robot at its stage of development, what are the perspectives for its application, and how it could satisfy the expectations as a tool to investigate the human mind, behavior, and consciousness.

A Radical Reassessment of the Body in Social Cognition

The main issue addressed in this paper is to provide a reassessment of the role and relevance of the body in social cognition from a radical embodied cognitive science perspective. Initially, I provide a historical introduction of the traditional account of the body in cognitive science, which I here call the cognitivist view. I then present several lines of criticism raised against the cognitivist view advanced by more embodied, enacted and situated approaches in cognitive science, and related disciplines. Next, I analyze several approaches under the umbrella of embodied social cognition. My line of argument is that some of these approaches, although pointing toward the right direction of conceiving that the social mind is not merely contained inside the head, still fail to fully acknowledge the radically embodied social mind. I argue that the failure of these accounts of embodied social cognition could be associated with so-called 'simple embodiment.' The third part of this paper focuses on elaborating an alternative characterization of the radically embodied social mind that also tries to reduce the remaining problems with 'simple embodiment.' I draw upon two turns in radically embodied cognitive science, the enactive turn, and the intersubjective turn. On the one hand, there is the risk of focusing too much on the individual level in social cognition that may result in new kinds of methodological individualism that partly neglect the social dimension. On the other hand, socially distributed and socially extended approaches that pay more attention to the dynamics within social interaction may encounter the risk of ignoring the individual during social interaction dynamics and simultaneously not emphasizing the role of embodiment. The approach taken is to consider several ways of describing and incorporating the (individual) social mind at the social level that includes language. I outline some ideas and motivations for how to study and expand the field of radical embodied social cognition in the future, as well as pose the ubiquitous hazard of falling back into a cognitivism view in several ways.

Mind the mind: How to effectively communicate about cognition in social-ecological systems research

Social-ecological systems (SES) research underlines the tremendous impact of human behaviour on planet Earth. To enable a sustainable course of humanity, the integration of human cognition in SES research is crucial for better understanding the processes leading to and involved in human behaviour. However, this integration is proving a challenge, not only in terms of diverging ontological and epistemological perspectives, but also-and this has received little attention in SES research-in terms of (lacking) precision of communication regarding cognition. SES scholars often implicitly disagree on the meaning of this broad concept due to unexpressed underlying assumptions and perspectives. This paper raises awareness for the need to communicate clearly and mindfully about human cognition by exemplifying common communication pitfalls and ways of preventing them. We focus on the concept of cognition itself and provide aspects of cognition that need to be communicated explicitly, i.e. different objects of investigation and levels of description. Lastly, we illustrate means of overcoming communication pitfalls by the example of rationality.

Evaluating Weaknesses of "Perceptual-Cognitive Training" and "Brain Training" Methods in Sport: An Ecological Dynamics Critique

The recent upsurge in “brain training and perceptual-cognitive training,” proposing to improve isolated processes, such as brain function, visual perception, and decision-making, has created significant interest in elite sports practitioners, seeking to create an “edge” for athletes. The claims of these related “performance-enhancing industries” can be considered together as part of a process training approach proposing enhanced cognitive and perceptual skills and brain capacity to support performance in everyday life activities, including sport. For example, the “process training industry” promotes the idea that playing games not only makes you a better player but also makes you smarter, more alert, and a faster learner. In this position paper, we critically evaluate the effectiveness of both types of process training programmes in generalizing transfer to sport performance. These issues are addressed in three stages. First, we evaluate empirical evidence in support of perceptual-cognitive process training and its application to enhancing sport performance. Second, we critically review putative modularized mechanisms underpinning this kind of training, addressing limitations and subsequent problems. Specifically, we consider merits of this highly specific form of training, which focuses on training of isolated processes such as cognitive processes (attention, memory, thinking) and visual perception processes, separately from performance behaviors and actions. We conclude that these approaches may, at best, provide some “general transfer” of underlying processes to specific sport environments, but lack “specificity of transfer” to contextualize actual performance behaviors. A major weakness of process training methods is their focus on enhancing the performance in body “modules” (e.g., eye, brain, memory, anticipatory sub-systems). What is lacking is evidence on how these isolated components are modified and subsequently interact with other process “modules,” which are considered to underlie sport performance. Finally, we propose how an ecological dynamics approach, aligned with an embodied framework of cognition undermines the rationale that modularized processes can enhance performance in competitive sport. An ecological dynamics perspective proposes that the body is a complex adaptive system, interacting with performance environments in a functionally integrated manner, emphasizing that the inter-relation between motor processes, cognitive and perceptual functions, and the constraints of a sport task is best understood at the performer-environment scale of analysis.

The Psychophysiology of Action: A Multidisciplinary Endeavor for Integrating Action and Cognition

There is a vast amount of literature concerning the integration of action and cognition. Although this broad research area is of great interest for many disciplines like sports, psychology and cognitive neuroscience, only a few attempts tried to bring together different perspectives so far. Our goal is to provide a perspective to spark a debate across theoretical borders and integration of different disciplines via psychophysiology. In order to boost advances in this research field it is not only necessary to become aware of the different areas that are relevant but also to consider methodological aspects and challenges. We briefly describe the most relevant theoretical accounts to the question of how internal and external information processes or factors interact and, based on this, argue that research programs should consider the three dimensions: (a) dynamics of movements; (b) multivariate measures and; (c) dynamic statistical parameters. Only with an extended perspective on theoretical and methodological accounts, one would be able to integrate the dynamics of actions into theoretical advances.

Beyond the evoked/intrinsic neural process dichotomy

Contemporary functional neuroimaging research has increasingly focused on characterization of intrinsic or "spontaneous" brain activity. Analysis of intrinsic activity is often contrasted with analysis of task-evoked activity that has traditionally been the focus of cognitive neuroscience. But does this evoked/intrinsic dichotomy adequately characterize human brain function? Based on empirical data demonstrating a close functional interdependence between intrinsic and task-evoked activity, we argue that the dichotomy between intrinsic and task-evoked activity as unobserved contributions to brain activity is artificial. We present an alternative picture of brain function in which the brain's spatiotemporal dynamics do not consist of separable intrinsic and task-evoked components, but reflect the enaction of a system of mutual constraints to move the brain into and out of task-appropriate functional configurations. According to this alternative picture, cognitive neuroscientists are tasked with describing both the temporal trajectory of brain activity patterns across time, and the modulation of this trajectory by task states, without separating this process into intrinsic and task-evoked components. We argue that this alternative picture of brain function is best captured in a novel explanatory framework called enabling constraint. Overall, these insights call for a reconceptualization of functional brain activity, and should drive future methodological and empirical efforts.

The imaginative mind

The astounding capacity for the human imagination to be engaged across a wide range of contexts is limitless and fundamental to our day-to-day experiences. Although processes of imagination are central to human psychological function, they rarely occupy center stage in academic discourse or empirical study within psychological and neuroscientific realms. The aim of this paper is to tackle this imbalance by drawing together the multitudinous facets of imagination within a common framework. The processes fall into one of five categories depending on whether they are characterized as involving perceptual/motor related mental imagery, intentionality or recollective processing, novel combinatorial or generative processing, exceptional phenomenology in the aesthetic response, or altered psychological states which range from commonplace to dysfunctional. These proposed categories are defined on the basis of theoretical ideas from philosophy as well as empirical evidence from neuroscience. By synthesizing the findings across these domains of imagination, this novel five-part or quinquepartite classification of the human imagination aids in systematizing, and thereby abets, our understanding of the workings and neural foundations of the human imagination. It would serve as a blueprint to direct further advances in the field of imagination while also promoting crosstalk with reference to stimulus-oriented facets of information processing. A biologically and ecologically valid psychology is one that seeks to explain fundamental aspects of human nature. Given the ubiquitous nature of the imaginative operations in our daily lives, there can be little doubt that these quintessential aspects of the mind should be central to the discussion. Hum Brain Mapp 37:4197-4211, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A psychology of the human brain-gut-microbiome axis

In recent years, we have seen increasing research within neuroscience and biopsychology on the interactions between the brain, the gastrointestinal tract, the bacteria within the gastrointestinal tract, and the bidirectional relationship between these systems: the brain-gut-microbiome axis. Although research has demonstrated that the gut microbiota can impact upon cognition and a variety of stress-related behaviours, including those relevant to anxiety and depression, we still do not know how this occurs. A deeper understanding of how psychological development as well as social and cultural factors impact upon the brain-gut-microbiome axis will contextualise the role of the axis in humans and inform psychological interventions that improve health within the brain-gut-microbiome axis. Interventions ostensibly aimed at ameliorating disorders in one part of the brain-gut-microbiome axis (e.g., psychotherapy for depression) may nonetheless impact upon other parts of the axis (e.g., microbiome composition and function), and functional gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome represent a disorder of the axis, rather than an isolated problem either of psychology or of gastrointestinal function. The discipline of psychology needs to be cognisant of these interactions and can help to inform the future research agenda in this emerging field of research. In this review, we outline the role psychology has to play in understanding the brain-gut-microbiome axis, with a focus on human psychology and the use of research in laboratory animals to model human psychology.

Niche construction, social cognition, and language: hypothesizing the human as the production of place

New data is emerging from evolutionary anthropology and the neuroscience of social cognition on our species-specific hyper-cooperation (HC). This paper attempts an integration of third-person archaeological and second-person, neuroscientific perspectives on the structure of HC, through a post-Ricoeurian development in hermeneutical phenomenology. We argue for the relatively late evolution of advanced linguistic consciousness (ALC) (Hiscock in Biological Theory 9:27–41, 2014), as a reflexive system based on the ‘in-between’ or ‘cognitive system’ as reported by Vogeley et al. (in: Interdisziplinäre anthropologie, Heidelberg, Springer, 2014) of face-to-face social cognition, as well as tool use. The possibility of a positive or negative tension between the more recent ALC and the more ancient, pre-thematic, self-organizing ‘in-between’ frames an ‘internal’ niche construction. This indexes the internal structure of HC as ‘convergence’, where complex, engaged, social reasoning in ALC mirrors the cognitive structure of the pre-thematic ‘in-between’, extending the bio-energy of our social cognition, through reflexive amplification, in the production of ‘social place’ as ‘humanized space’. If individual word/phrase acquisition, in contextual actuality, is the distinctive feature of human language (Hurford in European Reviews 12:551–565, 2004), then human language is a hyperbolic, species-wide training in particularized co-location, developing consciousness of a shared world. The humanization of space and production of HC, through co-location, requires the ‘disarming’ of language as a medium of control, and a foregrounding of the materiality of the sign. The production of ‘hyper-place’ as solidarity beyond the face-to-face, typical of world religions, becomes possible where internal niche construction as convergence with the ‘in-between’ (world in us) combines with religious cosmologies reflecting an external ‘cosmic’ niche construction (world outside us).

Imaging Posture Veils Neural Signals

Whereas modern brain imaging often demands holding body positions incongruent with everyday life, posture governs both neural activity and cognitive performance. Humans commonly perform while upright; yet, many neuroimaging methodologies require participants to remain motionless and adhere to non-ecological comportments within a confined space. This inconsistency between ecological postures and imaging constraints undermines the transferability and generalizability of many a neuroimaging assay. Here we highlight the influence of posture on brain function and behavior. Specifically, we challenge the tacit assumption that brain processes and cognitive performance are comparable across a spectrum of positions. We provide an integrative synthesis regarding the increasingly prominent influence of imaging postures on autonomic function, mental capacity, sensory thresholds, and neural activity. Arguing that neuroimagers and cognitive scientists could benefit from considering the influence posture wields on both general functioning and brain activity, we examine existing imaging technologies and the potential of portable and versatile imaging devices (e.g., functional near infrared spectroscopy). Finally, we discuss ways that accounting for posture may help unveil the complex brain processes of everyday cognition.

Effects of Emotional Experience in Lexical Decision

Previous research has examined the effects of emotional experience (i.e., the ease with which words evoke emotion information) in semantic categorization (SCT), word naming, and Stroop tasks (Newcombe et al., 2012; Siakaluk et al., 2014; Moffat et al., 2015). However, to date there are no published reports on whether emotional experience influences performance in the lexical decision task (LDT). In the present study, we examined the influence of emotional experience in LDT using three different stimulus sets. In Experiment 1 we used a stimulus set used by both Kousta et al. (2009; Experiment 1) and Yap and Seow (2014) that is comprised of 40 negative, 40 positive, and 40 neutral words; in Experiment 2 we used a stimulus set comprised of 150 abstract nouns; and in Experiment 3 we used a stimulus set comprised of 373 verbs. We observed facilitatory effects of emotional experience in each of the three experiments, such that words with higher emotional experience ratings were associated with faster response latencies. These results are important because the influence of emotional experience: (a) is observed in stimulus sets comprised of different types of words, demonstrating the generalizability of the effect in LDT; (b) accounts for LDT response latency variability above and beyond the influences of valence and arousal, and is thus a robust dimension of conceptual knowledge; (c) suggests that a richer representation of emotional experience provides more reliable evidence that a stimulus is a word, which facilitates responding in LDT; and (d) is consistent with grounded cognition frameworks that propose that emotion information may be grounded in bodily experience with the world (Barsalou, 2003, 2009; Vigliocco et al., 2009).

Whose mind? Two interpretations of what it is to directly perceive other minds

According to direct perception theory (DPT) people understand each other’s minds by way of perceiving each other’s behavioral engagements in the world. I argue that DPT admits of two interpretations. One interpretation is found in Searle’s social ontology. The other interpretation departs from an enactivist account of social cognition. Both can make sense of what it is to perceive other minds, but in two different ways. The first claims that people can directly perceive states of mind shared in a community. In contrast, the second interpretation allows for direct perception of particular individuals’ states of mind in the context of participation in social practices. The two interpretations are argued to be compatible. People can perceive communal states of mind in another’s responsiveness to action possibilities in social environments, not only the particular other’s states of mind.

Sensorimotor Grounding of Musical Embodiment and the Role of Prediction: A Review

In a previous article, we reviewed empirical evidence demonstrating action-based effects on music perception to substantiate the musical embodiment thesis (Maes et al., 2014). Evidence was largely based on studies demonstrating that music perception automatically engages motor processes, or that body states/movements influence music perception. Here, we argue that more rigorous evidence is needed before any decisive conclusion in favor of a “radical” musical embodiment thesis can be posited. In the current article, we provide a focused review of recent research to collect further evidence for the “radical” embodiment thesis that music perception is a dynamic process firmly rooted in the natural disposition of sounds and the human auditory and motor system. Though, we emphasize that, on top of these natural dispositions, long-term processes operate, rooted in repeated sensorimotor experiences and leading to learning, prediction, and error minimization. This approach sheds new light on the development of musical repertoires, and may refine our understanding of action-based effects on music perception as discussed in our previous article (Maes et al., 2014). Additionally, we discuss two of our recent empirical studies demonstrating that music performance relies on similar principles of sensorimotor dynamics and predictive processing.

The Primacy of Skilled Intentionality: on Hutto & Satne's the Natural Origins of Content

Following a brief reconstruction of Hutto & Satne's paper we focus our critical comments on two issues. First we take up H&S's claim that a non-representational form of ur-intentionality exists that performs essential work in setting the scene for content-involving forms of intentionality. We will take issue with the characterisation that H&S give of this non-representational form of intentionality. Part of our commentary will therefore be aimed at motivating an alternative account of how there can be intentionality without mental content, which we have called skilled intentionality. Skilled intentionality is the individual's selective openness and responsiveness to a rich landscape of affordances. A second issue we take up concerns the distinction between ur-intentionality and content-involving intentionality. We will argue that our notion of skilled intentionality as it is found in humans cuts across these two categories. Instead of distinguishing between different forms of intentionality we recommend focusing on how skilled intentionality takes different forms in different forms of life.

Exploring Music-Based Rehabilitation for Parkinsonism through Embodied Cognitive Science

Recent embodied approaches in cognitive sciences emphasize the constitutive roles of bodies and environment in driving cognitive processes. Cognition is thus seen as a distributed system based on the continuous interaction of bodies, brains, and environment. These categories, moreover, do not relate only causally, through a sequential input-output network of computations; rather, they are dynamically enfolded in each other, being mutually implemented by the concrete patterns of actions adopted by the cognitive system. However, while this claim has been widely discussed across various disciplines, its relevance and potential beneficial applications for music therapy remain largely unexplored. With this in mind, we provide here an overview of the embodied approaches to cognition, discussing their main tenets through the lenses of music therapy. In doing so, we question established methodological and theoretical paradigms and identify possible novel strategies for intervention. In particular, we refer to the music-based rehabilitative protocols adopted for Parkinson's disease patients. Indeed, in this context, it has recently been observed that music therapy not only affects movement-related skills but that it also contributes to stabilizing physiological functions and improving socio-affective behaviors. We argue that these phenomena involve previously unconsidered aspects of cognition and (motor) behavior, which are rooted in the action-perception cycle characterizing the whole living system.