Ramsey, R.
Université catholique de Louvain
Numerous brain regions have been implicated in “understanding” other people’s actions, which has led to a vibrant debate in cognitive neuroscience. I suggest that this debate can be informed by placing more emphasis on a key function of the human brain: motor control. Whether attracting a friend’s attention, shaking hands or ordering a drink, movement is our vehicle for social interaction. Thus, we interact with other people through moving our bodies. In this light, I suggest it can be helpful to view neural sensitivity to other people’s observed actions within a framework of controlling how we interact with the world. To support this claim, I review recent brain imaging studies of action perception, social attention, inferential reasoning and mimicry.