Listeners interpret utterances by integrating information from multiple sources including word level semantics and world knowledge. When the semantics of an expression is inconsistent with their knowledge about the world, the listener may have to search through the conceptual space for alternative p …

Recent studies have highlighted cognitive and neural similarities between planning and perceiving actions. Given that action planning involves a simulation of potential action plans that depends on the actor's body posture, we reasoned that perceiving actions may also be influenced by one's body pos …

Emotion regulation is essential to survive in a world full of challenges with rapidly changing contextual demands. The ability to flexibly shift between different emotional control strategies is critical to successfully deal with these demands. Recently, decision neuroscience has shown the importanc …

We know a great deal about the neurophysiological mechanisms supporting instrumental actions, i.e., actions designed to alter the physical state of the environment. In contrast, little is known about our ability to select communicative actions, i.e., actions directly designed to modify the mental st …

A paradox of testosterone effects is seen in adolescents versus adults in social emotional approach-avoidance behavior. During adolescence, high testosterone levels are associated with increased anterior prefrontal (aPFC) involvement in emotion control, whereas during adulthood this neuro-endocrine …

Humans have a remarkable capacity to arrange and rearrange perceptual input according to different categorizations. This begs the question whether the categorization is exclusively a higher visual or amodal process, or whether categorization processes influence early visual areas as well. To investi …

Human referential communication is often thought as coding-decoding a set of symbols, neglecting that establishing shared meanings requires a computational mechanism powerful enough to mutually negotiate them. Sharing the meaning of a novel symbol might rely on similar conceptual inferences across c …

Oxytocin reduces amygdala responses to threatening social stimuli in males and has been suggested to facilitate approach-related processing by either decreasing anxiety or intensifying salience. The current administration study tested whether oxytocin either reduces or enhances amygdala responses du …

Many studies have identified networks in parietal and prefrontal cortex that are involved in intentional action. Yet, our understanding of the way these networks are involved in intentions is still very limited. In this study, we investigate two characteristics of these processes: context- and reaso …

The ability to control our automatic action tendencies is crucial for adequate social interactions. Emotional events trigger automatic approach and avoidance tendencies. Although these actions may be generally adaptive, the capacity to override these emotional reactions may be key to flexible behavi …

Patients with freezing of gait (FOG) have episodic problems with generating adequate steps. This phenomenon is both common and debilitating in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) or atypical parkinsonism. We recently presented a video case of a patient with longstanding PD and severe FOG, who sho …

Communication deficits are a defining feature of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), manifest during social interactions. Previous studies investigating communicative deficits have largely focused on the perceptual biases, social motivation, cognitive flexibility, or mentalizing abilities of isolated in …

We share our thoughts with other minds, but we do not understand how. Having a common language certainly helps, but infants' and tourists' communicative success clearly illustrates that sharing thoughts does not require signals with a pre-assigned meaning. In fact, human communicators jointly build …

We share our thoughts with other minds, but we do not understand how. Having a common language certainly helps, but infants' and tourists' communicative success clearly illustrates that sharing thoughts does not require signals with a pre-assigned meaning. In fact, human communicators jointly build …

Traditionally, the basal ganglia have been considered the main brain region implicated in Parkinson's disease. This single area perspective gives a restricted clinical picture and limits therapeutic approaches because it ignores the influence of altered interactions between the basal ganglia and oth …

Despite increasing interest in emotional processes in cognitive science, theories on emotion regulation have remained rather isolated, predominantly focused on cognitive regulation strategies such as reappraisal. However, recent neurocognitive evidence suggests that early emotion regulation may invo …

The discovery of mirror neurons in macaques and of a similar system in humans has provided a new and fertile neurobiological ground for rooting a variety of cognitive faculties. Automatic sensorimotor resonance has been invoked as the key elementary process accounting for disparate (dys)functions, l …

Repeated sessions of cerebellar anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) have been suggested to modulate cerebellar-motor cortex (M1) connectivity and decrease ataxia severity. However, therapeutic trials involving etiologically homogeneous groups of ataxia patients are lacking. The obj …

We are frequently challenged with situations requiring the control of our emotions, often under substantial time-pressure and rapidly changing contextual demands. Coping with those demands requires the ability to flexibly and rapidly switch between different emotional control strategies. However, th …

We are frequently challenged with situations requiring the control of our emotions, often under substantial time-pressure and rapidly changing contextual demands. Coping with those demands requires the ability to flexibly and rapidly switch between different emotional control strategies. However, th …