Jing HE, East China Normal University, Shanghai (Chine)

 
Humans are able to coordinate with their actions for the realization of their shared intentions or joint goals, both proximal and distal. Recently, neuroscientists and psychologists have revealed a connection between social cognitive capabilities and coordinated actions. Our body motility is highly engaged in anticipatory, simulative and    generative processes. By turning to the highly specialized field of elite sport dance, in this talk, I aim at exploring the way in which the predictive mechanisms provide both a “connection with     future” required for performing action, and a “connection with the other” required to act    together. In this context, on the one hand, the abilities of action execution and its planning can be described as essentially goal-directed. They are action-oriented and fundamentally involve the relational bodily movement. On the other hand, we can describe the embodied dynamical interaction between self and the other as a kind of ongoing anticipatory engagement. Instead of claiming that coordination is a mere testing process for better serving neural anticipation, rather, it is a reciprocal process which integrates the anticipatory brain into a complex mix of transactions that involve bodies, movement and affection.