Joint action: bodies and minds moving together
Open accessAbstract
The ability to coordinate our actions with those of others is crucial for our success as individuals and as a species. Progress in understanding the cognitive and neural processes involved in joint action has been slow and sparse, because cognitive neuroscientists have predominantly studied individual minds and brains in isolation. However, in recent years, major advances have been made by investigating perception and action in social context. In this article we outline how studies on joint attention, action observation, task sharing, action coordination and agency contribute to the understanding of the cognitive and neural processes supporting joint action. Several mechanisms are proposed that allow individuals to share representations, to predict actions, and to integrate predicted effects of own and others' actions.
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External and visible joint action corresponds to an internal and biological joint action.
“we claim that external and visible joint action corresponds to an internal and biological joint action.”
From Music structure determines heart rate variability of singers (2013) · cites this paper as Sebanz et al., 2006
Interpersonal synchrony facilitates social bonding, cohesion and exchange (the 'social glue').
“It is an evolutionary-based mechanism that facilitates social bonding, cohesion and exchange (i.e., it is a “social glue”)1–4.”
From Physiological and Behavioral Synchrony Predict Group Cohesion and Performance (2020) · cites this paper as [3]
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- Authors
- SEBANZ, N., BEKKERING, H., & KNOBLICH, G.
- Affiliations
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US)
- Corresponding author
- SEBANZ, N
- ORCID
- Venue
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2006-02
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 70-76
- ISSN
- 1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2086207208
- Cited by
- 1,950
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 113 · 2025: 100 · 2024: 119 · 2023: 132 · 2022: 132 · 2021: 119 · 2020: 100 · 2019: 107 · 2018: 119 · 2017: 129 · 2016: 100 · 2015: 117 · 2014: 98 · 2013: 126 · 2012: 82
- FWCI
- 5.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Jiangsu Association for Science and Technology
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- joint action, joint attention, action observation, task sharing, action coordination, agency, shared representations, action prediction, social cognition
- MeSH terms
- Attention, Brain, Cognition, Humans, Psychophysiology
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