dr. L. Verhagen (Lennart)
Associate Principal Investigator - Donders Centre for Cognition
Associate Principal Investigator - Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
Universitair docent - Sensomotorische Neurowetenschappen
Thomas van Aquinostraat 4
6525 GD NIJMEGEN
Postbus 9104
6500 HE NIJMEGEN
In my scientific career I have been continuously fascinated by the interaction between conceptual and motoric faculties of our brain and how they together support uniquely human behaviour. During my PhD I discovered how these faculties, previously assumed to operate independently, interact already at the initiation of action planning. I have found evidence for a hierarchical organization where first a coarse framework of the intended action is constructed based on the goal identity (e.g., "this is a ripe tomato that should be grasped like this"). This faculty activates the same brain network as tool-use and gesture production, and might provide a fundamental cognitive infrastructure for those functions. Subsequently, in another network, this rough plan is fine-tuned using the current visuospatial evidence. I am currently extending this line of research to study the interaction between semantics and action, and as a co-supervisor in a project focussed on the role of extrastriate body area (EBA), previously assumed to be a purely perceptual processor, in action guidance.
Currently, I am using a combination of neuroimaging and neurostimulation methods to study the mechanisms of social and communicative actions. In three separate but interrelated studies I investigate (1) the neural substrate of communicative pointing and message reference frames, (2) the notion that social perspective taking is an evolved instance of attentional reorienting mechanisms, and (3) if distinct brain networks support competitive and cooperative behaviour.