13-14 March 2008, The simulating brain: An interdisciplinary workshop on the role of simulation in cognition.

Simulation is proposed as a mechanism for a vast spectrum of cognitions, ranging from learning motoric skills to understanding other's intentions and emotions. Within cognitive neuroscience, simulation-based accounts of cognitive abilities have become hugely popular following the discovery of mirror neurons in the mid-nineties. These neurons are activated both by the observation and production of a particular action, suggesting that the observer implicitly simulates the action with his/her own motor system in order to understand it.

In this symposium we will investigate how far we can take the simulation account for understanding the mind. To this end, several leading figures from complementary fields of cognitive science will address issues like: 'What do we simulate when we observe others?' 'Do we simulate to understand or to predict?' 'How do we understand actions that we cannot simulate?'

For more information, see http://oase.uci.ru.nl/~florisdl/simulation/