1. Space and Embodied Cognition
WELCOME
to the fifth edition of the
International Conference of Space Cognition
Space and Embodied Cognition

2. ICSC 2000: Spatial cognition: Scientific Research and Application
3 Keynotes:
Michel Denis (Paris, France)
Hanspeter A. Mallot (Tuebingen, Germany)
Jonathan R. Wolpaw (Albany, U.S.A.)
5 Symposia
6 Oral sessions
1 Poster session
1 Demo session

3. ICSC 2003: European year of People with disability Space and Disability
4 Keynotes:
Jerome E. Bickenbach (New York, U.S.A.)
Luigi Pizzamiglio (Rome, Italy)
Alan Roulstone (Sunderland, U.K.)
Marcia J. Scherer (Rochester, U.S.A.)
7 Oral sessions
1 Poster session
1 Demo session

4. ICSC 2006: Dynamics in Spatial Interactions
4 Keynotes:
Paolo Calabresi (Perugia, Italy)
Albert Postma (Utrecht, Netherlands)
Charles Spence (Oxford, U.K.)
Cees van Leeuven (Saitama, Japan)
6 Symposia
14 Oral sessions
3 Poster sessions

5. ICSC 2009: Spatial Cognition and Action
4 Keynotes:
Christian Freksa (Bremen, Germany)
Juan Lupianez (Granada, Spain)
Thomas C. Ormerod (Lancaster, U.K.)
Barbara Tversky (Stanford, U.S.A.)
12 Symposia
14 Oral sessions
2 Poster sessions
8 Tutorials

6. ICSC 2012: Space and Embodied Cognition
5 Keynotes:
Alain Berthoz (Paris, France)
Marc Ernst (Bielefeld, Germany)
Luciano Fadiga (Ferrara, Italy)
Karl Friston (London, U.K.)
Michael Spivey (Merced, U.S.A.)
18 Symposia
12 Oral sessions
8 Poster sessions

7. Participants to ICSC 2012
First of all I want to thank all the participants to this Conference:
Among 252 participants:
194 are from Europe
9 from Asia
42 from North America
3 from South America
3 from Oceania

8. Thanks to: .................our Keynotes
Alain Berthoz
“Neural basis of changing perspective in spatial orientation and navigation. Implication for empathy”
Marc Ernst
“Human multisensory perception and action - Putting the puzzle together”
Luciano Fadiga
“The motor framework of peripersonal space”
Karl Friston
“Active inference and spatial cognition”
Michael Spivey
“The spatial intersection of minds”

9. Thanks to: ...........our Scientific Committee
Thomas Hünefeldt – (Rome)
Antonio Jesus Bandera Rubio (Malaga)
Anna M. Borghi (Bologna)
Alessandro D’Ausilio (Genoa)
Franco Delogu (Detroit)
Michel Denis (Paris)
Dina Di Giacomo (L’Aquila)
Stefano Federici (Perugia)
Ken Forbus (Evanston)
Dedre Gentner (Evanston)
Cecilia Guariglia (Rome)
Stephen Hirtle (Pittsburgh)
Christoph Hoelscher (Freiburg)
Tina Iachini (Naples)
Elisabetta Ladavas (Bologne)
Emiliano Macaluso (Rome)
Hanspeter Mallot (Tübingen)
Daniele Nardi (Rome)
Davide Nardo (Rome)
Nora Newcombe (Philadelphia)
Massimiliano Palmiero (L’Aquila)
Francesca Pazzaglia (Padua)
Albert Postma (Utrecht)
Alberto Priori (Milan)
Valerio Santangelo (Perugia)
Marcia Scherer (Rochester)
Kerstin Schill (Bremen)
Werner Schneider (Bielefeld)
Thomas Shipley (Philadelphia),
Boris Suchan (Bochum)
Narayanan Srinivasan (Allahabad)
Barbara Tversky (Stanford)
Cees van Leeuwen (Leuwen) 9

10. ...the President of the Organizing Committee
Dr. Thomas Hünefeldt

11. …and his Lieutenants
Daniele Nardi
Luca Simione

12. My thanks to the Organizing Committee: the Ladies…
MARIA LAURA MELE
FEDERICA MAURO
OLA HUSSEIN
GISELLA MICCIANTUONO
SIMONA ARIANNA
DI FRANCESCO
ROSANNA VIGNOLA
LINDA PECORIELLO

13. My thanks to the Organizing Committee: …and the Gentlemen
ALESSANDRO GIANNANDREA
MAURIZIO GIORGIO
GIULIO TIRINELLI

14. Looking for an exhaustive definition
Embodied Cognition:
the brain circuits responsible for abstract thinking are closely tied to those circuits that analyse and process sensory experiences (Isanski & West, 2010)
“Not only … our concrete experience of the physical world(…) can impact our conception of higher order,…. But also these abstract constructs can alter the way we experience the concrete and physical” (Zhong, 2008)

15. A broader definition including Agency
“Cognition is embodied when it is deeply dependent upon features of the physical body of an agent, that is, when aspects of the agent’s body beyond the brain play a significant causal or physically constitutive role in cognitive processing”
(Wilson & Foglia, 2011)

16. Mind and Body the agent’s Body as:
Constraint: it constrains the nature and content of the cognitive representations
Distributor: it distributes computational and representational load betweeen neural and non-neural structures
Regulator: it regulates cognitive activity over space and time in motor action

17. Mind, Body and What else? We should confront ourselves with:
Situated Cognition
Grounded Cognition
Socially Distributed Cognition
Extended Mind
Consciousness
Agency
….in Space and time
BUT……….

18. Combining robots with babies
Embodied cognition reflects the idea that the motor system influences bodily actions
Researchers from Ithaca College in New York are working on a way to fuse babies with robots to give mobility to all babies, even those with conditions that may delay independent mobility, like Down syndrome, spina bifida, or cerebral palsy
WeeBot: a Novel Method for Infant Control of a Robotic Mobility Device, (S. Stansfield, C. Dennis, & H. Larin) presented last May at ICRA 2012
WeeBots = Adept MobileRobots Pioneer P3-DX bases + Nintendo Wii balance boards (rectangular platforms with load sensors at the corners)

19. Which is the mind and which the body?
With these devices babies can be turned in robot drivers
That is: they became able to control the WeeBot in goal-directed movement during periods of free play
Please, give a look!

21. All the topics (problems) to you
I am sure you will work hard and from my embodied heart I wish you to
Enjoy the conference