"thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world" - goethe
A fundamental feature of our behaviour is the ability to flexibly and efficiently prepare and specify our actions in response to changes in the world. Our current research focuses on how our brain transforms the value of actions, our temporal expectations, or the emotional valence of events into actions.
One of the unresolved questions that have bedazzled neuroscientists ever since Charles Sherrington provided the first detailed ‘motor map’ of the primate motor cortex: "How does our brain transform our thoughts into actions?"
Addressing this question is important for understanding how the brain enables interaction with an ever-changing and uncertain environment, how this ability declines with ageing or in pathological conditions that are characterised by impairments of both action and cognition, such as Parkinson’s Disease, Depression, or Stroke.