"thinking is easy, acting is difficult. to act on what we think is troublesome " - 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 our decisions about the value of things, 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.