This book is dedicated to exploring how much of higher cognitive function can be explained by reduction to simpler sensorimotor processes. It uses a series of specific cognitive domains to examine the sensorimotor bases of human cognition. The first section deals with the common neural processes for primary and ‘cognitive’ processes. It examines the key neural systems and computational architectures at the interface between cognition, sensation, and action. The second section deals with specific themes in abstract cognition: the origins of action, and the conceptual aspects of sensory, particularly somatosensory, processing. It looks at how mental and neural processes of abstraction are vital to the cognitive–sensorimotor interface. It also covers topics such as tool use, bodily awareness, and executive organization of action patterns, and probes the extent to which principles of sensorimotor information processing extend to further hierarchical representations. The next section deals with the representation of the self and others. The questions of self-consciousness and of attribution to other minds have a fundamental place, and a long history, in psychology. At first sight, few aspects of cognition could seem more abstract, more refined than these. However, recent research suggests that sensorimotor systems are good ‘social levellers’: your sensory and motor apparatus is much like mine. Can people vicariously experience the sensory and motor events of other individuals? Which aspects of social representation are explained by sensorimotor sharing, and which are not? The chapters in this section offer strongly contrasting perspectives. The final section deals with upper limits of cognition.

The prospect of closer ties between social cognitive neuroscience and robotics is gaining momentum in both communities. First, as artificial anthropomorphic agents, such as humanoid robots and computer-animated characters, are on the verge of being accessible for casual use, it has become important to understand humans’ reactions towards these agents in social cognitive neuroscience terms. Besides, humanoid robots provide new tools to investigate human social cognitive neuroscience, the study of the brain processes underlying everyday interactions between individuals. Finally, social cognitive neurosciences can participate in enhancing the social competence of companion robots. The interdisciplinary approach used to test hypotheses pertaining to motor control, from low-level control to social aspects of motor cognition such as imitative learning, will be presented in a first section. Then, we will review studies in which humanoid robots and robotic parts were used to assess the framework of social resonance, grounded on the finding of an overlap between behavioral and neural processes recruited when experiencing an event and when perceiving another individual experiencing the same event. Finally, we will discuss how results and models from social cognitive neurosciences can be combined with resources from computer and robotic sciences to enhance the social competence of artificial agents.