Imagine entering a world where everything is unknown. You are surrounded by floating formations in many colors. There is no floor, no help, no familiar tasks to perform.
'What do you do?'
"We usually think we cope with new situations by thinking and planning. That, however, is not the whole truth," says Martin Peter Pleiss, a researcher at the RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion at the University of Oslo.
The brain does not operate on its own
While science has historically given the brain almost all the credit for human cognition, that view is changing. Since the early 2000s, awareness has grown of the role of the human body.
For instance, researchers have found that motor areas of the brain are activated during language comprehension, and that our body posture can affect memory.
In cognitive science and philosophy, the term 4E cognition - introduced in 2007 - has taken hold. It refers to a family of theories that emphasize how cognition depends on the body and its environment.
"This framework takes seriously that we are bodies moving through environments, not just brains processing inputs," Pleiss says, adding that the concept of embodied cognition has deep historical roots.
