The Interacting Minds Centre for the Study of Cognition, Communication and Choice. Specific abilities for interaction are key to being human. Interactions affect our bodies, our minds, our brains and the world we live in. We are, however, only beginning to understand even the most basic mechanisms. Successful interaction is critical for cooperation, coordination and learning. When this fails, confusion and conflict abound. In many clinical disorders, interactions that otherwise seem automatic may be difficult or outright impossible.
The Interacting Minds Centre (IMC) provides a transdisciplinary platform to study human interaction. It involves researchers from the humanities, social sciences, cognitive sciences, biology and clinical research. This is necessary, because through interactions, humans construct worlds that are at once physical, economic, symbolic and normative. We will therefore study the interplay between three related topics: cognition, communication, and choice. Bringing these fields together to bridge topics related to human interaction makes IMC a unique methodological and theoretical centre of research and inquiry.
IMC was funded by Aarhus University 2012-16 as part of the interdisciplinary research initiative.
From 2017-2019 IMC is funded by ARTS, Health and BSS.
IMC is based in transdisciplinary approach to research on human interaction. We cover specific approaches
in humanities
(quantitative and qualitative textual and corpus analysis, qualitative interviews and participant observation fieldwork)
in behavioural research on visual perception, action systems, and decision making
(e.g. using reaction time measures, choice outcome analysis, eye tracking, action synchronization, visual discrimination, motor performance and computerized behavioural lab experiments),
in physiology
(e.g. markers of arousal using heart-rate variability measured in individuals and in groups acting together),
in brain imaging
(using EEG, fMRI, MEG, and PET),
in pharmacological interventions, surveys and database research
(both on-line and using conventional methods of sampling).
Many of these approaches have also been applied with specific clinical populations (e.g. schizophrenia, autism, aphasia) and in field sites. An integration of research and meta-research provides a fertile training ground for students and junior researchers, and facilitates an integration of the different scales of analysis. Ultimately, it allows for transdisciplinary synergies to happen.
IMC is located in the Nobelparken campus of Aarhus University
