Scientists must grope into the undefined place beyond the known. So must improvisation theater actorswalking onto the stage with no idea what will happen next. Improvisation theater developed practices thathelp groups of actors create a new scene on the spot, by focusing on mutual support: saying yes to eachothers ideas and bypassing the inner critic that spoils our spontaneity. I’ll describe how as a scientist by dayand improvisation actor by night, I learned from theater how to do better science. The concepts are universaland can apply to unexpected situations across disciplines.
Mot(s) clés libre(s) : interaction linguistique, improvisation

Joint actions require an ability to understand and predict the actions of others far enough into the future to have time to plan and execute matching motor programs. Here I will review experiments in which we have tracked information flow from one brain to another to show that the motor system seems to play a key role in these functions. I will embed this experimental data in a Hebbian learning model, which posits that predictions are the result of synaptic plasticity during self­observation. Jointly this talk will aim to trigger thoughts on how we can study the involvement of the motor system in coordinating actions across individuals
Mot(s) clés libre(s) : interaction linguistique, improvisation