Movement & Performance

Guido Orgs

Group Leader 

guido.orgs@ucl.ac.uk

Movement and Performance Research

Our research focuses on human movement in real-world contexts. We take an interdisciplinary and co-productive approach, at the intersection of the performing arts, sport psychology and exercise neuroscience, and working together with artists and athletes. Our research evolves around three broad research areas: the cognitive neuroscience of dance and the performing arts, the role of movement, sport and exercise for physical and mental health, and mobile neuroimaging in real world contexts.

Neurocognition in dance and the performing arts: Movement is the common denominator of the performing arts, including dance, music, and theatre. Dance movement provides a rich, naturalistic, and ecologically valid approach to research in motor cognition. Dance and choreography also provide a window into studying the interplay between biological and cultural evolution, for example linking movement synchrony to social bonding and nonverbal communication between groups. We also apply neuroscience methods to understand the role that dance and the performing arts play in contemporary society. In the NEUROLIVE project, we study what distinguishes live dance performances or music concerts from other recorded, simulated or streamed events. How do people dance or act? How do people perform in the presence of others? What makes a movement beautiful? What is the difference between watching performances live in a theatre or online?

Movement and exercise in physical and mental health: Regular exercise, sports participation, dancing and making music are all beneficial for physical and mental health, but different leisure activities appeal to different people. As part of the Exercise Neuroscience Research Group and together with the Institute of Sport Exercise & Health (ISEH), we aim to better understand how sports, exercise and creative movement can improve physical and mental health. Who benefits from what kind of exercise and why? Do people who move together like each other more? Why do we feel happier after a gym workout or going for a run? How come some people enjoy working out and others don’t?

Real-world Neuroscience & Mobile Neuroimaging: Much of our research takes place outside the lab. We develop new and combine existing qualitative and quantitative, practice-based and neuroscience research methods, and use the latest mobile neuroimaging and wearable sensing technologies to take neuroscience out of the lab and into the world.

Research topics

• Cognitive neuroscience of human movement
• Movement synchrony in groups, joint action and social bonding.
• Movement/Dance expertise and skill acquisition.
• The role of exercise and creative movement for physical and mental health.
• Neuroaesthetics of dance and the performing arts.
• Mobile Neuroimaging and Hyperscanning (mobile EEG)
• The Neurocognition of Liveness / NEUROLIVE project (www.neurolive.info)

Group Members 

Postdoctoral Research Fellow 

Laura Rai

My research currently focuses on measuring neural, physiological, and behavioural features of live experiences as part of the NEUROLIVE project. Specifically, I work with large-scale mobile EEG data collection and hyperscanning methods to measure dynamic processing of naturalistic stimuli in real-world environments. This involves interdisciplinary collaborations between artists and scientists. I am broadly interested in brain state dynamics, inter-brain synchrony, and the influence of co-presence on how we perceive the world

laura.rai@ucl.ac.uk

PhD Student 

Albane Arthuis

My research focuses on the social aspects of live performances, particularly how performers and audience members influence each other's eye behaviour. To achieve this, I use eye-tracking and electroencephalogram data from audience members attending theatre and dance performances. I am interested in using neural networks to process and analyse this data. As a member of the Neurolive project, my research explores the differences between live and recorded art performances, and the influence of the presence of others in such contexts.

a.arthuis@ucl.ac.uk

Research Assistant / PhD Student 

Research Assistant

Project Coordinator NeuroLive