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Motor Neuron Disease as a model for embodied cognition: the relationship between motor and cognitive impairment Supervisor: Dr Thomas H Bak Recent discoveries in molecular biology and genetics, including the identification of the C9ORF72 gene causing Motor Neuron Disease (MND) as well as frontotemporal dementia have highlighted the close relationship between motor and cognitive aspects of the disease. Indeed, changes in behaviour, cognition and language have been observed in MND patients. In particular, selective impairments in the processing of verbs as well as abstract concepts of actions have been described in MND (Bak & Chandran 2012), interestingly in connection with the pathological changes in Broca’s area of the brain, known to be crucially important for language (Bak et al 2001). Such observations are of crucial importance for the intensely debated theory of embodied cognition (Bak 2013). Since MND is usually characterised by a focal onset, affecting one topographic area (bulbar region, upper or lower limbs), one could expect that early in the disease course MND will be associated with selective impairments of verbs and actions connected specifically to mouth, hand and legs. Such an association would provide the strongest possible support for the idea of embodied cognition. This project, with its interdisciplinary character, will be of interest to students from a wide range of backgrounds including neuroscience, medicine and psychology. References Bak TH, O'Donovan DG, Xuereb JH, Boniface S, Hodges JR (2001) Selective impairment of verb processing associated with pathological changes in the Brodmann areas 44 and 45 in the motor neurone disease / dementia / aphasia syndrome. Brain, 124, 103-120. Bak TH, Chandran S (2012) What wires together, fires together: Verbs, Actions and Neurodegeneration in Motor Neuron Disease. Cortex, 48, 936-944. Bak TH (in press) The neuroscience of action semantics in neurodegenerative brain diseases. Current Opinion in Neurology.