Embodied Cognition

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Embodied cognition asks how sensing, movement, bodily needs, and environmental interaction shape concepts, perception, and learning. Researchers study this through sensorimotor experiments and concept-rating norms, cross-linguistic and visual comparisons, and enactive theories that treat perception and action as inseparable. In AI and robotics, approaches include reinforcement learning, body-grounded architectures, and language-vision world models tested in simulated and physical tasks. A central open question is whether statistical or language-based models capture genuine sensorimotor grounding, and how to evaluate embodiment while accounting for differences in bodies and cultures.

Latest papers

18 papers2 papers in the last four weeks, against 2 the four weeks before. 0.0% of all new papers.

Sensorimotor behaviour from an untrained brain-and-nerve-cord connectome
Oct 24, 2026John R. Minnick, Jesus Gonzalez-Ferrer, Jinghui Geng +4Neural Processes Embodied Navigation
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA. · UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA. · Department of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA. +1
Beyond Omni: A Unified MLLM for Embodied Sensory Understanding
Oct 19, 2026Shiyun Xiong, Dongming Wu, Peiwen Sun +5Unified Multimodal Models Multimodal Large Language Models
MMLab, The Chinese University of Hong Kong · Shenzhen Loop Area Institute · The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen +2
A Mathematical Model of Motivated Emotional Mind - Cognitive Embodied System
Sep 17, 2026Wiesław L. Galus, Janusz A. StarzykCognitive Architectures for AI Agents Computational Cognitive Modeling
Translation Indeterminacy and the Distributional Fallacy
Sep 7, 2026Michael CarlLLM Grounding Distributional Semantics
Kent State University Modern and Classical Language Studies
Shaping the Evolutionary Dynamics of Robot Morphology via Adaptive Control Learning
Aug 24, 2026Junru Song, Yang Yang, Yaqing Xu +5Robot Morphology-Control Co-Design Evolutionary Robotics
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China · Intelligent Game and Decision Laboratory, Beijing 100048, China · Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China +1
RxBrain: Embodied Cognition Foundation Model with Joint Language-Visual Reasoning and Imagination
Jul 15, 2026Haotian Liang, Mingkang Chen, Yufei Huang +27Unified Multimodal Models Robot Foundation Models
Tencent Robotics X Team · Futian Laboratory · Tencent Hy Team
Grounded world models in biological organisms and future embodied AI
Jul 15, 2026Giovanni Pezzulo, Davide Nuzzi, Marco D'Alessandro +3Cognitive Modeling Embodied AI
Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy · Center for Mind and Brain Science (CIMeC), University of Trento, Italy · Department of Neuroscience, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Entropy in Semantic Memory Navigation in Blind and Sighted Individuals: The Effect of Visual Experience
Jul 13, 2026Felipe D. Toro-Hernández, Rodrigo Lagos, Sergio E. ChaigneauEmbodied Cognition
Graduate Program in Neuroscience and Cognition, Federal University of ABC (UFABC) · Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile
Billions of Sketches Reveal Hidden Cultural Variation in Human Concepts
Jul 8, 2026Arianna Pera, Mauro Martino, Nima Dehmamy +3Embodied Cognition
IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark · MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, Cambridge, MA, USA · Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA +1
Towards Shared Embodied Intelligence in Humanoid Robots through Optimization Development and Testing of the Human Aware ergoCub Robot
May 26, 2026Carlotta Sartore, Mohamed Elobaid, Lorenzo Rapetti +13Humanoid Robot Control Human-Robot Collaboration
GenerativeBionics, Genova, Italy. · 2Artificial and Mechanical Intelligence, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy. · School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom. +3
The Sensation Modulating Network:Haltability as the architectural ground for object-directed phenomenology
May 26, 2026G. Nagarjuna, Durgaprasad KarnamCognitive Architectures for AI Agents Computational Cognitive Modeling
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, India · Centre for Educational Technology (CET), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
Toward Enactive Artificial Intelligence
May 22, 2026Banafsheh Rafiee, Richard SuttonActive Perception Embodied AI
Independent Researcher · Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Canada · Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii)
Chinese sensorimotor and embodiment norms for 3,000 lexicalized concepts
May 21, 2026Jing Chen, Gábor Parti, Yin Zhong +2Distributional Semantics Computational Psycholinguistics
Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca · Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University · Center for Language Education, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Body-Grounded Perspective Formation and Conative Attunement in Artificial Agents
May 16, 2026Hongju PaeEmbodied AI Embodied Cognition
Active Inference Institute, CA, USA
Do LLMs Capture Embodied Cognition and Cultural Variation? Cross-Linguistic Evidence from Demonstratives
Apr 28, 2026Yu Wang, Emmanuele Chersoni, Chu-Ren HuangMultilingual Language Model Evaluation LLM Grounding
Department of Language Science and Technology · The Hong Kong Polytechnic University · Hung Lok Road, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong (China)
Minimal Embodiment Enables Efficient Learning of Number Concepts in Robot
Apr 13, 2026Zhegong Shangguan, Alessandro Di Nuovo, Angelo CangelosiEmbodied Cognition Mathematical Reasoning
Cognitive Robotics Lab, Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester · Smart Interactive Technologies (SIT) Research Laboratory, Department of Computing, Sheffield Hallam University
Mechanistic Foundations of Goal-Directed Control
Mar 16, 2026Alma LagoEmbodied Cognition Mechanistic Interpretability
Cajal Neuroscience Center (CNC), CSIC · Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
From Representation to Enactment: The ABC Framework of the Translating Mind
Nov 20, 2025Michael Carl, Takanori Mizowaki, Aishvarya Raj +4Embodied Cognition
Center for Research and Innovation in Translation and Translation Technology, Kent State University, USA · Rikkyo University, Tokyo · Independent researcher, London +1

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Sensorimotor behaviour from an untrained brain-and-nerve-cord connectome

John R. Minnick, Jesus Gonzalez-Ferrer, Jinghui Geng, Jason K. Eshraghian+3

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA. · UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA. · Department of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.+1

Neural Processes Embodied Navigation Embodied Cognition

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Connectomes now map the neurons and synapses of an adult fly's brain and nerve cord, but how much of behaviour follows from the wiring is unknown. Here we turn one such connectome into a spiking network of 172,433 neurons with a published brain model's untuned parameters, and run it alone and inside a simulated body. Two fixed rules join them: odours and looming objects drive sensory neurons, and motor neurons move the legs. Alone, the network passes a signal to the motor neurons it is known to drive when the pathway supplies about 2% or more of their input. In the body, the fly navigates around obstacles to 95% of the odour sources. A rewiring that keeps each neuron's connection counts and signs reaches 18%, and the fly's leg commands replayed with the senses off reach almost none, so navigation needs the measured wiring and sensory feedback. Dopamine-gated weakening of the mushroom body's output synapses turns approach to an odour into avoidance, which requires the pairing and is odour-specific once one olfactory synapse class is scaled. An untrained connectome thus supports a behaviour and its learned reversal, and the pathways it cannot drive mark what the diagram leaves out.