Taichi Meets Motor Neuroscience

Is Taichi Chuan anything more than an exotic form of soft gymnastics, for the wellness of elderly people? The answer is definitely ‘yes’, and this book shows that it can be used as a master key to open doors of communication between Western and Eastern cultures, along the re-opened Silk Road. In the Chinese tradition, this carefully-coded physical activity is defined as meditation in motion, a deep concept that highlights the fundamental unity of body and mind, at the individual level, and the perennial motion of Nature/Universe/Tao at the philosophical level. The book focuses on East-West points of contrast and convergence along the Taichi metaphorical line, namely cognitive neuroscience, embodied cognition, cognitive robotics, and contemporary dance.