"In our daily lives we often use objects that greatly expand our bodily action capabilities, such as writing with a pen, handling a mobile phone or driving a car. The overall aim of the present proposal is to elucidate the neurocognitive basis of how conceptual object knowledge is integrated in our body representation. We will develop an innovative experimental paradigm in which we manipulate the congruence of body-object relationships at both a distal level (e.g. placing a glove near the hand) and a proximal level (e.g. putting a backpack on the back). The experimental paradigm will quantify subjective, behavioral and neuroimaging measures to provide new insights into the functional and neural correlates of how conceptual object knowledge is incorporated in the body representation. The outcomes of the project will not only extend our knowledge about the human brain but will also be relevant for clinical purposes, e.g. with respect to learning to use prosthetic devices, developing brain-computer interfaces and robotics and introducing new medical products. The project will be conducted for two years in the lab of professor Olaf Blanke at the Brain Mind Institute at Lausanne, with state-of-the-art research facilities and an excellent reputation. The quality and excellence of the proposed research project are comprised by (1) the combination of my strong research background on object-directed actions with Olaf Blanke’s expertise on body representations, (2) the use of innovative research methods (3) the interdisciplinary nature of the project and (4) the challenging theoretical question on how long-term conceptual knowledge is integrated in our body representation. This project will allow me to greatly expand my theoretical and practical skills to become an independent researcher and it will foster collaboration between two of the top research institutes on cognitive neuroscience in Europe."