You are hereProject acronym InterAccent Show
Project Human interaction and the evolution of spoken accent Researcher (PI) Jonathan HARRINGTON Host Institution (HI) LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN Country Germany Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2016-ADG Summary If a group of people were stranded on a desert island with limited contact to outside communities for a period of time, then the group would develop its own characteristic way of speaking or spoken accent. A lack of suitable data as input to an evolutionary computational model has meant that we have but a poor understanding of how spoken accent emerges out of human interaction. Yet a breakthrough in this area is critical for explaining the various forces - including contact between individuals through increased migration - that shape spoken accent development ultimately leading to language diversification and change. The project remedies this deficiency by developing a model of how random, local interactions between individuals leading to group-specific spoken accents can push the sound patterns of languages between stable and changing states. The methodological innovation is that the model's predictions of how spoken accent evolves will be constrained by longitudinal observations about how it actually develops within a group of speakers over time. We seek to generalise from diverse types of data: from children growing up in remote rural communities as opposed to high-contact urban settings; from languages that differ markedly in their sound structure; and from groups of adults isolated together for several months during an Antarctic winter. The project's scientific impact is on developing a computational framework for unifying historical sound change with the cognitive mechanisms by which speech is communicated and adapted to different social settings. The further impact is on understanding how migration and exposure to other accents change the sounds of language. The long-term significance of the project is to build a computationally predictive model of the way that microscopic idiosyncrasies in how humans process speech in everyday conversations accumulate into group-level macroscopic spoken accent change leading to language diversification. Summary If a group of people were stranded on a desert island with limited contact to outside communities for a period of time, then the group would develop its own characteristic way of speaking or spoken accent. A lack of suitable data as input to an evolutionary computational model has meant that we have but a poor understanding of how spoken accent emerges out of human interaction. Yet a breakthrough in this area is critical for explaining the various forces - including contact between individuals through increased migration - that shape spoken accent development ultimately leading to language diversification and change. The project remedies this deficiency by developing a model of how random, local interactions between individuals leading to group-specific spoken accents can push the sound patterns of languages between stable and changing states. The methodological innovation is that the model's predictions of how spoken accent evolves will be constrained by longitudinal observations about how it actually develops within a group of speakers over time. We seek to generalise from diverse types of data: from children growing up in remote rural communities as opposed to high-contact urban settings; from languages that differ markedly in their sound structure; and from groups of adults isolated together for several months during an Antarctic winter. The project's scientific impact is on developing a computational framework for unifying historical sound change with the cognitive mechanisms by which speech is communicated and adapted to different social settings. The further impact is on understanding how migration and exposure to other accents change the sounds of language. The long-term significance of the project is to build a computationally predictive model of the way that microscopic idiosyncrasies in how humans process speech in everyday conversations accumulate into group-level macroscopic spoken accent change leading to language diversification. Max ERC Funding 2 499 333 € Duration Start date: 2017-10-01, End date: 2022-09-30 Project acronym INTERACT Project The Interaction Engine: Interactive foundations for communication Researcher (PI) Stephen Curtis Levinson Host Institution (HI) MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV Country Germany Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2010-AdG_20100407 Summary This project addresses a serious gap at the heart of the social and cognitive sciences. The proposal is to fast-start an interdisciplinary science of human communicative interaction focused on sequences of contingent actions. The research will be guided by a novel hypothesis, the ‘interaction engine’, which holds that human interactive abilities are distinct from and phylogenetically older than our language capacity. Inverting the usual assumptions, the hypothesis suggests that the human interaction system is fundamentally universal, while the language system lacks substantial universals and is diversified by cultural evolution. The interaction system and language system therefore do not mesh neatly, and this can be detected in the domain of contingent action sequences – the crucial characteristic of human interaction. Two specific areas, (a) the timing of turn-taking and (b) the ascription of speech acts or intentions, will be examined from three distinct disciplinary perspectives: (i) cross-cultural corpus and experimental studies in a dozen languages, (ii) developmental studies (corpus and experiment based) from early infancy up to middle childhood, (iii) cognitive studies employing both behavioural measures (reaction time, eye tracking), and neurocognitive methods (EEG, fMRI). The ‘interaction engine’ hypothesis makes detailed predictions about cross-cultural universals, developmental trajectories, and processing complexities in both turn-taking and action ascription. The project aims to build an integrated, interdisciplinary science of communicative interaction. New developments (multi-media corpora, dual eye-tracking, EEG, fMRI, baby-lab techniques) now make this feasible. The PI and host institution are uniquely equipped to undertake this project. Summary This project addresses a serious gap at the heart of the social and cognitive sciences. The proposal is to fast-start an interdisciplinary science of human communicative interaction focused on sequences of contingent actions. The research will be guided by a novel hypothesis, the ‘interaction engine’, which holds that human interactive abilities are distinct from and phylogenetically older than our language capacity. Inverting the usual assumptions, the hypothesis suggests that the human interaction system is fundamentally universal, while the language system lacks substantial universals and is diversified by cultural evolution. The interaction system and language system therefore do not mesh neatly, and this can be detected in the domain of contingent action sequences – the crucial characteristic of human interaction. Two specific areas, (a) the timing of turn-taking and (b) the ascription of speech acts or intentions, will be examined from three distinct disciplinary perspectives: (i) cross-cultural corpus and experimental studies in a dozen languages, (ii) developmental studies (corpus and experiment based) from early infancy up to middle childhood, (iii) cognitive studies employing both behavioural measures (reaction time, eye tracking), and neurocognitive methods (EEG, fMRI). The ‘interaction engine’ hypothesis makes detailed predictions about cross-cultural universals, developmental trajectories, and processing complexities in both turn-taking and action ascription. The project aims to build an integrated, interdisciplinary science of communicative interaction. New developments (multi-media corpora, dual eye-tracking, EEG, fMRI, baby-lab techniques) now make this feasible. The PI and host institution are uniquely equipped to undertake this project. Max ERC Funding 2 495 400 € Duration Start date: 2011-06-01, End date: 2016-09-30 Project acronym INTERACT Project Understanding Mechanisms of Human Social Interaction using Interactive Avatars Researcher (PI) Antonia Felicity De Courcy Hamilton Host Institution (HI) UCL Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Institute for Women’s Health Country United Kingdom Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124 Summary Human social interaction depends on non-verbal unconscious behaviour as much as on verbal signals. Mimicry (unconscious copying of actions) is a good example of a social behaviour which is caused by and has consequences for our evaluation of others. However, studying mimicry with traditional methods is hard because of the trade-off between good experimental control and realistic social interaction. INTERACT will (1) establish a new approach to the science of mimicry, bringing together methods from social psychology, cognitive neuroscience and computer science, and (2) use this approach to understand the information processing mechanisms underlying mimicry of hand actions. First, we will develop interactive avatars which can mimic a participant’s hand actions or be mimicked by the participant in the context of a simple drum rhythm task. Using computer-generated avatars allows us to precisely control and measure movement timing and structure during mimicry, and to record how participants interact with avatars with different socially-relevant features (age / attractiveness or even aliens). Thus, the INTERACT system will enable high-resolution, well-controlled studies of how people detect and control mimicry. Second, we will use the interactive avatars to examine mimicry in unprecedented detail, studying how the timing and structure of an action and form of the avatar impact on the control and detection of mimicry in typical adults. Building on this, we will define the brain mechanisms of mimicry and why mimicry might go wrong in adults with autism spectrum condition. The results will test current hypotheses of mimicry and will reveal the information processing mechanisms underlying human mimicry and its relationship to other social processes. Completion of the project will benefit research and practice in social neuroscience, developmental and educational psychology, computer science and robotics, and all researchers interested in human social behaviour. Summary Human social interaction depends on non-verbal unconscious behaviour as much as on verbal signals. Mimicry (unconscious copying of actions) is a good example of a social behaviour which is caused by and has consequences for our evaluation of others. However, studying mimicry with traditional methods is hard because of the trade-off between good experimental control and realistic social interaction. INTERACT will (1) establish a new approach to the science of mimicry, bringing together methods from social psychology, cognitive neuroscience and computer science, and (2) use this approach to understand the information processing mechanisms underlying mimicry of hand actions. First, we will develop interactive avatars which can mimic a participant’s hand actions or be mimicked by the participant in the context of a simple drum rhythm task. Using computer-generated avatars allows us to precisely control and measure movement timing and structure during mimicry, and to record how participants interact with avatars with different socially-relevant features (age / attractiveness or even aliens). Thus, the INTERACT system will enable high-resolution, well-controlled studies of how people detect and control mimicry. Second, we will use the interactive avatars to examine mimicry in unprecedented detail, studying how the timing and structure of an action and form of the avatar impact on the control and detection of mimicry in typical adults. Building on this, we will define the brain mechanisms of mimicry and why mimicry might go wrong in adults with autism spectrum condition. The results will test current hypotheses of mimicry and will reveal the information processing mechanisms underlying human mimicry and its relationship to other social processes. Completion of the project will benefit research and practice in social neuroscience, developmental and educational psychology, computer science and robotics, and all researchers interested in human social behaviour. Max ERC Funding 1 383 371 € Duration Start date: 2013-01-01, End date: 2018-12-31 Project acronym INtheSELF Project Inside the Self: from interoception to self- and other-awareness Researcher (PI) EMMANOUIL TSAKIRIS Host Institution (HI) ROYAL HOLLOWAY AND BEDFORD NEW COLLEGE Country United Kingdom Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2016-COG Summary Modern psychology has long focused on the importance of the body as the basis of the self. However, this focus concerned the exteroceptive body, that is, the body as perceived from the outside, as when we recognize ourselves in the mirror. This influential approach has neglected another important dimension of the body, namely the interoceptive body, that is, the body as perceived from within, as for example when one feels her racing heart. In psychology, research on interoception has focused mainly on its role in emotion. INtheSELF, however, goes beyond this approach, aiming instead to show how interoception and interoceptive awareness serve the unity and stability of the self, analogous to the role of interoception in maintaining physiological homeostasis. To test this hypothesis we go beyond the division between interoception and exteroception to consider their integration in self-awareness. INtheSELF will develop novel, pioneering methods for the study of causal relationships between interoceptive and exteroceptive awareness (WP1), allowing us to test how these two sources of information about the self interact to reflect the balance between stability and adaptation (WP2); how their inter-relation is built in parallel to the development of self-awareness in early childhood and adolescence (WP3); and the role that their interaction has for social relatedness (WP4). INtheSELF provides an alternative to existing psychological theories of the self insofar it goes beyond the apparent antagonism between the awareness of the self from the outside and from within, to consider their dynamic integration. In doing so, INtheSELF aims to elucidate for the first time how humans navigate the challenging balance between inside and out, in terms of both the individual’s natural (interoception vs. exteroception) and social (self vs. others) embodiment in the world. Summary Modern psychology has long focused on the importance of the body as the basis of the self. However, this focus concerned the exteroceptive body, that is, the body as perceived from the outside, as when we recognize ourselves in the mirror. This influential approach has neglected another important dimension of the body, namely the interoceptive body, that is, the body as perceived from within, as for example when one feels her racing heart. In psychology, research on interoception has focused mainly on its role in emotion. INtheSELF, however, goes beyond this approach, aiming instead to show how interoception and interoceptive awareness serve the unity and stability of the self, analogous to the role of interoception in maintaining physiological homeostasis. To test this hypothesis we go beyond the division between interoception and exteroception to consider their integration in self-awareness. INtheSELF will develop novel, pioneering methods for the study of causal relationships between interoceptive and exteroceptive awareness (WP1), allowing us to test how these two sources of information about the self interact to reflect the balance between stability and adaptation (WP2); how their inter-relation is built in parallel to the development of self-awareness in early childhood and adolescence (WP3); and the role that their interaction has for social relatedness (WP4). INtheSELF provides an alternative to existing psychological theories of the self insofar it goes beyond the apparent antagonism between the awareness of the self from the outside and from within, to consider their dynamic integration. In doing so, INtheSELF aims to elucidate for the first time how humans navigate the challenging balance between inside and out, in terms of both the individual’s natural (interoception vs. exteroception) and social (self vs. others) embodiment in the world. Max ERC Funding 1 998 394 € Duration Start date: 2017-09-01, End date: 2022-08-31 Project acronym iRELaTE Project Immune Response and Social Cognition in Schizophrenia Researcher (PI) James Gary Donohoe Host Institution (HI) NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND GALWAY Country Ireland Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2015-STG Summary Schizophrenia, affecting 0.5-1% of the population, is ranked by the World Health Organisation as more disabling than paraplegia or blindness in 18-34 year olds. Current treatments, developed over 50 years ago, are only partly effective in treating this disability, and new treatments are lacking. To address this treatment impasse, this project aims to develop and test a novel immune based model of deficits in social cognition – the set of mental operations that underlie social interactions (e.g. emotion recognition, theory of mind) and strongly predict social disability in schizophrenia. Based on recent discoveries in schizophrenia genetics, this project asks: (1) are genetic causes of deficits in social cognition mediated by effects on immune function during development and (2) does early social environment moderate these effects? To address these questions, the project has two parts. Part A focuses on neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies of social cognition in patients and healthy adults so as to (1) provide an innovative characterisation of the effects of inflammatory markers (e.g. pro-/anti- inflammatory cytokines) on social cognition, (2) establish whether these markers mediate the effects of recently identified genetic risk loci on schizophrenia, and (3) identify to what extent early social environment (e.g. parental relationships, childhood trauma) moderates this relationship. Part B focuses on behavioural and pharmacological studies in mice to (1) establish the causal effects of early immune challenge and early social environment on social cognition, and (2) test the translational benefits of anti-inflammatory treatment to normalize the resulting deficits. By validating an immune based model of schizophrenia, this project has the potential to move beyond current (dopamine based) treatments, and suggest groundbreaking alternatives for understanding and treating social disability in this and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Summary Schizophrenia, affecting 0.5-1% of the population, is ranked by the World Health Organisation as more disabling than paraplegia or blindness in 18-34 year olds. Current treatments, developed over 50 years ago, are only partly effective in treating this disability, and new treatments are lacking. To address this treatment impasse, this project aims to develop and test a novel immune based model of deficits in social cognition – the set of mental operations that underlie social interactions (e.g. emotion recognition, theory of mind) and strongly predict social disability in schizophrenia. Based on recent discoveries in schizophrenia genetics, this project asks: (1) are genetic causes of deficits in social cognition mediated by effects on immune function during development and (2) does early social environment moderate these effects? To address these questions, the project has two parts. Part A focuses on neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies of social cognition in patients and healthy adults so as to (1) provide an innovative characterisation of the effects of inflammatory markers (e.g. pro-/anti- inflammatory cytokines) on social cognition, (2) establish whether these markers mediate the effects of recently identified genetic risk loci on schizophrenia, and (3) identify to what extent early social environment (e.g. parental relationships, childhood trauma) moderates this relationship. Part B focuses on behavioural and pharmacological studies in mice to (1) establish the causal effects of early immune challenge and early social environment on social cognition, and (2) test the translational benefits of anti-inflammatory treatment to normalize the resulting deficits. By validating an immune based model of schizophrenia, this project has the potential to move beyond current (dopamine based) treatments, and suggest groundbreaking alternatives for understanding and treating social disability in this and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Max ERC Funding 1 477 622 € Duration Start date: 2016-07-01, End date: 2021-12-31 Project acronym JAXPERTISE Project Joint action expertise: Behavioral, cognitive, and neural mechanisms for joint action learning Researcher (PI) Natalie Sebanz Host Institution (HI) KOZEP-EUROPAI EGYETEM Country Hungary Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2013-CoG Summary Human life is full of joint action and our achievements are, to a large extent, joint achievements that require the coordination of two or more individuals. Piano duets and tangos, but also complex technical and medical operations rely on and exist because of coordinated actions. In recent years, research has begun to identify the basic mechanisms of joint action. This work focused on simple tasks that can be performed together without practice. However, a striking aspect of human joint action is the expertise interaction partners acquire together. How people acquire joint expertise is still poorly understood. JAXPERTISE will break new ground by identifying the behavioural, cognitive, and neural mechanisms underlying the learning of joint action. Participating in joint activities is also a motor for individual development. Although this has long been recognized, the mechanisms underlying individual learning through engagement in joint activities remain to be spelled out from a cognitive science perspective. JAXPERTISE will make this crucial step by investigating how joint action affects source memory, semantic memory, and individual skill learning. Carefully designed experiments will optimize the balance between capturing relevant interpersonal phenomena and maximizing experimental control. The proposed studies employ behavioural measures, electroencephalography, and physiological measures. Studies tracing learning processes in novices will be complemented by studies analyzing expert performance in music and dance. New approaches, such as training participants to regulate each other’s brain activity, will lead to methodological breakthroughs. JAXPERTISE will generate basic scientific knowledge that will be relevant to a large number of different disciplines in the social sciences, cognitive sciences, and humanities. The insights gained in this project will have impact on the design of robot helpers and the development of social training interventions. Summary Human life is full of joint action and our achievements are, to a large extent, joint achievements that require the coordination of two or more individuals. Piano duets and tangos, but also complex technical and medical operations rely on and exist because of coordinated actions. In recent years, research has begun to identify the basic mechanisms of joint action. This work focused on simple tasks that can be performed together without practice. However, a striking aspect of human joint action is the expertise interaction partners acquire together. How people acquire joint expertise is still poorly understood. JAXPERTISE will break new ground by identifying the behavioural, cognitive, and neural mechanisms underlying the learning of joint action. Participating in joint activities is also a motor for individual development. Although this has long been recognized, the mechanisms underlying individual learning through engagement in joint activities remain to be spelled out from a cognitive science perspective. JAXPERTISE will make this crucial step by investigating how joint action affects source memory, semantic memory, and individual skill learning. Carefully designed experiments will optimize the balance between capturing relevant interpersonal phenomena and maximizing experimental control. The proposed studies employ behavioural measures, electroencephalography, and physiological measures. Studies tracing learning processes in novices will be complemented by studies analyzing expert performance in music and dance. New approaches, such as training participants to regulate each other’s brain activity, will lead to methodological breakthroughs. JAXPERTISE will generate basic scientific knowledge that will be relevant to a large number of different disciplines in the social sciences, cognitive sciences, and humanities. The insights gained in this project will have impact on the design of robot helpers and the development of social training interventions. Max ERC Funding 1 992 331 € Duration Start date: 2014-08-01, End date: 2020-07-31 Project acronym JOINTATT Project The evolutionary and developmental origins of Joint Attention: a longitudinal cross-species and cross-cultural comparison Researcher (PI) Kathryn Elizabeth SLOCOMBE Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF YORK Country United Kingdom Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2016-COG Summary Humans frequently coordinate and share attention about objects and events. Our basic ability to engage in joint attention (JA) is thought to underpin our uniquely complex cooperation skills and language, raising the possibility that the emergence of JA was a ‘small change that made a big difference’ in the evolution of human cognition. Despite the theoretical importance of JA for understanding human social cognition, we know surprisingly little about JA across species and cultures. Methodological shortcomings limit our understanding of the extent to which JA is uniquely human or shared with our primate cousins, and we lack data on how this ability develops in non-western cultures, which aspects of the social environment are necessary for JA to emerge and how JA is related to the emergence of cooperation. The JOINTATT project will address these four key issues by collecting longitudinal data on mother-infant dyads over the first 2 years of the infant’s life, across four different study groups: Ugandan and British humans; wild chimpanzees and crested macaque monkeys. The project will develop novel tasks and measures that allow the same set of data to be collected in directly comparable ways across species and provide the first valid, rigorous test of whether engagement in JA is a uniquely human trait. Data from the two human groups will test how different elements of JA are related and whether JA develops in a uniform way across cultures. Longitudinal data on mother-infant interactions and the infant’s environment will be related to performance on JA tasks across all four groups, enabling us to identify conditions that are likely necessary for JA to emerge. Performance on JA and cooperative tasks will be compared to assess whether engagement in JA predicts the later emergence of cooperation. This project will provide ground-breaking insights into JA and its evolutionary origins, and is likely to challenge current theories of how human social cognition evolved. Summary Humans frequently coordinate and share attention about objects and events. Our basic ability to engage in joint attention (JA) is thought to underpin our uniquely complex cooperation skills and language, raising the possibility that the emergence of JA was a ‘small change that made a big difference’ in the evolution of human cognition. Despite the theoretical importance of JA for understanding human social cognition, we know surprisingly little about JA across species and cultures. Methodological shortcomings limit our understanding of the extent to which JA is uniquely human or shared with our primate cousins, and we lack data on how this ability develops in non-western cultures, which aspects of the social environment are necessary for JA to emerge and how JA is related to the emergence of cooperation. The JOINTATT project will address these four key issues by collecting longitudinal data on mother-infant dyads over the first 2 years of the infant’s life, across four different study groups: Ugandan and British humans; wild chimpanzees and crested macaque monkeys. The project will develop novel tasks and measures that allow the same set of data to be collected in directly comparable ways across species and provide the first valid, rigorous test of whether engagement in JA is a uniquely human trait. Data from the two human groups will test how different elements of JA are related and whether JA develops in a uniform way across cultures. Longitudinal data on mother-infant interactions and the infant’s environment will be related to performance on JA tasks across all four groups, enabling us to identify conditions that are likely necessary for JA to emerge. Performance on JA and cooperative tasks will be compared to assess whether engagement in JA predicts the later emergence of cooperation. This project will provide ground-breaking insights into JA and its evolutionary origins, and is likely to challenge current theories of how human social cognition evolved. Max ERC Funding 1 989 611 € Duration Start date: 2017-07-01, End date: 2022-12-31 Project acronym KINSHIP Project How do humans recognise kin? Researcher (PI) Lisa Marie De Bruine Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW Country United Kingdom Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2014-CoG Summary Kinship moderates important social outcomes, such as interpersonal violence and sexual behaviour, but how do you know who your kin are? On the surface, this appears to be a simple question, but the specific cues and cognitive systems that mediate these complex relationships are yet to be understood. This pioneering project will combine biological theories regarding the essential role of kinship in regulating social and sexual behaviour with advanced methods from experimental psychology, genetics, acoustics, computer graphics and experimental economics, to develop and test the first comprehensive model of human kin recognition. Early research on human kin recognition typically investigated the effect of a single kinship cue on one domain of behaviour and in one relationship type. For example, research on the Westermarck Effect focusses on the effect of co-residence on sexual aversion among siblings. The proposed project will investigate a diverse range of potential kinship cues (e.g., contextual, phenotypic and cognitive), both relevant behavioural domains (i.e., prosocial and sexual), and several relationship types (e.g., primary and secondary; consanguine, affine and adoptive). The resulting model will allow for complex interactions, such as conditional or domain-specific cue use, that are suggested by work on kin recognition in other species. This, in turn, will allow for a greater understanding of the mechanisms underpinning how humans recognise and respond to kin. The project will also produce a quantitative model of how family resemblance is expressed in the face, which will be used to develop novel methodologies for assessing family resemblance from face images and experimentally creating realistic and biologically plausible “virtual relatives” using computer graphics. Summary Kinship moderates important social outcomes, such as interpersonal violence and sexual behaviour, but how do you know who your kin are? On the surface, this appears to be a simple question, but the specific cues and cognitive systems that mediate these complex relationships are yet to be understood. This pioneering project will combine biological theories regarding the essential role of kinship in regulating social and sexual behaviour with advanced methods from experimental psychology, genetics, acoustics, computer graphics and experimental economics, to develop and test the first comprehensive model of human kin recognition. Early research on human kin recognition typically investigated the effect of a single kinship cue on one domain of behaviour and in one relationship type. For example, research on the Westermarck Effect focusses on the effect of co-residence on sexual aversion among siblings. The proposed project will investigate a diverse range of potential kinship cues (e.g., contextual, phenotypic and cognitive), both relevant behavioural domains (i.e., prosocial and sexual), and several relationship types (e.g., primary and secondary; consanguine, affine and adoptive). The resulting model will allow for complex interactions, such as conditional or domain-specific cue use, that are suggested by work on kin recognition in other species. This, in turn, will allow for a greater understanding of the mechanisms underpinning how humans recognise and respond to kin. The project will also produce a quantitative model of how family resemblance is expressed in the face, which will be used to develop novel methodologies for assessing family resemblance from face images and experimentally creating realistic and biologically plausible “virtual relatives” using computer graphics. Max ERC Funding 1 984 776 € Duration Start date: 2015-10-01, End date: 2021-03-31 Project acronym KNOWLEDGE MOVES Project From the individual to the system: Understanding knowledge movement Researcher (PI) Erica van de Waal Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE DE LAUSANNE Country Switzerland Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2020-STG Summary A major challenge of the Anthropocene is for individuals to adapt to rapidly changing environments. In long-lived species, adaptation will require successful innovations to spread efficiently through social units, emphasising an increasing role of social learning and culture. Given that humans are the most cultural species on the planet, what factors limit or enhance social transfer in other species? Vervet monkeys are an ideal model species to study knowledge flow due to their social structure, with males migrating multiple times within their lifetime. Moreover, with the establishment of my field site, I am uniquely placed to conduct experiments on multiple groups. At the individual level, using innovative technology (bio-loggers and molecular tools), I will detect how males adjust to their new physical and social environment following migration with respect to dialects and diet, and respectively how groups adapt to migrants. To test how information spreads, I will conduct experiments using novel touchscreen technology to discover whether migrants always conform to their new group’s knowledge or if groups can learn from migrants. Quantitative models based on the vervet data will be constructed to capture information spread at group and population levels. Primates being living links to our past, comparing these models to the existing literature on humans will reveal to what extent social transmission seen in humans is common throughout the primate lineage, and what differences make human culture so unique. By linking ground-breaking approaches in the wild with modelling work, this project will revolutionise our current knowledge of social information transmission within primate societies. Understanding information movement under changing environments will improve our ability to predict how primates will cope with the constantly increasing human impact and an unpredictable future, as well as refine our understanding of the uniqueness of cultural transfer in humans. Summary A major challenge of the Anthropocene is for individuals to adapt to rapidly changing environments. In long-lived species, adaptation will require successful innovations to spread efficiently through social units, emphasising an increasing role of social learning and culture. Given that humans are the most cultural species on the planet, what factors limit or enhance social transfer in other species? Vervet monkeys are an ideal model species to study knowledge flow due to their social structure, with males migrating multiple times within their lifetime. Moreover, with the establishment of my field site, I am uniquely placed to conduct experiments on multiple groups. At the individual level, using innovative technology (bio-loggers and molecular tools), I will detect how males adjust to their new physical and social environment following migration with respect to dialects and diet, and respectively how groups adapt to migrants. To test how information spreads, I will conduct experiments using novel touchscreen technology to discover whether migrants always conform to their new group’s knowledge or if groups can learn from migrants. Quantitative models based on the vervet data will be constructed to capture information spread at group and population levels. Primates being living links to our past, comparing these models to the existing literature on humans will reveal to what extent social transmission seen in humans is common throughout the primate lineage, and what differences make human culture so unique. By linking ground-breaking approaches in the wild with modelling work, this project will revolutionise our current knowledge of social information transmission within primate societies. Understanding information movement under changing environments will improve our ability to predict how primates will cope with the constantly increasing human impact and an unpredictable future, as well as refine our understanding of the uniqueness of cultural transfer in humans. Max ERC Funding 1 500 000 € Duration Start date: 2021-01-01, End date: 2025-12-31 Project acronym KNOWLEDGELAB Project Knowledge-First Social Epistemology Researcher (PI) Mona Simion Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW Country United Kingdom Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2020-STG Summary This highly ambitious project proposes a new research programme for social epistemology. Social epistemology investigates the epistemic effects of social interactions: e.g., how we gain knowledge from social sources (others’ testimony, the media), how we should respond to disagreement, how groups (scientific teams, organisations) can know. It is among the most thriving areas in contemporary philosophy. However, there is little agreement concerning the best methodological approach to social epistemological issues. Individualism puts the individual first; it asks: ‘What are the epistemic responsibilities of individuals in social settings?’ Its main weakness is that it is too demanding to be empirically plausible: according to Individualism, the individual has to do most of the work in separating reliable from unreliable sources. In contrast, Socialism puts the social factor first; it asks: ‘How does the social environment need to be for individuals to acquire justified beliefs?’ On this view, individuals need to do more or less epistemic work, depending on the social norms in force at the context. Socialism is too permissive, in that it licences socially accepted but epistemically irresponsible behaviour. KNOWLEDGELAB develops a novel methodology for social epistemology, one that puts knowledge first; it starts with the function of social epistemic interactions, i.e. that of generating knowledge. It asks: ‘How should we proceed in social epistemic interactions in order to generate knowledge?’ KNOWLEDGELAB employs this novel methodology in the service of the epistemology of testimony, disagreement and groups, and develops the first integrated account of the epistemology of mass media in the literature. This framework is highly relevant in the context of a globalized society, replete with both easy-access information and misinformation: it is more important than ever to know what separates trustworthy sources of information from untrustworthy ones. Summary This highly ambitious project proposes a new research programme for social epistemology. Social epistemology investigates the epistemic effects of social interactions: e.g., how we gain knowledge from social sources (others’ testimony, the media), how we should respond to disagreement, how groups (scientific teams, organisations) can know. It is among the most thriving areas in contemporary philosophy. However, there is little agreement concerning the best methodological approach to social epistemological issues. Individualism puts the individual first; it asks: ‘What are the epistemic responsibilities of individuals in social settings?’ Its main weakness is that it is too demanding to be empirically plausible: according to Individualism, the individual has to do most of the work in separating reliable from unreliable sources. In contrast, Socialism puts the social factor first; it asks: ‘How does the social environment need to be for individuals to acquire justified beliefs?’ On this view, individuals need to do more or less epistemic work, depending on the social norms in force at the context. Socialism is too permissive, in that it licences socially accepted but epistemically irresponsible behaviour. KNOWLEDGELAB develops a novel methodology for social epistemology, one that puts knowledge first; it starts with the function of social epistemic interactions, i.e. that of generating knowledge. It asks: ‘How should we proceed in social epistemic interactions in order to generate knowledge?’ KNOWLEDGELAB employs this novel methodology in the service of the epistemology of testimony, disagreement and groups, and develops the first integrated account of the epistemology of mass media in the literature. This framework is highly relevant in the context of a globalized society, replete with both easy-access information and misinformation: it is more important than ever to know what separates trustworthy sources of information from untrustworthy ones. Max ERC Funding 1 469 955 € Duration Start date: 2021-01-01, End date: 2025-12-31 Project acronym L-POP Project Language-Processing by Overlapping Predictions: A Predictive Coding Approach Researcher (PI) Christian Fiebach Host Institution (HI) JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE-UNIVERSITAET FRANKFURT AM MAIN Country Germany Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2013-CoG Summary "This project aims at elucidating fundamental neural computations underlying language processing. While we have gained enormous insights into the localization of language in the brain and the temporal sequence of language processes (e.g., syntactic vs. semantic), we know very little about the actual computations underlying language processing. I propose that the framework of predictive coding can fill this gap. Predictive coding is a fundamental theory of sensory processing in the brain that has recently gained enormous attention in psychology and neuroscience. While models of language assume a bottom-up driven processing stream from sensory areas through different linguistic processing stages (e.g., phonetic, syntactic) towards semantic interpretation, predictive coding postulates that high-level brain systems actively construct models of the external world and pass resulting predictions about upcoming events to lower sensory systems. Only if predictions are violated, a prediction error is signalled in a bottom-up fashion to higher areas where internal models are adjusted to minimize prediction error. Here, I postulate that language-processing is the result of multiple overlapping predictions from different sources of linguistic information, if available. I propose a research program that (a) explores the presence of neurophysiological markers of predictive coding during language processing, (b) tests quantitative hypotheses from predictive coding concerning strength and precision of prediction error signals, for established language effects, and (c) explores the domain generality of identified mechanisms. To this end, established electrophysiological and brain activation markers of sentence processing will be combined with advanced model-based data analysis tools. Finally, a comprehensive functional architecture of language shall be established that incorporates dynamically reconfigurable feedforward and feedback information flow in the language system." Summary "This project aims at elucidating fundamental neural computations underlying language processing. While we have gained enormous insights into the localization of language in the brain and the temporal sequence of language processes (e.g., syntactic vs. semantic), we know very little about the actual computations underlying language processing. I propose that the framework of predictive coding can fill this gap. Predictive coding is a fundamental theory of sensory processing in the brain that has recently gained enormous attention in psychology and neuroscience. While models of language assume a bottom-up driven processing stream from sensory areas through different linguistic processing stages (e.g., phonetic, syntactic) towards semantic interpretation, predictive coding postulates that high-level brain systems actively construct models of the external world and pass resulting predictions about upcoming events to lower sensory systems. Only if predictions are violated, a prediction error is signalled in a bottom-up fashion to higher areas where internal models are adjusted to minimize prediction error. Here, I postulate that language-processing is the result of multiple overlapping predictions from different sources of linguistic information, if available. I propose a research program that (a) explores the presence of neurophysiological markers of predictive coding during language processing, (b) tests quantitative hypotheses from predictive coding concerning strength and precision of prediction error signals, for established language effects, and (c) explores the domain generality of identified mechanisms. To this end, established electrophysiological and brain activation markers of sentence processing will be combined with advanced model-based data analysis tools. Finally, a comprehensive functional architecture of language shall be established that incorporates dynamically reconfigurable feedforward and feedback information flow in the language system." Max ERC Funding 1 552 740 € Duration Start date: 2014-07-01, End date: 2019-06-30 Project acronym L2STAT Project Statistical learning and L2 literacy acquisition: Towards a neurobiological theory of assimilating novel writing systems Researcher (PI) Ram Frost Host Institution (HI) THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM Country Israel Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2015-AdG Summary The overarching goal of L2STAT is to understand L2 literacy acquisition by bringing together, for the first time, recent advances in the neurobiology of statistical learning (SL), a detailed statistical characterization of the world’s writing systems, and neurally-plausible general principles of learning, representation, and processing. L2STAT aims to provide a new theoretical framework that considers L2 learning and SL a two-way street: SL, on the one hand, tunes learners to the regularities of a new linguistic environment, and on the other hand, L2 environment shapes learners’ sensitivity to its specific types of statistical properties. The project will focus on the assimilation of reading skills in four novel linguistic environments, and investigate how exposure to their distinct writing systems shape, in turn, SL. L2STAT is an interdisciplinary project that launches in parallel five mutually informative research axes: 1) we employ advanced methods from computational linguistics and machine learning to precisely characterize the statistics of four highly contrasting writing systems (English, Spanish, Hebrew, Chinese). 2) We study the learning that results from biologically-inspired computational models that are exposed to these statistics, to generate a priori predictions regarding what statistical properties can (or cannot) be learned, and how neural mechanisms constrain the representations learned during L2 literacy acquisition. 3) We develop psychometrically reliable behavioral tests of individuals’ capacities to extract regularities in the visual and auditory modalities. 4) We use state of the art neuroimaging techniques including EEG, MEG, fMRI to probe the neurobiological underpinning for detecting regularities in the visual and auditory modalities. 5) We conduct behavioral experimentation in four sites (Israel, Spain, Taiwan to track literacy acquisition longitudinally in the four different languages. Summary The overarching goal of L2STAT is to understand L2 literacy acquisition by bringing together, for the first time, recent advances in the neurobiology of statistical learning (SL), a detailed statistical characterization of the world’s writing systems, and neurally-plausible general principles of learning, representation, and processing. L2STAT aims to provide a new theoretical framework that considers L2 learning and SL a two-way street: SL, on the one hand, tunes learners to the regularities of a new linguistic environment, and on the other hand, L2 environment shapes learners’ sensitivity to its specific types of statistical properties. The project will focus on the assimilation of reading skills in four novel linguistic environments, and investigate how exposure to their distinct writing systems shape, in turn, SL. L2STAT is an interdisciplinary project that launches in parallel five mutually informative research axes: 1) we employ advanced methods from computational linguistics and machine learning to precisely characterize the statistics of four highly contrasting writing systems (English, Spanish, Hebrew, Chinese). 2) We study the learning that results from biologically-inspired computational models that are exposed to these statistics, to generate a priori predictions regarding what statistical properties can (or cannot) be learned, and how neural mechanisms constrain the representations learned during L2 literacy acquisition. 3) We develop psychometrically reliable behavioral tests of individuals’ capacities to extract regularities in the visual and auditory modalities. 4) We use state of the art neuroimaging techniques including EEG, MEG, fMRI to probe the neurobiological underpinning for detecting regularities in the visual and auditory modalities. 5) We conduct behavioral experimentation in four sites (Israel, Spain, Taiwan to track literacy acquisition longitudinally in the four different languages. Max ERC Funding 2 500 000 € Duration Start date: 2016-07-01, End date: 2022-06-30 Project acronym LACOLA Project Language, cognition and landscape: understanding cross-cultural and individual variation in geographical ontology Researcher (PI) Niclas Burenhult Host Institution (HI) MAX IV Laboratory, Lund University Country Sweden Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2010-StG_20091209 Summary This project will break new ground in the language sciences by pursuing a linguistic inquiry into landscape. From the linguist s point of view, the geophysical environment is virtually unexplored. Yet it has vast potential for influence on the discipline. The project will play a pioneering role in situating landscape within linguistics as a fundamental domain of representational systems, opening up important links to other disciplines concerned with landscape that usually have little to do with language. It will achieve this by (1) exploring landscape categorization in a number of languages, (2) comparing such categorization, (3) developing a model for understanding categorization across languages and speakers, and (4) documenting vanishing landscape systems. The research team will study landscape categorization in six diverse language settings. Each setting is a case study carried out by a team member with expert knowledge and prior field experience of the setting. Each setting offers opportunities of studying closely related languages as well as individuals speaking the same language, making comparison possible not only among maximally diverse languages but also at finer levels of linguistic granularity. An exploratory psycholinguistic subproject will probe the relationship between language and cognition in the landscape domain. The project will blaze a trail in applying GIS to linguistic data, in testing advanced experimental techniques in the field, and in documenting domain-specific data from a global language sample. Cross-cultural variation in landscape ontology is a matter of great practical importance understanding the meaning and reference of landscape terms and place names is crucial to major fields of human cooperation, from navigation to international law. Summary This project will break new ground in the language sciences by pursuing a linguistic inquiry into landscape. From the linguist s point of view, the geophysical environment is virtually unexplored. Yet it has vast potential for influence on the discipline. The project will play a pioneering role in situating landscape within linguistics as a fundamental domain of representational systems, opening up important links to other disciplines concerned with landscape that usually have little to do with language. It will achieve this by (1) exploring landscape categorization in a number of languages, (2) comparing such categorization, (3) developing a model for understanding categorization across languages and speakers, and (4) documenting vanishing landscape systems. The research team will study landscape categorization in six diverse language settings. Each setting is a case study carried out by a team member with expert knowledge and prior field experience of the setting. Each setting offers opportunities of studying closely related languages as well as individuals speaking the same language, making comparison possible not only among maximally diverse languages but also at finer levels of linguistic granularity. An exploratory psycholinguistic subproject will probe the relationship between language and cognition in the landscape domain. The project will blaze a trail in applying GIS to linguistic data, in testing advanced experimental techniques in the field, and in documenting domain-specific data from a global language sample. Cross-cultural variation in landscape ontology is a matter of great practical importance understanding the meaning and reference of landscape terms and place names is crucial to major fields of human cooperation, from navigation to international law. Max ERC Funding 1 499 931 € Duration Start date: 2011-03-01, End date: 2016-02-29 Project acronym LANGBOOT Project Language bootstraps cognitive complexity Researcher (PI) Louise Mary Connell Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF LANCASTER Country United Kingdom Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2015-CoG Summary Language and cognition have a close, but cryptic, relationship. Is language just another tool in humans' diverse cognitive toolkit; vital for communication, but not necessary for complex, high-level thought? Or is language what allows us to form and manipulate complex thoughts in the first place, by allowing words to act as placeholders in ideas that would otherwise be too unwieldy to handle? Distinguishing between these possibilities is vital to understanding our most fundamental cognitive faculties and the origin of modern human cognition itself. The current project will render this problem tractable with the groundbreaking proposal that language bootstraps the cognitive complexity of the human mind by enhancing its ability to form and manipulate more elaborate mental representations than would otherwise be possible without language. In an innovative programme of investigation that uses cutting-edge methods from experimental psychology, psycholinguistics, cognitive modelling, and corpus linguistics, we will examine how words interact with conceptual knowledge gleaned from perceptual and action experience in forming mental representations across a range of fundamental cognitive tasks, including categorisation, memory performance, and abstract thought. We will test whether and how language provides indispensable aid to cognitive processing that struggles to complete under time pressure or that strains working memory capacity, and how such aid could have influenced cognitive evolution. Findings of this project will answer whether language provides critical enhancement to the achievable complexity of cognition, and whether language use could have brought about the sudden flowering of art, fine tools and culture that are the hallmarks of complex cognition in modern humans. The result will be a comprehensive, multidisciplinary perspective on the role of language in cognition that has the potential to reshape how we regard the functioning of the human mind. Summary Language and cognition have a close, but cryptic, relationship. Is language just another tool in humans' diverse cognitive toolkit; vital for communication, but not necessary for complex, high-level thought? Or is language what allows us to form and manipulate complex thoughts in the first place, by allowing words to act as placeholders in ideas that would otherwise be too unwieldy to handle? Distinguishing between these possibilities is vital to understanding our most fundamental cognitive faculties and the origin of modern human cognition itself. The current project will render this problem tractable with the groundbreaking proposal that language bootstraps the cognitive complexity of the human mind by enhancing its ability to form and manipulate more elaborate mental representations than would otherwise be possible without language. In an innovative programme of investigation that uses cutting-edge methods from experimental psychology, psycholinguistics, cognitive modelling, and corpus linguistics, we will examine how words interact with conceptual knowledge gleaned from perceptual and action experience in forming mental representations across a range of fundamental cognitive tasks, including categorisation, memory performance, and abstract thought. We will test whether and how language provides indispensable aid to cognitive processing that struggles to complete under time pressure or that strains working memory capacity, and how such aid could have influenced cognitive evolution. Findings of this project will answer whether language provides critical enhancement to the achievable complexity of cognition, and whether language use could have brought about the sudden flowering of art, fine tools and culture that are the hallmarks of complex cognition in modern humans. The result will be a comprehensive, multidisciplinary perspective on the role of language in cognition that has the potential to reshape how we regard the functioning of the human mind. Max ERC Funding 1 971 431 € Duration Start date: 2017-06-01, End date: 2022-11-30 Project acronym LANGDYN Project Language dynamics: a neurocognitive approach to incremental interpretation Researcher (PI) Lorraine Tyler Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Country United Kingdom Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2014-ADG Summary Understanding spoken language involves a complex set of processes that transform the auditory input into a meaningful interpretation. Our percept is not of acoustic-phonetic detail but of the speaker’s intended meaning. This effortless transition occurs on millisecond timescales, with remarkable speed and accuracy, and without any awareness of the complex computations on which it depends. How is this achieved? What are the processes and representations that support the transition from sound to meaning, and what are the neurobiological systems in which they are instantiated? In this proposal, we combine advanced techniques from neuroimaging, multivariate statistics and computational linguistics to probe directly the dynamic patterns of neural activity, over bilateral fronto-temporal and parietal cortices, that are elicited by spoken words and sentences. Combined MEG + EEG imaging, linked to parallel fMRI studies, capture the real-time electrophysiological activity of the brain. Representational Similarity Analysis (RSA) and related multivariate techniques make it possible to probe the different types of neural computation that support these dynamic processes of incremental interpretation. Computational linguistic analyses of language corpora allow us to build quantifiable models of different dimensions of language interpretation – from phonetics and phonology to argument structure and anaphora - and to test for their presence, using RSA, as the utterance unfolds in real time. By this means we aim to determine directly the nature of the intermediate processes involved in the transition from early perceptual processing through different representational states to the development of a meaningful representation of an utterance, the dynamic spatio-temporal relationship between these processes, and their evolution over time. Summary Understanding spoken language involves a complex set of processes that transform the auditory input into a meaningful interpretation. Our percept is not of acoustic-phonetic detail but of the speaker’s intended meaning. This effortless transition occurs on millisecond timescales, with remarkable speed and accuracy, and without any awareness of the complex computations on which it depends. How is this achieved? What are the processes and representations that support the transition from sound to meaning, and what are the neurobiological systems in which they are instantiated? In this proposal, we combine advanced techniques from neuroimaging, multivariate statistics and computational linguistics to probe directly the dynamic patterns of neural activity, over bilateral fronto-temporal and parietal cortices, that are elicited by spoken words and sentences. Combined MEG + EEG imaging, linked to parallel fMRI studies, capture the real-time electrophysiological activity of the brain. Representational Similarity Analysis (RSA) and related multivariate techniques make it possible to probe the different types of neural computation that support these dynamic processes of incremental interpretation. Computational linguistic analyses of language corpora allow us to build quantifiable models of different dimensions of language interpretation – from phonetics and phonology to argument structure and anaphora - and to test for their presence, using RSA, as the utterance unfolds in real time. By this means we aim to determine directly the nature of the intermediate processes involved in the transition from early perceptual processing through different representational states to the development of a meaningful representation of an utterance, the dynamic spatio-temporal relationship between these processes, and their evolution over time. Max ERC Funding 2 185 856 € Duration Start date: 2015-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30 Project acronym LANGELIN Project Meeting Darwin's last challenge: toward a global tree of human languages and genes Researcher (PI) Giuseppe Longobardi Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF YORK Country United Kingdom Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2011-ADG_20110406 Summary Beyond its theoretical impact, the rise of molecular biology has brought about great progress also in the historical classification of species and populations. Sokal (1988) and Cavalli Sforza et. al. (1988, 1994) advocated a correspondence between some proposed language families and classical genetic markers, i.e. between biological evolution and transmission of cultural traits (languages), in agreement with Darwin’s (1859) prediction of an eventual isomorphy between trees of languages and populations. Their conclusions were variously criticised, and are especially undermined by the weakness of available language classification methods, mainly based on lexical (in a broad sense) material: these are either too narrow in scope (classical method) or probabilistically unreliable (Greenberg’s mass comparison) to provide solid long-range taxonomies to be matched against those of geneticists. We will address such issues with a radically new comparative method (Longobardi and Guardiano 2009) based entirely on grammatical evidence and on recent theoretical advances in formal and typological linguistics. The method ensures unprecedented standards of testability/replicability and can measure linguistic distances between even remote populations. Linguists and biologists will for the first time jointly select the populations most significant from either perspective for language/gene sampling. We will also adopt the newest powerful genetic tools of the last decade, both in terms of data (genome-wide studies of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, including uniparentally transmitted markers of the Y chromosome and of mitochondrial DNA) and of biostatistical methods to describe DNA diversity and interpret its relationships to linguistic diversity. Summary Beyond its theoretical impact, the rise of molecular biology has brought about great progress also in the historical classification of species and populations. Sokal (1988) and Cavalli Sforza et. al. (1988, 1994) advocated a correspondence between some proposed language families and classical genetic markers, i.e. between biological evolution and transmission of cultural traits (languages), in agreement with Darwin’s (1859) prediction of an eventual isomorphy between trees of languages and populations. Their conclusions were variously criticised, and are especially undermined by the weakness of available language classification methods, mainly based on lexical (in a broad sense) material: these are either too narrow in scope (classical method) or probabilistically unreliable (Greenberg’s mass comparison) to provide solid long-range taxonomies to be matched against those of geneticists. We will address such issues with a radically new comparative method (Longobardi and Guardiano 2009) based entirely on grammatical evidence and on recent theoretical advances in formal and typological linguistics. The method ensures unprecedented standards of testability/replicability and can measure linguistic distances between even remote populations. Linguists and biologists will for the first time jointly select the populations most significant from either perspective for language/gene sampling. We will also adopt the newest powerful genetic tools of the last decade, both in terms of data (genome-wide studies of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, including uniparentally transmitted markers of the Y chromosome and of mitochondrial DNA) and of biostatistical methods to describe DNA diversity and interpret its relationships to linguistic diversity. Max ERC Funding 3 483 590 € Duration Start date: 2012-12-01, End date: 2018-11-30 Project acronym LANGUAGE IN OUR HAND Project Language in our hand: The role of modality in shaping spatial language development in deaf and hearing children Researcher (PI) Asli Ozyurek-Hagoort Host Institution (HI) STICHTING RADBOUD UNIVERSITEIT Country Netherlands Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2009-StG Summary The world's languages differ substantially from each other. Yet, all children learn the language(s) they are born into quite easily. A major scientific question in language has been to what extent follows a universal trajectory based on an innate design for language, and to what extent it is shaped by specific properties of the language that is being learned. By comparing the acquisition of a spoken language with a language that uses a visuo-spatial format, namely signed languages, a unique window of opportunity is created for investigating this fundamental question. Compared to spoken languages, signed languages represent spatial relations in an analogue way rather than arbitrarily. The proposed study will use a novel approach to investigate whether these differences influence the trajectory of how deaf versus hearing children learn to express spatial relations in their native languages (i.e., Turkish Sign Language versus Turkish). Spatial language development of deaf children will be compared with spoken language development as well as to the co-speech gestures of hearing children as the first time. Thus the proposed study will bring together state-of-the-art research in language acquisition, sign language, and gesture studies in a unique and ground-breaking way. Furthermore gathering data on acquisition of less studied and typologically different signed and spoken languages is critical to test some of previous research results based on Western languages. Due to spread use of cochlear implants fewer deaf children learn sign languages in European countries. The context in Turkey provides an unprecedented opportunity to conduct such a study with many participants before cochlear implants are also widespread in Turkey. Summary The world's languages differ substantially from each other. Yet, all children learn the language(s) they are born into quite easily. A major scientific question in language has been to what extent follows a universal trajectory based on an innate design for language, and to what extent it is shaped by specific properties of the language that is being learned. By comparing the acquisition of a spoken language with a language that uses a visuo-spatial format, namely signed languages, a unique window of opportunity is created for investigating this fundamental question. Compared to spoken languages, signed languages represent spatial relations in an analogue way rather than arbitrarily. The proposed study will use a novel approach to investigate whether these differences influence the trajectory of how deaf versus hearing children learn to express spatial relations in their native languages (i.e., Turkish Sign Language versus Turkish). Spatial language development of deaf children will be compared with spoken language development as well as to the co-speech gestures of hearing children as the first time. Thus the proposed study will bring together state-of-the-art research in language acquisition, sign language, and gesture studies in a unique and ground-breaking way. Furthermore gathering data on acquisition of less studied and typologically different signed and spoken languages is critical to test some of previous research results based on Western languages. Due to spread use of cochlear implants fewer deaf children learn sign languages in European countries. The context in Turkey provides an unprecedented opportunity to conduct such a study with many participants before cochlear implants are also widespread in Turkey. Max ERC Funding 1 159 000 € Duration Start date: 2010-01-01, End date: 2014-12-31 Project acronym LATIN INTO HEBREW Project Latin Philosophy into Hebrew: Intercultural Networks in 13th and 14th Century Europe Researcher (PI) Alexander Fidora Riera Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA Country Spain Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2007-StG Summary The intercultural networks between Arabic, Christian and Jewish communities of learning during the Middle Ages have played a decisive role in the evolution of Western thought and have helped to shape the European identity. Until now, scholarly research has focused almost exclusively on the transmission of Arabic philosophy and science into Latin. The influence of Latin texts on Jewish thought has been largely neglected. The goal of this project is to study how Latin-Christian texts written at Toledo were received in the Jewish tradition of the 13th and 14th centuries, and to draw an intellectual topography of the intercultural and interreligious networks that extended across Europe. The work will involve the philosophical analysis of various texts together with their translations and reception, showing how the networks between the different religious communities in the Mediterranean can be understood as an attempt to work on a shared philosophical tradition. This tradition provided a common and continuous medium for dialogue between the faiths, based upon a commitment to philosophical reason. Our approach will be combined with historical and philological research on the conditions and methods of transmission and translation of Latin texts into Hebrew. In addition, the project aims at editing and translating some of the Hebrew texts of reference. The project is only possible in a trans-disciplinary research group, for it requires philosophical, historical and philological skills as well as a high degree of familiarity with the different traditions involved. Summary The intercultural networks between Arabic, Christian and Jewish communities of learning during the Middle Ages have played a decisive role in the evolution of Western thought and have helped to shape the European identity. Until now, scholarly research has focused almost exclusively on the transmission of Arabic philosophy and science into Latin. The influence of Latin texts on Jewish thought has been largely neglected. The goal of this project is to study how Latin-Christian texts written at Toledo were received in the Jewish tradition of the 13th and 14th centuries, and to draw an intellectual topography of the intercultural and interreligious networks that extended across Europe. The work will involve the philosophical analysis of various texts together with their translations and reception, showing how the networks between the different religious communities in the Mediterranean can be understood as an attempt to work on a shared philosophical tradition. This tradition provided a common and continuous medium for dialogue between the faiths, based upon a commitment to philosophical reason. Our approach will be combined with historical and philological research on the conditions and methods of transmission and translation of Latin texts into Hebrew. In addition, the project aims at editing and translating some of the Hebrew texts of reference. The project is only possible in a trans-disciplinary research group, for it requires philosophical, historical and philological skills as well as a high degree of familiarity with the different traditions involved. Max ERC Funding 511 574 € Duration Start date: 2008-09-01, End date: 2012-02-29
Project acronym LEARNATTEND Project What to expect when you are not expecting it: How implicit regularities drive attentional selection Researcher (PI) Johannes Leonardus THEEUWES Host Institution (HI) STICHTING VU Country Netherlands Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2018-ADG Summary "Extracting statistical regularities from the environment is one of the most fundamental abilities of any living organism. This type of learning is largely unconscious, unintentional, and implicit; it runs ""in the background"", both seeking and giving structure to the world around us; making it coherent, predictable and quickly manageable. Even though a lot is known about how statistical learning affects language acquisition, object recognition, motor learning, and decision making, only recently it became apparent that it plays a key role in attentional selection. Visual perception must be selective, as we are confronted with the massive amount of available sensory input. Statistical learning occurring often beneath the level of awareness provides structure to the environment uncovering the relations between objects in space and time. The proposed research program investigates the mechanisms underlying visual statistical learning (VSL) focusing on how, when and what information is extracted by the visual system. Through brain imaging we seek to understand how learning taking place in the medial temporal lobe (hippocampus), affects attentional representations within putative priority maps across the visual hierarchy. By means of EEG, we seek to connect hippocampal activity to the activations within the spatial priority map which ultimately controls attentional selection. By means of single cell recording in humans we determine at a cell level how statistical learning develops over time. To understand the mechanism, we analyse individual differences in VSL and relate this to visual working memory capacity and attentional selection in psychopathy. The proposed research will have a large impact on the study of cognition, learning, and memory. " Summary "Extracting statistical regularities from the environment is one of the most fundamental abilities of any living organism. This type of learning is largely unconscious, unintentional, and implicit; it runs ""in the background"", both seeking and giving structure to the world around us; making it coherent, predictable and quickly manageable. Even though a lot is known about how statistical learning affects language acquisition, object recognition, motor learning, and decision making, only recently it became apparent that it plays a key role in attentional selection. Visual perception must be selective, as we are confronted with the massive amount of available sensory input. Statistical learning occurring often beneath the level of awareness provides structure to the environment uncovering the relations between objects in space and time. The proposed research program investigates the mechanisms underlying visual statistical learning (VSL) focusing on how, when and what information is extracted by the visual system. Through brain imaging we seek to understand how learning taking place in the medial temporal lobe (hippocampus), affects attentional representations within putative priority maps across the visual hierarchy. By means of EEG, we seek to connect hippocampal activity to the activations within the spatial priority map which ultimately controls attentional selection. By means of single cell recording in humans we determine at a cell level how statistical learning develops over time. To understand the mechanism, we analyse individual differences in VSL and relate this to visual working memory capacity and attentional selection in psychopathy. The proposed research will have a large impact on the study of cognition, learning, and memory. " Max ERC Funding 2 499 875 € Duration Start date: 2020-01-01, End date: 2024-12-31 Project acronym LEARNING&ACHIEVEMENT Project Cognitive and Biological Factors of Mathematical Learning and Achievement Researcher (PI) Roi Cohen Kadosh Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Country United Kingdom Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2013-StG Summary Mathematical competence is essential for an individual’s functioning in society and for societal prosperity and progress in general. Crucially, the specific cognitive and biological factors that determine high, average, or low mathematical achievement are still poorly understood. The current project aims to address this gap by examining the link between mathematical achievement (cognitive factors) and brain indices (biological factors) across the developmental trajectory and for different competency levels. Specifically, the projects objectives are: 1) identify the critical cognitive and biological components, as well as the dynamic developmental sequence, necessary for the normal development of mathematical abilities; 2) unravel the cognitive and biological factors that contribute to and/or restrict neuroplasticity in mathematical learning. This knowledge may be used in the future to improve prevention, identification, and classification of children with impaired numeracy such as developmental dyscalculia; and 3) develop and test well-defined, evidence-based methods for improving mathematical learning. In addition, one of the objectives of the proposed project is to provide experimental knowledge that will have high ecological validity, by examining mathematical learning and achievement while subjects are studying in a classroom setting. I will use an innovative multimethod approach that integrates cognitive and developmental psychology together with neuromodulation, neurophysiology, and neurochemistry, which will provide a comprehensive understanding of the cognitive and brain bases of mathematical learning and cognition. While such knowledge will offer substantive advances for the fields of psychology, education, and neuroscience, it also has broad societal implications, as the high ecological validity provides insights in translational approaches for improving the lives of children and adults with low mathematical abilities. Summary Mathematical competence is essential for an individual’s functioning in society and for societal prosperity and progress in general. Crucially, the specific cognitive and biological factors that determine high, average, or low mathematical achievement are still poorly understood. The current project aims to address this gap by examining the link between mathematical achievement (cognitive factors) and brain indices (biological factors) across the developmental trajectory and for different competency levels. Specifically, the projects objectives are: 1) identify the critical cognitive and biological components, as well as the dynamic developmental sequence, necessary for the normal development of mathematical abilities; 2) unravel the cognitive and biological factors that contribute to and/or restrict neuroplasticity in mathematical learning. This knowledge may be used in the future to improve prevention, identification, and classification of children with impaired numeracy such as developmental dyscalculia; and 3) develop and test well-defined, evidence-based methods for improving mathematical learning. In addition, one of the objectives of the proposed project is to provide experimental knowledge that will have high ecological validity, by examining mathematical learning and achievement while subjects are studying in a classroom setting. I will use an innovative multimethod approach that integrates cognitive and developmental psychology together with neuromodulation, neurophysiology, and neurochemistry, which will provide a comprehensive understanding of the cognitive and brain bases of mathematical learning and cognition. While such knowledge will offer substantive advances for the fields of psychology, education, and neuroscience, it also has broad societal implications, as the high ecological validity provides insights in translational approaches for improving the lives of children and adults with low mathematical abilities. Max ERC Funding 1 999 859 € Duration Start date: 2014-05-01, End date: 2020-04-30 Project acronym LEX-MEA Project Life EXperience Modulations of Executive function Asymmetries Researcher (PI) Antonino Vallesi Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA Country Italy Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124 Summary Executive functions are a set of cognitive processes underlying goal-directed behaviour. Two crucial executive functions are criterion-setting, the ability to form new rules, and monitoring, the capacity to evaluate whether those rules are being applied correctly. They differentially engage left and right prefrontal regions. Determining the impact of experience on these key functions will help understand individual differences and, crucially, reveal the available degrees of freedom for active intervention in case of decline or deficit. The central goal of LEX-MEA proposal is to unveil which neural and experiential factors shape these high-level functions across the life-span. The specific aim of the proposal is threefold. First, by using a multimodal neuroimaging approach, it will unveil how prefrontal hemispheric asymmetries underlying executive functions change depending on the task context, and whether this division of labour is advantageous. Second, it will study how significant real-life experiences, such as practicing a skill that entails a specific executive function, modulate these functions and their neural underpinning. We will target 2 groups of professionals, simultaneous translators and air traffic controllers, who make extensive use of criterion-setting and monitoring, respectively, to test whether, in different stages of skill acquisition, they show a generalized benefit for the specific executive function trained. Third, we will test whether having practiced a skill requiring a certain executive function throughout life constitutes a compensatory factor against cognitive aging. The ultimate objective is to lay the cognitive and neural foundation for a full understanding of these extraordinary abilities not only in normal conditions but also in diverse diseases and to boost particular executive functions with tailored, theory-guided training programs. Summary Executive functions are a set of cognitive processes underlying goal-directed behaviour. Two crucial executive functions are criterion-setting, the ability to form new rules, and monitoring, the capacity to evaluate whether those rules are being applied correctly. They differentially engage left and right prefrontal regions. Determining the impact of experience on these key functions will help understand individual differences and, crucially, reveal the available degrees of freedom for active intervention in case of decline or deficit. The central goal of LEX-MEA proposal is to unveil which neural and experiential factors shape these high-level functions across the life-span. The specific aim of the proposal is threefold. First, by using a multimodal neuroimaging approach, it will unveil how prefrontal hemispheric asymmetries underlying executive functions change depending on the task context, and whether this division of labour is advantageous. Second, it will study how significant real-life experiences, such as practicing a skill that entails a specific executive function, modulate these functions and their neural underpinning. We will target 2 groups of professionals, simultaneous translators and air traffic controllers, who make extensive use of criterion-setting and monitoring, respectively, to test whether, in different stages of skill acquisition, they show a generalized benefit for the specific executive function trained. Third, we will test whether having practiced a skill requiring a certain executive function throughout life constitutes a compensatory factor against cognitive aging. The ultimate objective is to lay the cognitive and neural foundation for a full understanding of these extraordinary abilities not only in normal conditions but also in diverse diseases and to boost particular executive functions with tailored, theory-guided training programs. Max ERC Funding 1 475 950 € Duration Start date: 2013-03-01, End date: 2018-02-28 Project acronym LexsemLexcat Project The lexical semantics of lexical categories Researcher (PI) Andrew J KOONTZ-GARBODEN Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER Country United Kingdom Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2017-COG Summary The distinction between the major lexical categories of noun, verb and adjective figures into myriad linguistic generalizations and has been a center of gravity in the study of language since antiquity. Notwithstanding their importance, lexical categories are poorly understood (see e.g., Baker & Croft 2017). Outstanding is whether there are generalizations about the meanings words in the major categories have. Many have claimed there are, and proposed theories linking meaning and category, in a one to one fashion. Such theories have been criticized, however, in light of clear counterexamples, and consequently the search for a universal link between meaning and category is perceived by many to have been unsuccessful (see von Fintel & Matthewson 2008). This project recasts the search for a link, in the spirit of recent work (Francez & Koontz-Garboden 2017: Chapter 5), not as one for a one-to-one mapping, but for constraints on meaning induced by category. The project targets a domain where the set of relevant meanings is small, but where there is variation in category: property concept sentences—sentences like (1) He is very clever, whose main predicate is an adjective or, (2) akwai shi da waayoo `He is very clever (lit: He exists with cleverness; Hausa; Newman 2000:179)', whose main predicate is not an adjective, but is translated by a sentence whose main predicate is an adjective in languages with a large class of them. Although (1) and (2) have the same meaning, their component parts do not. Recent work shows that the words in property concept sentences that introduce the descriptive content (clever in (1), waayoo (2))--property concept words--vary in meaning, not just in category (Dixon 1982). With three postdocs, this project draws on a 200 language typological survey and in-depth fieldwork to examine the crossclassification of meaning and category in property concept words to shed light on the semantic nature of nouns, verbs, and adjectives generally. Summary The distinction between the major lexical categories of noun, verb and adjective figures into myriad linguistic generalizations and has been a center of gravity in the study of language since antiquity. Notwithstanding their importance, lexical categories are poorly understood (see e.g., Baker & Croft 2017). Outstanding is whether there are generalizations about the meanings words in the major categories have. Many have claimed there are, and proposed theories linking meaning and category, in a one to one fashion. Such theories have been criticized, however, in light of clear counterexamples, and consequently the search for a universal link between meaning and category is perceived by many to have been unsuccessful (see von Fintel & Matthewson 2008). This project recasts the search for a link, in the spirit of recent work (Francez & Koontz-Garboden 2017: Chapter 5), not as one for a one-to-one mapping, but for constraints on meaning induced by category. The project targets a domain where the set of relevant meanings is small, but where there is variation in category: property concept sentences—sentences like (1) He is very clever, whose main predicate is an adjective or, (2) akwai shi da waayoo `He is very clever (lit: He exists with cleverness; Hausa; Newman 2000:179)', whose main predicate is not an adjective, but is translated by a sentence whose main predicate is an adjective in languages with a large class of them. Although (1) and (2) have the same meaning, their component parts do not. Recent work shows that the words in property concept sentences that introduce the descriptive content (clever in (1), waayoo (2))--property concept words--vary in meaning, not just in category (Dixon 1982). With three postdocs, this project draws on a 200 language typological survey and in-depth fieldwork to examine the crossclassification of meaning and category in property concept words to shed light on the semantic nature of nouns, verbs, and adjectives generally. Max ERC Funding 1 993 869 € Duration Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31 Project acronym LIFEMODE Project Possible Life: The Philosophical Significance of Extending Biology Researcher (PI) Tarja Tellervo Knuuttila Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT WIEN Country Austria Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2018-COG Summary Possible Life: The Philosophical Significance of Extending Biology Due to the latest technological advances in genetic engineering and space technology, scientists have developed strategies to engineer novel biological systems in laboratories, and to study through space telescopes the signs of possible life from other planets and solar systems. These newly discovered biological possibilities may turn out to be epoch-making. Apart from challenging our notion of life, they also have fundamental philosophical implications. The very question motivating the project is: How is biology being extended beyond the actual evolved life on Earth – and what is the philosophical significance of the turn to possible life? This question is studied through a two-pronged approach that puts scientific practice into a dialogue with philosophy of science and naturalistic metaphysics. First, the project examines the emerging fields of synthetic biology and astrobiology. The key themes studied include unnatural biochemical bases and organizational principles of life, synthetic life, evolutionary possibilities and constraints, and the habitability of exoplanets. Empirical studies in six leading laboratories in Europe and the US are used to inform the study of these themes. Second, the research on possible life is employed as a resource for the development of philosophical theory. The three philosophical subprojects examine (i) modelling and simulating the possible, (ii) multiple realizability of biological kinds, and (iii) contingency and necessity in biology. The project will advance our understanding of the modal dimension of science by addressing a paramount case – life. The project draws together and develops diverse strands in theorizing of the possible within philosophy of science and metaphysics. Through an unconventional combination of philosophical and empirical analysis the project seeks to facilitate the application of metaphysical concepts to cutting-edge scientific research. Summary Possible Life: The Philosophical Significance of Extending Biology Due to the latest technological advances in genetic engineering and space technology, scientists have developed strategies to engineer novel biological systems in laboratories, and to study through space telescopes the signs of possible life from other planets and solar systems. These newly discovered biological possibilities may turn out to be epoch-making. Apart from challenging our notion of life, they also have fundamental philosophical implications. The very question motivating the project is: How is biology being extended beyond the actual evolved life on Earth – and what is the philosophical significance of the turn to possible life? This question is studied through a two-pronged approach that puts scientific practice into a dialogue with philosophy of science and naturalistic metaphysics. First, the project examines the emerging fields of synthetic biology and astrobiology. The key themes studied include unnatural biochemical bases and organizational principles of life, synthetic life, evolutionary possibilities and constraints, and the habitability of exoplanets. Empirical studies in six leading laboratories in Europe and the US are used to inform the study of these themes. Second, the research on possible life is employed as a resource for the development of philosophical theory. The three philosophical subprojects examine (i) modelling and simulating the possible, (ii) multiple realizability of biological kinds, and (iii) contingency and necessity in biology. The project will advance our understanding of the modal dimension of science by addressing a paramount case – life. The project draws together and develops diverse strands in theorizing of the possible within philosophy of science and metaphysics. Through an unconventional combination of philosophical and empirical analysis the project seeks to facilitate the application of metaphysical concepts to cutting-edge scientific research. Max ERC Funding 1 999 566 € Duration Start date: 2019-06-01, End date: 2024-05-31 Project acronym LIGHTUP Project Turning the cortically blind brain to see: from neural computations to system dynamicsgenerating visual awareness in humans and monkeys Researcher (PI) Marco TAMIETTO Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TORINO Country Italy Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2017-COG Summary Visual awareness affords flexibility and experiential richness, and its loss following brain damage has devastating effects. However, patients with blindness following cortical damage may retain visual functions, despite visual awareness is lacking (blindsight). But, how can we translate non-conscious visual abilities into conscious ones after damage to the visual cortex? To place our understanding of visual awareness on firm neurobiological and mechanistic bases, I propose to integrate human and monkey neuroscience. Next, I will translate this wisdom into evidence-based clinical intervention. First, LIGHTUP will apply computational neuroimaging methods at the micro-scale level, estimating population receptive fields in humans and monkeys. This will enable analyzing fMRI signal similar to the way tuning properties are studied in neurophysiology, and to clarify how brain areas translate visual properties into responses associated with awareness. Second, LIGHTUP leverages a behavioural paradigm that can dissociate nonconscious visual abilities from awareness in monkeys, thus offering a refined animal model of visual awareness. Applying behavioural-Dynamic Causal Modelling to combine fMRI and behavioral data, LIGHTUP will build up a Bayesian framework that specifies the directionality of information flow in the interactions across distant brain areas, and their causal role in generating visual awareness. In the third part, I will devise a rehabilitation protocol that combines brain stimulation and visual training to promote the (re)emergence of lost visual awareness. LIGHTUP will exploit non-invasive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in a novel protocol that enables stimulation of complex cortical circuits and selection of the direction of connectivity that is enhanced. This associative stimulation has been proven to induce Hebbian plasticity, and we have piloted its effects in fostering visual awareness in association with visual restoration training. Summary Visual awareness affords flexibility and experiential richness, and its loss following brain damage has devastating effects. However, patients with blindness following cortical damage may retain visual functions, despite visual awareness is lacking (blindsight). But, how can we translate non-conscious visual abilities into conscious ones after damage to the visual cortex? To place our understanding of visual awareness on firm neurobiological and mechanistic bases, I propose to integrate human and monkey neuroscience. Next, I will translate this wisdom into evidence-based clinical intervention. First, LIGHTUP will apply computational neuroimaging methods at the micro-scale level, estimating population receptive fields in humans and monkeys. This will enable analyzing fMRI signal similar to the way tuning properties are studied in neurophysiology, and to clarify how brain areas translate visual properties into responses associated with awareness. Second, LIGHTUP leverages a behavioural paradigm that can dissociate nonconscious visual abilities from awareness in monkeys, thus offering a refined animal model of visual awareness. Applying behavioural-Dynamic Causal Modelling to combine fMRI and behavioral data, LIGHTUP will build up a Bayesian framework that specifies the directionality of information flow in the interactions across distant brain areas, and their causal role in generating visual awareness. In the third part, I will devise a rehabilitation protocol that combines brain stimulation and visual training to promote the (re)emergence of lost visual awareness. LIGHTUP will exploit non-invasive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in a novel protocol that enables stimulation of complex cortical circuits and selection of the direction of connectivity that is enhanced. This associative stimulation has been proven to induce Hebbian plasticity, and we have piloted its effects in fostering visual awareness in association with visual restoration training. Max ERC Funding 1 994 212 € Duration Start date: 2018-08-01, End date: 2023-07-31 Project acronym LINGUINDIC Project Linguistics from India: new ideas for modern linguistics from ancient India Researcher (PI) John LOWE Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Country United Kingdom Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2019-STG Summary This project aims to synthesize expertise and insights from the fields of ancient Indian and modern Western linguistics, to enable deeper understanding and innovation in linguistic theory. An extensive and highly sophisticated linguistic tradition flourished in ancient India between c. 500 BC and 1700 AD. Panini’s grammar the Astadhyayi is often recognized by generative linguists as the earliest generative grammar ever developed, more than 2000 years before Chomsky. Yet beyond this recognition, modern Western linguistics has very little knowledge of the millennia of linguistic insights and analyses developed in India. In the context of the academic enterprise - building on the achievements of our predecessors to advance human knowledge and understanding - this ignorance is a hindrance to the progress of linguistic science. The aims of this project are: 1. To systematically explore and analyse the neglected riches of ancient Indian linguistic thought; 2. To uncover lost linguistic insights and analyses; 3. To build on these insights to create innovative approaches to contemporary issues in modern Western linguistics. The project will focus on ancient Indian contributions to linguistic thought in three broad areas: morphosyntax and formal language systems, semantics/pragmatics and the philosophy of language, and phonetics/phonology. In all three fields ancient Indian analyses provide new perspectives which challenge standard assumptions of modern Western linguistics. This project will bring together expertise in modern linguistics and the ancient Indian linguistic tradition, enabling innovative interactions between traditions. This project is challenging, but the potential rewards for modern linguistics are significant. This project aims to be paradigm changing, redefining modern linguistics as a field which can and does draw and build on three thousand years of academic insights, rather than drawing merely on two hundred years of linguistic work in the West. Summary This project aims to synthesize expertise and insights from the fields of ancient Indian and modern Western linguistics, to enable deeper understanding and innovation in linguistic theory. An extensive and highly sophisticated linguistic tradition flourished in ancient India between c. 500 BC and 1700 AD. Panini’s grammar the Astadhyayi is often recognized by generative linguists as the earliest generative grammar ever developed, more than 2000 years before Chomsky. Yet beyond this recognition, modern Western linguistics has very little knowledge of the millennia of linguistic insights and analyses developed in India. In the context of the academic enterprise - building on the achievements of our predecessors to advance human knowledge and understanding - this ignorance is a hindrance to the progress of linguistic science. The aims of this project are: 1. To systematically explore and analyse the neglected riches of ancient Indian linguistic thought; 2. To uncover lost linguistic insights and analyses; 3. To build on these insights to create innovative approaches to contemporary issues in modern Western linguistics. The project will focus on ancient Indian contributions to linguistic thought in three broad areas: morphosyntax and formal language systems, semantics/pragmatics and the philosophy of language, and phonetics/phonology. In all three fields ancient Indian analyses provide new perspectives which challenge standard assumptions of modern Western linguistics. This project will bring together expertise in modern linguistics and the ancient Indian linguistic tradition, enabling innovative interactions between traditions. This project is challenging, but the potential rewards for modern linguistics are significant. This project aims to be paradigm changing, redefining modern linguistics as a field which can and does draw and build on three thousand years of academic insights, rather than drawing merely on two hundred years of linguistic work in the West. Max ERC Funding 1 499 440 € Duration Start date: 2020-09-01, End date: 2025-08-31 Project acronym LIPS Project Lexical information processes and their spatio-temporal dynamics Researcher (PI) Francois Xavier Alario Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS Country France Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2010-StG_20091209 Summary Adult speakers of a language know several tens of thousands of words. Unless they suffer from some neurological disorders, those words can be readily used on a daily basis. This is done by retrieving lexical information from long term memory, and selecting its most relevant aspects. Cognitive models of word selection distinguish stages of processing concerned with semantic, lexical, and form properties of the words. Contrastive hypothesis have been considered to describe how appropriate lexical items are uniquely identified among all known words. Various sections of temporal cortex are known to play a prominent role in lexico-semantic processing, whereas frontal cortex is known to act as a controller of memory retrieval. More specifically, posterior left lateral and medial areas are capable to detect and resolve conflict among candidate words in cases where uncertainty arises. Despite detailed accounts, current descriptions of lexical information processes are rather static. Discussions of cognitive processing models have often been framed on structural, rather than dynamical, arguments. In addition, a vast majority of studies characterizing lexical information processing are based on low temporal resolution brain imaging techniques. The main objective of this project is to go beyond these descriptions by characterizing the spatio-temporal dynamics of word selection processes. The evidence will come from electro-encephalographic (EEG) and magneto-encephalographic (MEG) recordings of brain activity elicited in well-defined cognitive tasks. Innovative temporal pre-processes should allow discriminating brain activity from articulation artefacts. The evidence will also come from intra-cranial event related potentials, recorded in patients suffering from pharmaco-resistant forms of frontal and temporal lobe epilepsy. These data have high spatial and temporal resolution, and will provide strong constrains on lexical information processing models. A description of the dynamic interactions between brain regions during word selection will change the way we think about this basic behaviour. Besides this intrinsic interest, word selection provides a very natural way to connect relatively simple decision processes (e.g. those engaged in basic visuo-motor tasks) with more integrative processes involved in information retrieval from long term memory. Better understanding the spatio-temporal dynamics of lexical information processes will also be highly valuable for improving pre-surgical evaluation procedures in pharmaco-resistant epilepsy. Summary Adult speakers of a language know several tens of thousands of words. Unless they suffer from some neurological disorders, those words can be readily used on a daily basis. This is done by retrieving lexical information from long term memory, and selecting its most relevant aspects. Cognitive models of word selection distinguish stages of processing concerned with semantic, lexical, and form properties of the words. Contrastive hypothesis have been considered to describe how appropriate lexical items are uniquely identified among all known words. Various sections of temporal cortex are known to play a prominent role in lexico-semantic processing, whereas frontal cortex is known to act as a controller of memory retrieval. More specifically, posterior left lateral and medial areas are capable to detect and resolve conflict among candidate words in cases where uncertainty arises. Despite detailed accounts, current descriptions of lexical information processes are rather static. Discussions of cognitive processing models have often been framed on structural, rather than dynamical, arguments. In addition, a vast majority of studies characterizing lexical information processing are based on low temporal resolution brain imaging techniques. The main objective of this project is to go beyond these descriptions by characterizing the spatio-temporal dynamics of word selection processes. The evidence will come from electro-encephalographic (EEG) and magneto-encephalographic (MEG) recordings of brain activity elicited in well-defined cognitive tasks. Innovative temporal pre-processes should allow discriminating brain activity from articulation artefacts. The evidence will also come from intra-cranial event related potentials, recorded in patients suffering from pharmaco-resistant forms of frontal and temporal lobe epilepsy. These data have high spatial and temporal resolution, and will provide strong constrains on lexical information processing models. A description of the dynamic interactions between brain regions during word selection will change the way we think about this basic behaviour. Besides this intrinsic interest, word selection provides a very natural way to connect relatively simple decision processes (e.g. those engaged in basic visuo-motor tasks) with more integrative processes involved in information retrieval from long term memory. Better understanding the spatio-temporal dynamics of lexical information processes will also be highly valuable for improving pre-surgical evaluation procedures in pharmaco-resistant epilepsy. Max ERC Funding 1 251 345 € Duration Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2016-03-31 Project acronym LoC Project The Logic of Conceivability: Modelling Rational Imagination with Non-Normal Modal Logics Researcher (PI) Francesco Berto Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY COURT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS Country United Kingdom Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2015-CoG Summary “The human imagination remains one of the last uncharted territories of the mind” - Ruth Byrne, The Rational Imagination Our mind represents non-actual scenarios to extract information from them. We cannot experience beforehand which situations are or will be actual. So we explore them in our imagination, leaving our perceptions offline: ‘What would happen if...?’. The cognitive importance of this activity is hardly overestimated. But what is its *logic*? The orthodox logical treatment of representational mental states comes from modal logic’s possible worlds semantics: the modal analysis of knowledge, belief, information, was taken up by philosophy, linguistics, and Artificial Intelligence. However, the approach faces major problems. By systematically addressing them, the Logic of Conceivability (LoC) project will yield a paradigm shift in our understanding of the logic of human imagination. One major purely logical problem is that mainstream epistemic logics model cognitive agents as logically omniscient, thus as disconnected from the reality of human, fallible minds. One major philosophical problem concerns the entailment from conceivability to so-called absolute possibility in ‘thought experiments’ of theoretical philosophy: how does conceiving a scenario give evidence of its possibility? LoC will address such issues via the techniques of non-classical logics with non-normal worlds semantics. It will make logically precise the distinction, taken from cognitive science, between Fast Thinking (associative, context-sensitive) and Slow Thinking (rule-based, analytic). It will show how omniscience is avoided, and evidence of absolute possibility is achieved, in different manners in the Fast and Slow Way. Based at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, and advised by a Board of researchers from Europe, the US, and Australia, LoC will deliver high-impact outputs in top journals, a book, and knowledge dissemination results for non-specialists. Summary “The human imagination remains one of the last uncharted territories of the mind” - Ruth Byrne, The Rational Imagination Our mind represents non-actual scenarios to extract information from them. We cannot experience beforehand which situations are or will be actual. So we explore them in our imagination, leaving our perceptions offline: ‘What would happen if...?’. The cognitive importance of this activity is hardly overestimated. But what is its *logic*? The orthodox logical treatment of representational mental states comes from modal logic’s possible worlds semantics: the modal analysis of knowledge, belief, information, was taken up by philosophy, linguistics, and Artificial Intelligence. However, the approach faces major problems. By systematically addressing them, the Logic of Conceivability (LoC) project will yield a paradigm shift in our understanding of the logic of human imagination. One major purely logical problem is that mainstream epistemic logics model cognitive agents as logically omniscient, thus as disconnected from the reality of human, fallible minds. One major philosophical problem concerns the entailment from conceivability to so-called absolute possibility in ‘thought experiments’ of theoretical philosophy: how does conceiving a scenario give evidence of its possibility? LoC will address such issues via the techniques of non-classical logics with non-normal worlds semantics. It will make logically precise the distinction, taken from cognitive science, between Fast Thinking (associative, context-sensitive) and Slow Thinking (rule-based, analytic). It will show how omniscience is avoided, and evidence of absolute possibility is achieved, in different manners in the Fast and Slow Way. Based at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, and advised by a Board of researchers from Europe, the US, and Australia, LoC will deliver high-impact outputs in top journals, a book, and knowledge dissemination results for non-specialists. Max ERC Funding 1 996 363 € Duration Start date: 2017-01-01, End date: 2022-06-30 Project acronym LOGICIC Project The Logical Structure of Correlated Information Change Researcher (PI) Sonja Jeannette Louisa Smets Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM Country Netherlands Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2011-StG_20101124 Summary The standard logical approaches to belief revision or scientific theory change assume either that the reality under investigation is static or at least that the ontic changes are un-correlated with the doxastic/epistemic change. But in numerous situations, the very act of learning new information may change the reality that is being learnt. Such situations were studied in Quantum Physics, Economics and Social Science, but have not been much investigated from the perspective of Philosophy of Science and the Logic of Theory Change. An example is the way in which an introspective agent changes her beliefs when learning new higher-order information, i.e. information that may refer to her own beliefs. A similar situation arises when a scientist learns about a phenomenon by performing measurements that perturb the very phenomenon under study. In Quantum Mechanics, this property that “observation causes perturbation” (the so-called observer effect) lies at the basis of most applications in quantum communication. We find similar examples in Psychology when a psychological test changes the very facts under investigation. More complex such scenarios of correlated information change occur in groups of communicating agents, whenever some agents’ knowledge about the others’ belief changes influence their own beliefs. What these examples have in common is that the very act of learning (individually or in group) can influence the results of learning, by changing the phenomena under study. In this project we develop a new unified logical setting to handle these different types of correlated information change in a multi-agent context. This setting is based on bringing together the insights and methods of Dynamic Epistemic Logic, Quantum Logic, Belief Revision Theory, Truth Approximation and Learning Theory. We plan to investigate applications of this setting to various areas of philosophy, ranging from social epistemology to philosophy of information and philosophy of science. Summary The standard logical approaches to belief revision or scientific theory change assume either that the reality under investigation is static or at least that the ontic changes are un-correlated with the doxastic/epistemic change. But in numerous situations, the very act of learning new information may change the reality that is being learnt. Such situations were studied in Quantum Physics, Economics and Social Science, but have not been much investigated from the perspective of Philosophy of Science and the Logic of Theory Change. An example is the way in which an introspective agent changes her beliefs when learning new higher-order information, i.e. information that may refer to her own beliefs. A similar situation arises when a scientist learns about a phenomenon by performing measurements that perturb the very phenomenon under study. In Quantum Mechanics, this property that “observation causes perturbation” (the so-called observer effect) lies at the basis of most applications in quantum communication. We find similar examples in Psychology when a psychological test changes the very facts under investigation. More complex such scenarios of correlated information change occur in groups of communicating agents, whenever some agents’ knowledge about the others’ belief changes influence their own beliefs. What these examples have in common is that the very act of learning (individually or in group) can influence the results of learning, by changing the phenomena under study. In this project we develop a new unified logical setting to handle these different types of correlated information change in a multi-agent context. This setting is based on bringing together the insights and methods of Dynamic Epistemic Logic, Quantum Logic, Belief Revision Theory, Truth Approximation and Learning Theory. We plan to investigate applications of this setting to various areas of philosophy, ranging from social epistemology to philosophy of information and philosophy of science. Max ERC Funding 1 380 650 € Duration Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31 Project acronym LOWLANDS Project Parsing low-resource languages and domains Researcher (PI) Anders Søgaard Host Institution (HI) KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET Country Denmark Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124 Summary There are noticeable asymmetries in availability of high-quality natural language processing (NLP). We can adequately summarize English newspapers and translate them into Korean, but we cannot translate Korean newspaper articles into English, and summarizing micro-blogs is much more difficult than summarizing newspaper articles. This is a fundamental problem for modern societies, their development and democracy, as well as perhaps the most important research problem in NLP right now. Most NLP technologies rely on highly accurate syntactic parsing. Reliable parsing models can be induced from large collections of manually annotated data, but such collections are typically limited to sampled newswire in major languages. Highly accurate parsing is therefore not available for other languages and other domains. The NLP community is well aware of this problem, but unsupervised techniques that do not rely on manually annotated data cannot be used for real-world applications, where highly accurate parsing is needed, and sample bias correction methods that automatically correct the bias in newswire when parsing, say, micro-blogs, do not yet lead to robust improvements across the board. The objective of this project is to develop new learning methods for parsing natural language for which no unbiased labeled data exists. In order to do so, we need to fundamentally rethink the unsupervised parsing problem, including how we evaluate unsupervised parsers, but we also need to supplement unsupervised learning techniques with robust methods for automatically correcting sample selection biases in related data. Such methods will be applicable to both cross-domain and cross-language syntactic parsing and will pave the way toward robust and scalable NLP. The societal impact of robust and scalable NLP is unforeseeable and comparable to how efficient information retrieval techniques have revolutionized modern societies. Summary There are noticeable asymmetries in availability of high-quality natural language processing (NLP). We can adequately summarize English newspapers and translate them into Korean, but we cannot translate Korean newspaper articles into English, and summarizing micro-blogs is much more difficult than summarizing newspaper articles. This is a fundamental problem for modern societies, their development and democracy, as well as perhaps the most important research problem in NLP right now. Most NLP technologies rely on highly accurate syntactic parsing. Reliable parsing models can be induced from large collections of manually annotated data, but such collections are typically limited to sampled newswire in major languages. Highly accurate parsing is therefore not available for other languages and other domains. The NLP community is well aware of this problem, but unsupervised techniques that do not rely on manually annotated data cannot be used for real-world applications, where highly accurate parsing is needed, and sample bias correction methods that automatically correct the bias in newswire when parsing, say, micro-blogs, do not yet lead to robust improvements across the board. The objective of this project is to develop new learning methods for parsing natural language for which no unbiased labeled data exists. In order to do so, we need to fundamentally rethink the unsupervised parsing problem, including how we evaluate unsupervised parsers, but we also need to supplement unsupervised learning techniques with robust methods for automatically correcting sample selection biases in related data. Such methods will be applicable to both cross-domain and cross-language syntactic parsing and will pave the way toward robust and scalable NLP. The societal impact of robust and scalable NLP is unforeseeable and comparable to how efficient information retrieval techniques have revolutionized modern societies. Max ERC Funding 1 126 183 € Duration Start date: 2013-01-01, End date: 2018-03-31 Project acronym M and M Project Generalization in Mind and Machine Researcher (PI) jeffrey BOWERS Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL Country United Kingdom Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2016-ADG Summary Is the human mind a symbolic computational device? This issue was at the core Chomsky’s critique of Skinner in the 1960s, and motivated the debates regarding Parallel Distributed Processing models developed in the 1980s. The recent successes of “deep” networks make this issue topical for psychology and neuroscience, and it raises the question of whether symbols are needed for artificial intelligence more generally. One of the innovations of the current project is to identify simple empirical phenomena that will serve a critical test-bed for both symbolic and non-symbolic neural networks. In order to make substantial progress on this issue a series of empirical and computational investigations are organised as follows. First, studies focus on tasks that, according to proponents of symbolic systems, require symbols for the sake of generalisation. Accordingly, if non-symbolic networks succeed, it would undermine one of the main motivations for symbolic systems. Second, studies focus on generalisation in tasks in which human performance is well characterised. Accordingly, the research will provide important constraints for theories of cognition across a range of domains, including vision, memory, and reasoning. Third, studies develop new learning algorithms designed to make symbolic systems biologically plausible. One of the reasons why symbolic networks are often dismissed is the claim that they are not as biologically plausible as non-symbolic models. This last ambition is the most high-risk but also potentially the most important: Introducing new computational principles may fundamentally advance our understanding of how the brain learns and computes, and furthermore, these principles may increase the computational powers of networks in ways that are important for engineering and artificial intelligence. Summary Is the human mind a symbolic computational device? This issue was at the core Chomsky’s critique of Skinner in the 1960s, and motivated the debates regarding Parallel Distributed Processing models developed in the 1980s. The recent successes of “deep” networks make this issue topical for psychology and neuroscience, and it raises the question of whether symbols are needed for artificial intelligence more generally. One of the innovations of the current project is to identify simple empirical phenomena that will serve a critical test-bed for both symbolic and non-symbolic neural networks. In order to make substantial progress on this issue a series of empirical and computational investigations are organised as follows. First, studies focus on tasks that, according to proponents of symbolic systems, require symbols for the sake of generalisation. Accordingly, if non-symbolic networks succeed, it would undermine one of the main motivations for symbolic systems. Second, studies focus on generalisation in tasks in which human performance is well characterised. Accordingly, the research will provide important constraints for theories of cognition across a range of domains, including vision, memory, and reasoning. Third, studies develop new learning algorithms designed to make symbolic systems biologically plausible. One of the reasons why symbolic networks are often dismissed is the claim that they are not as biologically plausible as non-symbolic models. This last ambition is the most high-risk but also potentially the most important: Introducing new computational principles may fundamentally advance our understanding of how the brain learns and computes, and furthermore, these principles may increase the computational powers of networks in ways that are important for engineering and artificial intelligence. Max ERC Funding 2 495 578 € Duration Start date: 2017-09-01, End date: 2022-08-31 Project acronym M4 Project Memory Mechanisms in Man and Machine Researcher (PI) Simon Jonathan Thorpe Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS Country France Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2012-ADG_20120411 Summary "The project aims to validate a set of 10 provocative claims. 1) Humans can recognize visual and auditory stimuli that they have not experienced for decades. 2) Recognition is possible without ever reactivating the memory trace in the intervening period. 3) During memorization, sensory memory strength increases roughly linearly with the number of exposures. 4) A few tens of presentations can be enough to form a memory that can last a lifetime. 5) Attention-related oscillatory brain activity helps store memories efficiently. 6) Storing such very long-term memories involves the creation of highly selective ""Grandmother Cells"" that only fire if the original training stimulus is experienced again. 7) The neocortex contains large numbers of totally silent cells (""Neocortical Dark Matter"") that constitute the long-term memory store. 8) Grandmother Cells can be produced using simple spiking neural network models including Spike-Time Dependent Plasticity (STDP) and competitive inhibitory lateral connections. 9) This selectivity only requires binary synaptic weights that are either ""on"" or ""off"", greatly simplifying the problem of maintaining the memory over long periods. 10) Artificial systems using memristor-like devices can implement the same principles, allowing the development of powerful new processing architectures that could replace conventional computing hardware. We will test these claims with a highly interdisciplinary approach involving psychology, neuroscience, computational modeling and hardware development. Novel experimental paradigms will study the formation and maintenance of very long term sensory memories. They will be combined with imaging techniques including fMRI imaging, EEG recording, and intracerebral recording from epileptic patients. In parallel, computer simulations using networks of spiking neurons with Spike-Time Dependent Plasticity will model the experimental results, and develop bio-inspired hardware that mimics the brains memory systems." Summary "The project aims to validate a set of 10 provocative claims. 1) Humans can recognize visual and auditory stimuli that they have not experienced for decades. 2) Recognition is possible without ever reactivating the memory trace in the intervening period. 3) During memorization, sensory memory strength increases roughly linearly with the number of exposures. 4) A few tens of presentations can be enough to form a memory that can last a lifetime. 5) Attention-related oscillatory brain activity helps store memories efficiently. 6) Storing such very long-term memories involves the creation of highly selective ""Grandmother Cells"" that only fire if the original training stimulus is experienced again. 7) The neocortex contains large numbers of totally silent cells (""Neocortical Dark Matter"") that constitute the long-term memory store. 8) Grandmother Cells can be produced using simple spiking neural network models including Spike-Time Dependent Plasticity (STDP) and competitive inhibitory lateral connections. 9) This selectivity only requires binary synaptic weights that are either ""on"" or ""off"", greatly simplifying the problem of maintaining the memory over long periods. 10) Artificial systems using memristor-like devices can implement the same principles, allowing the development of powerful new processing architectures that could replace conventional computing hardware. We will test these claims with a highly interdisciplinary approach involving psychology, neuroscience, computational modeling and hardware development. Novel experimental paradigms will study the formation and maintenance of very long term sensory memories. They will be combined with imaging techniques including fMRI imaging, EEG recording, and intracerebral recording from epileptic patients. In parallel, computer simulations using networks of spiking neurons with Spike-Time Dependent Plasticity will model the experimental results, and develop bio-inspired hardware that mimics the brains memory systems." Max ERC Funding 2 499 480 € Duration Start date: 2013-05-01, End date: 2019-04-30 Project acronym MADVIS Project Mapping the Deprived Visual System: Cracking function for prediction Researcher (PI) Olivier Marie-Claire Michel Ghislain Collignon Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN Country Belgium Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2013-StG Summary One of the most striking demonstrations of experience-dependent plasticity comes from studies of blind individuals showing that the occipital cortex (traditionally considered as purely visual) massively changes its functional tuning to support the processing of non-visual inputs. These mechanisms of crossmodal plasticity, classically considered compensatory, inevitably raise crucial challenges for sight-restoration. The neglected relation between crossmodal plasticity and sight-recovery will represent the testing ground of MADVIS in order to gain important novel insights on how specific brain regions become, stay and change their functional tuning toward the processing of specific stimuli. The main goal of MADVIS is therefore to make a breakthrough on two fronts: (1) understanding how visual deprivation at different sensitive periods in development affects the functional organization and connectivity of the occipital cortex; and (2) use the fundamental knowledge derived from (1) to test and predict the outcome of sight restoration. Using a pioneering interdisciplinary approach that crosses the boundaries between cognitive neurosciences and ophthalmology, MADVIS will have a large impact on our understanding of how experience at different sensitive periods shapes the response properties of specific brain regions. Finally, in its attempt to fill the existing gap between crossmodal reorganization and sight restoration, MADVIS will eventually pave the way for a new generation of predictive surveys prior to sensory restoration. Summary One of the most striking demonstrations of experience-dependent plasticity comes from studies of blind individuals showing that the occipital cortex (traditionally considered as purely visual) massively changes its functional tuning to support the processing of non-visual inputs. These mechanisms of crossmodal plasticity, classically considered compensatory, inevitably raise crucial challenges for sight-restoration. The neglected relation between crossmodal plasticity and sight-recovery will represent the testing ground of MADVIS in order to gain important novel insights on how specific brain regions become, stay and change their functional tuning toward the processing of specific stimuli. The main goal of MADVIS is therefore to make a breakthrough on two fronts: (1) understanding how visual deprivation at different sensitive periods in development affects the functional organization and connectivity of the occipital cortex; and (2) use the fundamental knowledge derived from (1) to test and predict the outcome of sight restoration. Using a pioneering interdisciplinary approach that crosses the boundaries between cognitive neurosciences and ophthalmology, MADVIS will have a large impact on our understanding of how experience at different sensitive periods shapes the response properties of specific brain regions. Finally, in its attempt to fill the existing gap between crossmodal reorganization and sight restoration, MADVIS will eventually pave the way for a new generation of predictive surveys prior to sensory restoration. Max ERC Funding 1 488 987 € Duration Start date: 2014-04-01, End date: 2019-03-31 Project acronym MatCo Project Material Constraints Enabling Human Cognition Researcher (PI) Friedemann PULVERMULLER Host Institution (HI) FREIE UNIVERSITAET BERLIN Country Germany Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2019-ADG Summary Recent breakthroughs in comparative neurobiological research highlight specific features of the connectivity structure of the human brain, which open new perspectives on understanding the neural mechanisms of human-specific higher cognition and language. In delineating the material basis of human cognition and language, neurobiologically founded modelling appears as the method of choice, as it allows not only for ‘external fitting’ of models to key experimental data, but, in addition, for ‘internal’ or ‘material fitting’ of the model components to the structure of brains, cortical areas and neuronal circuits. This novel research pathway offers biologically well-founded and computationally precise perspectives on addressing exciting hitherto unanswered fundamental questions: How can humans build vocabularies of tens and hundreds of thousands of words, whereas our closest evolutionary relatives typically use below 100? How is semantic meaning implemented for gestures and words, and, more specifically, for referential and categorical terms? How can grounding and interpretability of abstract symbols be anchored biologically? Which features of connectivity between nerve cells are crucial for the formation of discrete representations and categorical combination? Would modelling of cognitive functions using brain-constrained networks allow for better predictions on brain activity indexing the processing of signs and their meaning? This project will use novel insights from human neurobiology translated into mathematically exact computational models to find new answers to long-standing questions in cognitive science, linguistics and philosophy. Models replicating structural differences between human and non-human primate brains will help delineate mechanisms underlying specifically human cognitive capacities. Key experiments will validate critical model predictions and new neurophysiological data will be applied to further improve the biologically-constrained networks. Summary Recent breakthroughs in comparative neurobiological research highlight specific features of the connectivity structure of the human brain, which open new perspectives on understanding the neural mechanisms of human-specific higher cognition and language. In delineating the material basis of human cognition and language, neurobiologically founded modelling appears as the method of choice, as it allows not only for ‘external fitting’ of models to key experimental data, but, in addition, for ‘internal’ or ‘material fitting’ of the model components to the structure of brains, cortical areas and neuronal circuits. This novel research pathway offers biologically well-founded and computationally precise perspectives on addressing exciting hitherto unanswered fundamental questions: How can humans build vocabularies of tens and hundreds of thousands of words, whereas our closest evolutionary relatives typically use below 100? How is semantic meaning implemented for gestures and words, and, more specifically, for referential and categorical terms? How can grounding and interpretability of abstract symbols be anchored biologically? Which features of connectivity between nerve cells are crucial for the formation of discrete representations and categorical combination? Would modelling of cognitive functions using brain-constrained networks allow for better predictions on brain activity indexing the processing of signs and their meaning? This project will use novel insights from human neurobiology translated into mathematically exact computational models to find new answers to long-standing questions in cognitive science, linguistics and philosophy. Models replicating structural differences between human and non-human primate brains will help delineate mechanisms underlying specifically human cognitive capacities. Key experiments will validate critical model predictions and new neurophysiological data will be applied to further improve the biologically-constrained networks. Max ERC Funding 2 499 580 € Duration Start date: 2020-10-01, End date: 2025-09-30 Project acronym MATHCONSTRUCTION Project Constructing Mathematical Knowledge beyond Core Intuitions Researcher (PI) Véronique Geneviève Izard Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS Country France Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2010-StG_20091209 Summary Humans and other animals possess dedicated systems of core knowledge to represent numeric and geometric information. In the case of number at least, these representations are abstract (independent of the format of the stimuli represented), they are present early in life, and they can be used to compute the outcome of simple arithmetic problems. Such intuitive knowledge is thought to guide the acquisition of elaborate concepts of numbers and geometry. However, core systems of representations for numbers and geometry fall short of providing the representational power to support even the most fundamental mathematical concepts: Integers, and Euclidean geometry. In this research project, we are seeking to understand the process of knowledge construction by which children acquire adult-like numeric and geometric concepts, focusing on two case studies: exact numbers, and plane angles. Our approach is multidisciplinary, bringing together researchers from the fields of developmental psychology, cognitive neuroimaging, and linguistics. For both number and geometry, we will first start by characterizing core intuitions in behavioural studies involving infants and children. Second, we will look at the factors influencing the acquisition of more elaborate concepts based these core intuitions. In order to separate the factors of age, education, and environment, we will conduct studies with occidental children, as well as children and adults from the Amazon. Third, we ultimately aim at studying the neural bases of conceptual changes in childhood, and in this perspective we are planning brain imagining experiments in adults. Once we have a thorough description of the neural codes for number and geometry in adults, we will be in position to ask which aspects of the code have undergone change during childhood, as new knowledge was being constructed. Summary Humans and other animals possess dedicated systems of core knowledge to represent numeric and geometric information. In the case of number at least, these representations are abstract (independent of the format of the stimuli represented), they are present early in life, and they can be used to compute the outcome of simple arithmetic problems. Such intuitive knowledge is thought to guide the acquisition of elaborate concepts of numbers and geometry. However, core systems of representations for numbers and geometry fall short of providing the representational power to support even the most fundamental mathematical concepts: Integers, and Euclidean geometry. In this research project, we are seeking to understand the process of knowledge construction by which children acquire adult-like numeric and geometric concepts, focusing on two case studies: exact numbers, and plane angles. Our approach is multidisciplinary, bringing together researchers from the fields of developmental psychology, cognitive neuroimaging, and linguistics. For both number and geometry, we will first start by characterizing core intuitions in behavioural studies involving infants and children. Second, we will look at the factors influencing the acquisition of more elaborate concepts based these core intuitions. In order to separate the factors of age, education, and environment, we will conduct studies with occidental children, as well as children and adults from the Amazon. Third, we ultimately aim at studying the neural bases of conceptual changes in childhood, and in this perspective we are planning brain imagining experiments in adults. Once we have a thorough description of the neural codes for number and geometry in adults, we will be in position to ask which aspects of the code have undergone change during childhood, as new knowledge was being constructed. Max ERC Funding 1 394 130 € Duration Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2016-08-31 Project acronym MECHIDENT Project Who is that? Neural networks and mechanisms for identifying individuals Researcher (PI) CHRISTOPHER ILIEV PETKOV Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Country United Kingdom Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2016-COG Summary Our social interactions and survival critically depend on identifying specific individuals to interact with or avoid (“who is that?”). Identifying individuals can be achieved by different sensory inputs, and by many accounts any sensory input elicits a representation of an individual that somehow becomes transmodal or independent of any sensory system. However, how the brain achieves transmodal integration facilitating individual recognition remains a mystery: Investigations in humans allowing direct access to site-specific neuronal processes are generally rare and have not focused on understanding neuronal multisensory integration for person recognition. Also, animal models to study the neuronal mechanisms of related processes have only recently become known. I propose to use direct recordings of neuronal activity in both humans and monkeys during face- and voice-identification tasks, combined with site-specific manipulation of the sensory input streams into the lateral anterior temporal lobe (ATL). The ATL brings together identity-specific content from the senses but the neuronal mechanisms for this convergence are entirely unknown. My core hypothesis is that auditory voice- or visual face-identity input into key ATL convergence sites elicits a sensory-modality invariant representation, which once elicited is robust to degradation or inactivation of neuronal input from the other sense. The central aim is to test this in human patients being monitored for surgery and to directly compare and link the results with those in monkeys where the neuronal circuit and mechanisms can be revealed using optogenetic control of neuronal responses. Analyses will assess neuronal dynamics and sensory integration frameworks. This proposal is poised to unravel how the brain combines multisensory input critical for identifying individuals and cognitive operations to act upon. The basic science insights gained may inform efforts to stratify patients with different types of ATL damage. Summary Our social interactions and survival critically depend on identifying specific individuals to interact with or avoid (“who is that?”). Identifying individuals can be achieved by different sensory inputs, and by many accounts any sensory input elicits a representation of an individual that somehow becomes transmodal or independent of any sensory system. However, how the brain achieves transmodal integration facilitating individual recognition remains a mystery: Investigations in humans allowing direct access to site-specific neuronal processes are generally rare and have not focused on understanding neuronal multisensory integration for person recognition. Also, animal models to study the neuronal mechanisms of related processes have only recently become known. I propose to use direct recordings of neuronal activity in both humans and monkeys during face- and voice-identification tasks, combined with site-specific manipulation of the sensory input streams into the lateral anterior temporal lobe (ATL). The ATL brings together identity-specific content from the senses but the neuronal mechanisms for this convergence are entirely unknown. My core hypothesis is that auditory voice- or visual face-identity input into key ATL convergence sites elicits a sensory-modality invariant representation, which once elicited is robust to degradation or inactivation of neuronal input from the other sense. The central aim is to test this in human patients being monitored for surgery and to directly compare and link the results with those in monkeys where the neuronal circuit and mechanisms can be revealed using optogenetic control of neuronal responses. Analyses will assess neuronal dynamics and sensory integration frameworks. This proposal is poised to unravel how the brain combines multisensory input critical for identifying individuals and cognitive operations to act upon. The basic science insights gained may inform efforts to stratify patients with different types of ATL damage. Max ERC Funding 1 995 677 € Duration Start date: 2017-07-01, End date: 2022-06-30 Project acronym MemoSleep Project Longing for a good night's sleep: A memory-based mechanism to improve sleep and cognitive functioning. Researcher (PI) Björn Rasch Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE DE FRIBOURG Country Switzerland Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2015-STG Summary Sleep is critical for optimal cognitive functioning and health. Sleep disturbances are highly frequent in our society and strongly influenced by cognitive factors, e.g. rumination, expectations and thoughts. However, the mechanism of how cognition influences sleep architecture is not yet understood. To explain how cognition influences sleep, I propose the “Memories-of-Sleep” (MemoSleep)-Hypothesis. Based on the theory of embodied cognition and evidence that memories are reactivated during sleep, the MemoSleep-Hypothesis makes the following assumptions: (1) Cognitions related to sleep/wake states are embodied. I will call them embodied sleep/wake memories. Embodied sleep/wake memories encompass not only their semantic meaning, but also their sensorimotor body representation. Thus, the mental representation of the word ‘wake’ is directly linked to our body sensation of wakefulness. (2) If embodied sleep/wake memories are activated before sleep, they will have a higher probability of being reactivated during sleep. (3) During sleep, increased reactivation of embodied sleep/wake memories activates associated body responses and thereby affects sleep architecture. Thus, increased reactivation of the mental representation of ‘wake’ will activate wake-related physiological responses and disrupt sleep. Here I aim at empirically testing these assumptions using brain imaging (high-density EEG, EEG/fMRI) and cognitive testing in humans. I will show that activation of embodied sleep/wake memories before and during sleep influences sleep architecture and affects post-sleep cognitive performance. In addition, I will apply these findings to the elderly and patients with sleep disorders. The results will greatly enhance our theoretical understanding of how cognition influences sleep. Furthermore, they will provide a solid basis for the development of effective cognitive interventions for sleep disorders, with a high potential to improve sleep and cognition also in every-day life. Summary Sleep is critical for optimal cognitive functioning and health. Sleep disturbances are highly frequent in our society and strongly influenced by cognitive factors, e.g. rumination, expectations and thoughts. However, the mechanism of how cognition influences sleep architecture is not yet understood. To explain how cognition influences sleep, I propose the “Memories-of-Sleep” (MemoSleep)-Hypothesis. Based on the theory of embodied cognition and evidence that memories are reactivated during sleep, the MemoSleep-Hypothesis makes the following assumptions: (1) Cognitions related to sleep/wake states are embodied. I will call them embodied sleep/wake memories. Embodied sleep/wake memories encompass not only their semantic meaning, but also their sensorimotor body representation. Thus, the mental representation of the word ‘wake’ is directly linked to our body sensation of wakefulness. (2) If embodied sleep/wake memories are activated before sleep, they will have a higher probability of being reactivated during sleep. (3) During sleep, increased reactivation of embodied sleep/wake memories activates associated body responses and thereby affects sleep architecture. Thus, increased reactivation of the mental representation of ‘wake’ will activate wake-related physiological responses and disrupt sleep. Here I aim at empirically testing these assumptions using brain imaging (high-density EEG, EEG/fMRI) and cognitive testing in humans. I will show that activation of embodied sleep/wake memories before and during sleep influences sleep architecture and affects post-sleep cognitive performance. In addition, I will apply these findings to the elderly and patients with sleep disorders. The results will greatly enhance our theoretical understanding of how cognition influences sleep. Furthermore, they will provide a solid basis for the development of effective cognitive interventions for sleep disorders, with a high potential to improve sleep and cognition also in every-day life. Max ERC Funding 1 499 565 € Duration Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2022-02-28 Project acronym MEMOTV Project Epigenetic, neural and cognitive memories of traumatic stress and violence Researcher (PI) Thomas Rudolf Elbert Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT KONSTANZ Country Germany Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2012-ADG_20120411 Summary MemoTV investigates the mechanisms through which stressful experiences shape memories in humans on epigenetic, neural and behavioural/cognitive levels. We will explore how these memories interact with cultural settings in ways that result in malfunctioning and mental suffering. Frequent exposure to the severe stressors associated with domestic and organised violence leads to the detrimental conditions associated with extreme and traumatic stress. Such exposure reorganises the functioning of the brain and mind in a lasting, self-perpetuating manner so that even very subtle cues, sometimes merely arising from imaginative processes alone, can continuously activate a corresponding stage of the defence cascade. We will investigate survivors of organised and domestic violence in different cultural settings: the German trauma clinic, Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, the townships of South Africa and a Burundian peace corps. Specifically, with regard to violence and trauma, MemoTV's ultimate goal is to identify the psycho-physiological mechanisms that lastingly alter the functional organisation of brain and mind. As means for suggesting methods to prevent and potentially reverse the consequences of maladaptive plasticity, MemoTV focuses on the exposure to and exertion of violence: (1) These extreme and intense stressors are thought to produce lasting changes. Reversing clinical symptoms and improving psychological functioning through treatment provides the detection of causal mechanisms. (2) The applicant’s group has demonstrated international leadership and expertise in field work in war-torn crisis regions. (3) The detection and influence of the mechanisms that govern the cycle of violence and adversity is a highly relevant societal topic. With its bold attempt to redefine the mind and its related functional brain organisation as interactive processes in the co-construction of humans from their genetic and socio-cultural systems, MemoTV enters an uncharted territory. Summary MemoTV investigates the mechanisms through which stressful experiences shape memories in humans on epigenetic, neural and behavioural/cognitive levels. We will explore how these memories interact with cultural settings in ways that result in malfunctioning and mental suffering. Frequent exposure to the severe stressors associated with domestic and organised violence leads to the detrimental conditions associated with extreme and traumatic stress. Such exposure reorganises the functioning of the brain and mind in a lasting, self-perpetuating manner so that even very subtle cues, sometimes merely arising from imaginative processes alone, can continuously activate a corresponding stage of the defence cascade. We will investigate survivors of organised and domestic violence in different cultural settings: the German trauma clinic, Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, the townships of South Africa and a Burundian peace corps. Specifically, with regard to violence and trauma, MemoTV's ultimate goal is to identify the psycho-physiological mechanisms that lastingly alter the functional organisation of brain and mind. As means for suggesting methods to prevent and potentially reverse the consequences of maladaptive plasticity, MemoTV focuses on the exposure to and exertion of violence: (1) These extreme and intense stressors are thought to produce lasting changes. Reversing clinical symptoms and improving psychological functioning through treatment provides the detection of causal mechanisms. (2) The applicant’s group has demonstrated international leadership and expertise in field work in war-torn crisis regions. (3) The detection and influence of the mechanisms that govern the cycle of violence and adversity is a highly relevant societal topic. With its bold attempt to redefine the mind and its related functional brain organisation as interactive processes in the co-construction of humans from their genetic and socio-cultural systems, MemoTV enters an uncharted territory. Max ERC Funding 2 380 780 € Duration Start date: 2013-08-01, End date: 2018-07-31 Project acronym MEMTICIPATION Project Preparing memories for action: how visual working memories are sculpted by their anticipated use Researcher (PI) Frederik Lammert van Ede Host Institution (HI) STICHTING VU Country Netherlands Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2019-STG Summary Visual working memory allows us to hold in the fore of our mind those visual representations that are anticipated to become most relevant for ensuing behaviour – guiding our perception as well as action. Thus, while working memories inherently regard the past, their purpose is to guide adaptive behaviour in the near future. Yet, conventional studies of visual working memory consider memory retention (how we remember) regardless of anticipated memory use (what we remember for), and neglect that representations that are held in memory concurrently often serve distinct purposes and afford specific actions. I posit that the accessibility and neural recruitment of individual working memories are fundamentally determined, and dynamically sculpted, by their anticipated use – i.e. by our expectations of when we need individual memory items, and what we need them for. This opens the fundamental, yet largely overlooked, question of how visual working memories are ‘prepared for action’. To target this central question, this project will pioneer multiple innovative memory tasks and combine these with cutting-edge brain imaging approaches to dynamically track how working memories are optimised to be ready for the right action (theme 1), ready at the right time (theme 2), and ready for the right task (theme 3). Having made considerable progress, this project will then also asses the identified ‘forward thinking' memory dynamics as a key novel dimension to charter relevant individual and group differences in working memory (theme 4). Together, this is anticipated to uncover ground-breaking novel insights into the pro-active mechanisms that ensure adaptive memory-guided behaviour – and to change not only the way we view visual working memory, but also how we study and use this core cognitive construct. Summary Visual working memory allows us to hold in the fore of our mind those visual representations that are anticipated to become most relevant for ensuing behaviour – guiding our perception as well as action. Thus, while working memories inherently regard the past, their purpose is to guide adaptive behaviour in the near future. Yet, conventional studies of visual working memory consider memory retention (how we remember) regardless of anticipated memory use (what we remember for), and neglect that representations that are held in memory concurrently often serve distinct purposes and afford specific actions. I posit that the accessibility and neural recruitment of individual working memories are fundamentally determined, and dynamically sculpted, by their anticipated use – i.e. by our expectations of when we need individual memory items, and what we need them for. This opens the fundamental, yet largely overlooked, question of how visual working memories are ‘prepared for action’. To target this central question, this project will pioneer multiple innovative memory tasks and combine these with cutting-edge brain imaging approaches to dynamically track how working memories are optimised to be ready for the right action (theme 1), ready at the right time (theme 2), and ready for the right task (theme 3). Having made considerable progress, this project will then also asses the identified ‘forward thinking' memory dynamics as a key novel dimension to charter relevant individual and group differences in working memory (theme 4). Together, this is anticipated to uncover ground-breaking novel insights into the pro-active mechanisms that ensure adaptive memory-guided behaviour – and to change not only the way we view visual working memory, but also how we study and use this core cognitive construct. Max ERC Funding 1 499 746 € Duration Start date: 2020-09-01, End date: 2025-08-31 Project acronym MESA Project Mechanisms of social attention Researcher (PI) Matthias Gamer Host Institution (HI) JULIUS-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAT WURZBURG Country Germany Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2013-StG Summary "A fundamental research question of several disciplines concerns the description, explanation and prediction of human behavior in social contexts. While significant research had been devoted to higher order social capabilities, much less is known about basic principles that are underlying these functions. This is especially true for social attention which is at the heart of every higher order social function but has neither been systematically examined in naturalistic environments before nor has it been linked to the extensive body of psychological and neuroscientific research on basic principles of attention. As a consequence, it is unknown whether the neural computation and the behavioral expression of social attention is similar or divergent to other forms of non-social attention. The current project will fill this gap by comprehensively characterizing the distinctive features of social attention on the behavioral and neural level using a multimodal approach involving eye tracking measures, neuropeptidergic manipulations, fMRI and EEG. I propose that social elements in complex environments are automatically selected and preferentially processed which is mediated by a specialized subcortico-cortical system that allows for tagging social cues in the visual field. These hypotheses will be tested in healthy volunteers and in clinical disorders with well-described impairments in social functioning. Finally, immersive virtual reality environments will be used that allow for examining active behavior and attentional allocation in complex social situations which approximate naturalistic field settings. By highlighting ecological validity, this project will provide unique insights into the mechanisms of social attention in healthy individuals and it will identify maladaptive attentional processes in individuals with impaired social functioning. Building on these data, the proposed research will provide a new framework for understanding human behavior in social situations." Summary "A fundamental research question of several disciplines concerns the description, explanation and prediction of human behavior in social contexts. While significant research had been devoted to higher order social capabilities, much less is known about basic principles that are underlying these functions. This is especially true for social attention which is at the heart of every higher order social function but has neither been systematically examined in naturalistic environments before nor has it been linked to the extensive body of psychological and neuroscientific research on basic principles of attention. As a consequence, it is unknown whether the neural computation and the behavioral expression of social attention is similar or divergent to other forms of non-social attention. The current project will fill this gap by comprehensively characterizing the distinctive features of social attention on the behavioral and neural level using a multimodal approach involving eye tracking measures, neuropeptidergic manipulations, fMRI and EEG. I propose that social elements in complex environments are automatically selected and preferentially processed which is mediated by a specialized subcortico-cortical system that allows for tagging social cues in the visual field. These hypotheses will be tested in healthy volunteers and in clinical disorders with well-described impairments in social functioning. Finally, immersive virtual reality environments will be used that allow for examining active behavior and attentional allocation in complex social situations which approximate naturalistic field settings. By highlighting ecological validity, this project will provide unique insights into the mechanisms of social attention in healthy individuals and it will identify maladaptive attentional processes in individuals with impaired social functioning. Building on these data, the proposed research will provide a new framework for understanding human behavior in social situations." Max ERC Funding 1 379 710 € Duration Start date: 2014-02-01, End date: 2019-01-31 Project acronym MESANDLIN(G)K Project The Linguistic Past of Mesoamerica and the Andes: A search for early migratory relations between North and South America Researcher (PI) Willem F.H. Adelaar Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN Country Netherlands Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2011-ADG_20110406 Summary The aim of the project is to unravel the genetic and contact relations between the indigenous languages of Mesoamerica (Mexico and western Central America) and the Middle Andes region (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia), as part of a larger endeavour to understand the historical process of the peopling of the Americas as a whole. The deep genetic links between the two regions will be investigated by systematically comparing pairs of languages and language phyla between which no genetic or contact relation has been established before. The project seeks to identify pre-colonial linguistic connections at two levels of antiquity: (i) commonly inherited similarities related to the earliest migrations, and (ii) similarities due to secondary contact between the two regions after they had developed a relatively high population density. Summary The aim of the project is to unravel the genetic and contact relations between the indigenous languages of Mesoamerica (Mexico and western Central America) and the Middle Andes region (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia), as part of a larger endeavour to understand the historical process of the peopling of the Americas as a whole. The deep genetic links between the two regions will be investigated by systematically comparing pairs of languages and language phyla between which no genetic or contact relation has been established before. The project seeks to identify pre-colonial linguistic connections at two levels of antiquity: (i) commonly inherited similarities related to the earliest migrations, and (ii) similarities due to secondary contact between the two regions after they had developed a relatively high population density. Max ERC Funding 2 600 612 € Duration Start date: 2012-06-01, End date: 2017-05-31 Project acronym METABODY Project METABODY: Body Metacognition, Mentalization and Metamorphosis Researcher (PI) Aikaterini FOTOPOULOU Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON Country United Kingdom Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2018-COG Summary We live in a socio-economic world that affords us with increasing options and technologies to control and present our bodily appearance to others, including by managing our eating habits, or by digital and even surgical body modification. These proliferating phenomena raise the age-old question of how we negotiate the balance between the invariance and invention of our identity. Addressing this question in relation to modern body image phenomena requires a radical new way of studying the concept of body image. METABODY proposes the novel concept of Body Imagining to capture the idea that our body image is not a fixed representation in the brain, but rather a dynamic inference based on prior expectations and new information. Studying the balance between prior beliefs and new information could thus hold the key to understanding modern body image phenomena. Moreover, existing studies have failed to investigate the metacognitive level of these inferences. METABODY will test the novel hypothesis that body image disturbances are not the result of biases merely in the 1st order ability to perceive one’s body, but also in the 2nd order ability to evaluate the reliability of these perceptions in given contexts. Specifically, three empirical work-packages will study how individuals balance their own embodied experience against: (1) external perspectives on the body during multisensory perception (Body Metacognition), (2) social perspectives during interpersonal encounters (Body Mentalizing) and (3) future and ideal body perspectives during decisions about body modification options with uncertain outcome (Body Decision Making). Ultimately, METABODY will address in innovative ways the timely question of how we negotiate the balance between the invariance and invention of our identity in a time when changing the body is offered as an easy way to change the self. Summary We live in a socio-economic world that affords us with increasing options and technologies to control and present our bodily appearance to others, including by managing our eating habits, or by digital and even surgical body modification. These proliferating phenomena raise the age-old question of how we negotiate the balance between the invariance and invention of our identity. Addressing this question in relation to modern body image phenomena requires a radical new way of studying the concept of body image. METABODY proposes the novel concept of Body Imagining to capture the idea that our body image is not a fixed representation in the brain, but rather a dynamic inference based on prior expectations and new information. Studying the balance between prior beliefs and new information could thus hold the key to understanding modern body image phenomena. Moreover, existing studies have failed to investigate the metacognitive level of these inferences. METABODY will test the novel hypothesis that body image disturbances are not the result of biases merely in the 1st order ability to perceive one’s body, but also in the 2nd order ability to evaluate the reliability of these perceptions in given contexts. Specifically, three empirical work-packages will study how individuals balance their own embodied experience against: (1) external perspectives on the body during multisensory perception (Body Metacognition), (2) social perspectives during interpersonal encounters (Body Mentalizing) and (3) future and ideal body perspectives during decisions about body modification options with uncertain outcome (Body Decision Making). Ultimately, METABODY will address in innovative ways the timely question of how we negotiate the balance between the invariance and invention of our identity in a time when changing the body is offered as an easy way to change the self. Max ERC Funding 1 989 376 € Duration Start date: 2019-09-01, End date: 2024-08-31 Project acronym Metacontrol Project Cognitive control in context: Neural, functional, and social mechanisms of metacontrol Researcher (PI) Bernhard Hommel Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN Country Netherlands Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2015-AdG Summary Human behavior is commonly understood as emerging from a struggle between will and habit, i.e., between “intentional” processes driven by the current goal and “automatic” processes driven by available stimuli. This scenario suggests that it is mainly the goal-related processes that render behavior adaptive. Based on a novel theoretical framework (the Metacontrol State Model, combined with the Theory of Event Coding) that is motivated by recent behavioral and neuroscientific observations, I suggest an alternative view and argue that people can control the relative contributions of goal-driven and stimulus-driven processes to decision-making and action selection. In particular, people regulate the interaction between these processes by determining the ratio between (goal) persistence and flexi-bility, depending on task, situation, and personal experience—a process that I refer to as “metacontrol”. The project aims to identify and trace individual “metacontrol policies” (biases towards persistence or flexibility) and task- and condition-specific changes therein by means of behavioral, computational, and neuroscientific techniques, and by using virtual-reality methods. I shall study, account for, and try predicting individual differences in the choice and implementation of such policies, identify and explain the cognitive and social consequences of adopting a particular policy, and investigate whether and how people can adopt meta¬control policies from others—either intentionally or automati-cally. I shall also study whether and to what degree people use situational cues to automatize the implementation of suitable policies, and whether often-used, highly practiced policies can become chron-ified and turn into a trait-like processing style, as suggested by cultural studies. Summary Human behavior is commonly understood as emerging from a struggle between will and habit, i.e., between “intentional” processes driven by the current goal and “automatic” processes driven by available stimuli. This scenario suggests that it is mainly the goal-related processes that render behavior adaptive. Based on a novel theoretical framework (the Metacontrol State Model, combined with the Theory of Event Coding) that is motivated by recent behavioral and neuroscientific observations, I suggest an alternative view and argue that people can control the relative contributions of goal-driven and stimulus-driven processes to decision-making and action selection. In particular, people regulate the interaction between these processes by determining the ratio between (goal) persistence and flexi-bility, depending on task, situation, and personal experience—a process that I refer to as “metacontrol”. The project aims to identify and trace individual “metacontrol policies” (biases towards persistence or flexibility) and task- and condition-specific changes therein by means of behavioral, computational, and neuroscientific techniques, and by using virtual-reality methods. I shall study, account for, and try predicting individual differences in the choice and implementation of such policies, identify and explain the cognitive and social consequences of adopting a particular policy, and investigate whether and how people can adopt meta¬control policies from others—either intentionally or automati-cally. I shall also study whether and to what degree people use situational cues to automatize the implementation of suitable policies, and whether often-used, highly practiced policies can become chron-ified and turn into a trait-like processing style, as suggested by cultural studies. Max ERC Funding 2 500 000 € Duration Start date: 2016-12-01, End date: 2021-11-30 Project acronym MetAction Project The motor hypothesis for self-monitoring: A new framework to understand and treat metacognitive failures Researcher (PI) Nathan Quentin FAIVRE Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS Country France Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2018-STG Summary Humans can monitor their own mental lives and build representations that contain knowledge about themselves. This capacity to introspect and report one’s own mental states, or in other words “knowing how much one knows”, is termed metacognition. Although metacognition is crucial to behave adequately in a complex environment, metacognitive judgments are often suboptimal. Specifically for neurological and psychiatric diseases, metacognitive failures are highly prevalent, with severe consequences in terms of quality of life. This project proposes a new hypothesis to explain the determining factors of metacognitive failures: namely, that metacognition does not operate in a vacuum but relies on the monitoring of signals from the body, and more specifically, on motor signals involved during action execution. We suggest several experiments to test the motor hypothesis for self-monitoring, and propose a new remediation procedure to resolve metacognitive failures resulting from deficient action monitoring. We will start by assessing the contribution of motor signals to metacognition by identifying the behavioral and neural correlates for detecting self-committed vs. observed errors (WP1), and by using virtual reality and robotics to probe metacognition in a vacuum, operating in the complete absence of voluntary actions (WP2). Finally, we will use these results to develop and evaluate a method to train metacognition in healthy volunteers and individuals with schizophrenia in a bottom-up manner, using online feedback based on motor signals (WP3). This new metacognitive remediation procedure will be performed both in a clinical context and on mobile devices. The goal of this ambitious project is therefore twofold, theoretical in shedding new light on a cognitive process central to our most profound mental states, and clinical in establishing a new remediation method to tackle a major health and societal issue. Summary Humans can monitor their own mental lives and build representations that contain knowledge about themselves. This capacity to introspect and report one’s own mental states, or in other words “knowing how much one knows”, is termed metacognition. Although metacognition is crucial to behave adequately in a complex environment, metacognitive judgments are often suboptimal. Specifically for neurological and psychiatric diseases, metacognitive failures are highly prevalent, with severe consequences in terms of quality of life. This project proposes a new hypothesis to explain the determining factors of metacognitive failures: namely, that metacognition does not operate in a vacuum but relies on the monitoring of signals from the body, and more specifically, on motor signals involved during action execution. We suggest several experiments to test the motor hypothesis for self-monitoring, and propose a new remediation procedure to resolve metacognitive failures resulting from deficient action monitoring. We will start by assessing the contribution of motor signals to metacognition by identifying the behavioral and neural correlates for detecting self-committed vs. observed errors (WP1), and by using virtual reality and robotics to probe metacognition in a vacuum, operating in the complete absence of voluntary actions (WP2). Finally, we will use these results to develop and evaluate a method to train metacognition in healthy volunteers and individuals with schizophrenia in a bottom-up manner, using online feedback based on motor signals (WP3). This new metacognitive remediation procedure will be performed both in a clinical context and on mobile devices. The goal of this ambitious project is therefore twofold, theoretical in shedding new light on a cognitive process central to our most profound mental states, and clinical in establishing a new remediation method to tackle a major health and societal issue. Max ERC Funding 1 389 500 € Duration Start date: 2019-03-01, End date: 2024-08-31 Project acronym METAWARE Project Behavioral and neural determinants of metacognition and self-awareness in human adults and infants Researcher (PI) Sid Kouider Host Institution (HI) ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE Country France Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2014-CoG Summary Proposal summary. Understanding the psychological and neurobiological determinants of consciousness is fundamental. Yet, the main trend focusing on how the front of the brain (prefrontal cortex) interacts with the back (sensory cortex) for accessing perceptual contents limits our understanding of the information coding schemas underlying consciousness. Here, we explore these informational properties in adults and infants from 3 novel perspectives: sleep, self-consciousness and metacognition. First, we will study unconscious processes in the full absence of consciousness, including self-consciousness and metacognition, by focusing on the sleeping brain’s ability to process and learn information from its environment. While most studies on subliminal perception measured unconscious processes intermixed with conscious ones, studying their impact in the sleeping brain will provide new insights on a broader and more natural type of unconscious. Secondly, we will explore the fundamental issue of whether multiple agents can share information and each other’s conscious access mechanisms, without being aware of it. Using a novel approach called the “Reversed Perspective Paradigm”, we will study if access to conscious content can be determined by another agent’s actions and sensory processing while the agent is lured to believe she owns these access mechanisms. We aim at challenging the long-held conviction that consciousness is a paradigm of privacy, by breaking it using virtual reality and objective methods from psychology. Finally, we will attempt to answer the two fundamental issues of whether infants have a capacity for metacognition (do they know they know) and whether they experience self-consciousness (do they feel themselves as a unitary entity). Examining these self-reflection mechanisms, through behavioural and EEG techniques, will address the issue of whether humans in the initial state have a primitive self, or are actually unconscious about their own person. Summary Proposal summary. Understanding the psychological and neurobiological determinants of consciousness is fundamental. Yet, the main trend focusing on how the front of the brain (prefrontal cortex) interacts with the back (sensory cortex) for accessing perceptual contents limits our understanding of the information coding schemas underlying consciousness. Here, we explore these informational properties in adults and infants from 3 novel perspectives: sleep, self-consciousness and metacognition. First, we will study unconscious processes in the full absence of consciousness, including self-consciousness and metacognition, by focusing on the sleeping brain’s ability to process and learn information from its environment. While most studies on subliminal perception measured unconscious processes intermixed with conscious ones, studying their impact in the sleeping brain will provide new insights on a broader and more natural type of unconscious. Secondly, we will explore the fundamental issue of whether multiple agents can share information and each other’s conscious access mechanisms, without being aware of it. Using a novel approach called the “Reversed Perspective Paradigm”, we will study if access to conscious content can be determined by another agent’s actions and sensory processing while the agent is lured to believe she owns these access mechanisms. We aim at challenging the long-held conviction that consciousness is a paradigm of privacy, by breaking it using virtual reality and objective methods from psychology. Finally, we will attempt to answer the two fundamental issues of whether infants have a capacity for metacognition (do they know they know) and whether they experience self-consciousness (do they feel themselves as a unitary entity). Examining these self-reflection mechanisms, through behavioural and EEG techniques, will address the issue of whether humans in the initial state have a primitive self, or are actually unconscious about their own person. Max ERC Funding 1 981 338 € Duration Start date: 2016-02-01, End date: 2021-01-31 Project acronym MetCogCon Project Metacognition of Concepts Researcher (PI) Nicholas James Shea Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF LONDON Country United Kingdom Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2015-CoG Summary This project will investigate the thoughts and feelings that accompany the use of concepts. Concepts lie at the heart of the extraordinary power of the human mind. They are the building blocks of thought, the tools with which we think. Like physical tools, they can be more or less dependable, more or less fit for purpose: e.g. for most people GENE feels like a better concept than MEME. We have an intuitive sense of how dependable a concept is, which is crucial when we decide whether to rely on the concept. It can underpin our decision to reject some concepts (e.g. RACE) and embrace others in our theorising (e.g SPECIES). Similarly in everyday thinking: when concepts are selected for reasoning and induction, and when different cognitive processes compete for control of action, the metacognition that accompanies the concepts involved will have a powerful effect. However, metacognition directed at concepts is still poorly understood. We lack even a clear theoretical framework to underpin research in this area. That is unfortunate because developing an account of people’s metacognitive understanding of their concepts is likely to tell us important things about concepts and about cognitive control; and to solve some thorny philosophical problems. MetCogCon takes up that opportunity. The project will be the first systematic investigation of the scope of metacognition as it applies to concepts. We propose to combine the analytic methods developed by philosophers of mind and cognitive science with psychological model-building and experimental investigation. The insights gained in the project could have important implications for policies about how to reason in everyday and in scientific/philosophical contexts, by outlining when the cues and heuristics that underpin our decisions to embrace or reject particular concepts can and cannot be trusted. Most significantly, the project promises to increase our understanding of a fundamental aspect of the human mind. Summary This project will investigate the thoughts and feelings that accompany the use of concepts. Concepts lie at the heart of the extraordinary power of the human mind. They are the building blocks of thought, the tools with which we think. Like physical tools, they can be more or less dependable, more or less fit for purpose: e.g. for most people GENE feels like a better concept than MEME. We have an intuitive sense of how dependable a concept is, which is crucial when we decide whether to rely on the concept. It can underpin our decision to reject some concepts (e.g. RACE) and embrace others in our theorising (e.g SPECIES). Similarly in everyday thinking: when concepts are selected for reasoning and induction, and when different cognitive processes compete for control of action, the metacognition that accompanies the concepts involved will have a powerful effect. However, metacognition directed at concepts is still poorly understood. We lack even a clear theoretical framework to underpin research in this area. That is unfortunate because developing an account of people’s metacognitive understanding of their concepts is likely to tell us important things about concepts and about cognitive control; and to solve some thorny philosophical problems. MetCogCon takes up that opportunity. The project will be the first systematic investigation of the scope of metacognition as it applies to concepts. We propose to combine the analytic methods developed by philosophers of mind and cognitive science with psychological model-building and experimental investigation. The insights gained in the project could have important implications for policies about how to reason in everyday and in scientific/philosophical contexts, by outlining when the cues and heuristics that underpin our decisions to embrace or reject particular concepts can and cannot be trusted. Most significantly, the project promises to increase our understanding of a fundamental aspect of the human mind. Max ERC Funding 1 955 270 € Duration Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2022-08-31 Project acronym MIA Project Multisensory Integration and Attention Researcher (PI) Salvador Soto-Faraco Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA Country Spain Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2010-StG_20091209 Summary The world around us is immensely rich in sensory information, which we perceive through a varied range of different sensory systems (enabling us to feel, hear, see…). Yet, our perceptual experience is not a sensory piecemeal, but a unitary phenomenon brought about by Multisensory Integration mechanisms. MSI is in charge of binding sensory input to create faithful and coherent representations of the environment, an ability that confers important advantages in terms of optimizing behavioural outcomes. For example, people often find it easier to speak with someone when they can see their partner’s face, as lip and facial movements compensate for acoustic noise. The novelty of the project is that it focuses on internal processes, and in particular attention, to be of utmost importance during MSI. Attention enables efficient allocation of limited cognitive and neural resources, and therefore it plays a paramount role in perception, cognition and action. The aim is to understand the interplay between attention and the mechanisms of multisensory integration. Unravelling this interplay presents important challenges but, in return, promises to provide very important insights into how perception is accomplished by the human mind and brain. In particular, the driving hypothesis underlying the present proposal is that objects of perception are multi-sensory defined events, and that attention plays a key role in building up and maintaining these perceptual representations. The strategy is to address this dynamic interplay between MSI and Attention by addressing a set of key specific research questions by means of converging methodological approaches. I propose to undertake this task with the help of a multidisciplinary team of researchers of different backgrounds, and a set of research methods including a behavioural approach (psychophysics in healthy adult humans, developmental studies and neuropsychology) combined with selective use of brain imaging stimulation. Summary The world around us is immensely rich in sensory information, which we perceive through a varied range of different sensory systems (enabling us to feel, hear, see…). Yet, our perceptual experience is not a sensory piecemeal, but a unitary phenomenon brought about by Multisensory Integration mechanisms. MSI is in charge of binding sensory input to create faithful and coherent representations of the environment, an ability that confers important advantages in terms of optimizing behavioural outcomes. For example, people often find it easier to speak with someone when they can see their partner’s face, as lip and facial movements compensate for acoustic noise. The novelty of the project is that it focuses on internal processes, and in particular attention, to be of utmost importance during MSI. Attention enables efficient allocation of limited cognitive and neural resources, and therefore it plays a paramount role in perception, cognition and action. The aim is to understand the interplay between attention and the mechanisms of multisensory integration. Unravelling this interplay presents important challenges but, in return, promises to provide very important insights into how perception is accomplished by the human mind and brain. In particular, the driving hypothesis underlying the present proposal is that objects of perception are multi-sensory defined events, and that attention plays a key role in building up and maintaining these perceptual representations. The strategy is to address this dynamic interplay between MSI and Attention by addressing a set of key specific research questions by means of converging methodological approaches. I propose to undertake this task with the help of a multidisciplinary team of researchers of different backgrounds, and a set of research methods including a behavioural approach (psychophysics in healthy adult humans, developmental studies and neuropsychology) combined with selective use of brain imaging stimulation. Max ERC Funding 1 450 672 € Duration Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2016-09-30 Project acronym MicroContact Project Microcontact. Language variation and change from the Italian heritage perspective. Researcher (PI) Roberta Anna Grazia D'Alessandro Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT Country Netherlands Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2015-CoG Summary This project aims to add an important block to syntactic theory, by developing new theoretical tools to account for microvariation and change. The central idea is that change and microvariation are necessary parts of grammar, and that they are in fact constrained by Universal Grammar (Chomsky 1957 ff.); in order to understand them we need not focus on the starting point and endpoint of change only, but also on the process itself. Observing change in progress can offer insights into its causes and the mechanisms underlying it. We aim at getting snapshots of change in progress by examining endogenous, diachronic change and change in contact for a number of genetically and typologically related varieties. Between the end of the 19th c. and the 1920s, many Italians migrated to the Americas. After World War II, a third wave of migration took place: around 400.000 people left Italy between 1950-1960. Interestingly, most of these Italians did not speak Italian as their native language: they all spoke some “dialect”. With this term we traditionally refer to those Romance languages spoken in Italy that evolved from Latin, and are sister languages to standard Italian. When these immigrants moved across the Atlantic, their languages entered in contact with other Romance varieties, like Argentinian Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, or Québécois French, as well as with English. The languages spoken by these 1st generation immigrants, who are now very old, are extremely important, as they potentially give a unique window into the mechanisms of language change in general, and of syntactic change in particular. Summary This project aims to add an important block to syntactic theory, by developing new theoretical tools to account for microvariation and change. The central idea is that change and microvariation are necessary parts of grammar, and that they are in fact constrained by Universal Grammar (Chomsky 1957 ff.); in order to understand them we need not focus on the starting point and endpoint of change only, but also on the process itself. Observing change in progress can offer insights into its causes and the mechanisms underlying it. We aim at getting snapshots of change in progress by examining endogenous, diachronic change and change in contact for a number of genetically and typologically related varieties. Between the end of the 19th c. and the 1920s, many Italians migrated to the Americas. After World War II, a third wave of migration took place: around 400.000 people left Italy between 1950-1960. Interestingly, most of these Italians did not speak Italian as their native language: they all spoke some “dialect”. With this term we traditionally refer to those Romance languages spoken in Italy that evolved from Latin, and are sister languages to standard Italian. When these immigrants moved across the Atlantic, their languages entered in contact with other Romance varieties, like Argentinian Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, or Québécois French, as well as with English. The languages spoken by these 1st generation immigrants, who are now very old, are extremely important, as they potentially give a unique window into the mechanisms of language change in general, and of syntactic change in particular. Max ERC Funding 1 996 250 € Duration Start date: 2017-01-01, End date: 2022-06-30 Project acronym MindBendingGrammars Project Mind-Bending Grammars: The dynamics of correlated multiple grammatical changes in Early Modern English writers Researcher (PI) Peter Petré Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN Country Belgium Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2014-STG Summary Mind-Bending Grammars examines change in mental grammars of 17th century individuals across their lifespan as attested in their writings. The project treats grammar as a self-organizing network of form-meaning schemas continuously fine-tuning itself, where activating one schema may prime formally or functionally associated ones. In analyzing multiple grammar changes in healthy adults it aspires to make a breakthrough in the cognitive modelling of grammar, and is expected to bear on views of cognitive plasticity and self-organizing systems (e.g. ecosystems). To reach these goals it will determine (i) how change in one part of an individual’s grammar relates to change in another; (ii) to what extent grammar change in individuals is possible and attested beyond childhood. This is still unsettled. Formal models hold that change occurs in language acquisition, social ones that it mainly results from adult interaction. The first ignore too much adult usage, the second grammar as a system. Seven cases are examined: i. Progressive (I’m loving it) ii. Future [going to] (he’s going to love it) iii-iv. (Pseudo)clefts (it’s Eve he loves) v. Rare passives (Eve was sent for) vi. Subject-raising (he’s said to be nice) vii. New copulas (get/grow hot) Each case changes much in the 17th century, warranting separate study. Yet the changes may also be linked. Formally, going to for example started as a progressive, and this may have resulted in sustained mutual influence. Functionally all but the last may be responses to changing word order. Until c1500 time adverbs (THEN ran he), focal elements (EVE loves he) or empty subjects (THEY say he’s nice) could precede the verb. After, this position got restricted to subjects that are topics (HE ran). Progressives need no time adverbs, clefts move the focal element, and passivization/subject-raising align topic & subject; all of this helped to realize the new order. Grow & get are unassociated to other cases, and serve as a control group. Summary Mind-Bending Grammars examines change in mental grammars of 17th century individuals across their lifespan as attested in their writings. The project treats grammar as a self-organizing network of form-meaning schemas continuously fine-tuning itself, where activating one schema may prime formally or functionally associated ones. In analyzing multiple grammar changes in healthy adults it aspires to make a breakthrough in the cognitive modelling of grammar, and is expected to bear on views of cognitive plasticity and self-organizing systems (e.g. ecosystems). To reach these goals it will determine (i) how change in one part of an individual’s grammar relates to change in another; (ii) to what extent grammar change in individuals is possible and attested beyond childhood. This is still unsettled. Formal models hold that change occurs in language acquisition, social ones that it mainly results from adult interaction. The first ignore too much adult usage, the second grammar as a system. Seven cases are examined: i. Progressive (I’m loving it) ii. Future [going to] (he’s going to love it) iii-iv. (Pseudo)clefts (it’s Eve he loves) v. Rare passives (Eve was sent for) vi. Subject-raising (he’s said to be nice) vii. New copulas (get/grow hot) Each case changes much in the 17th century, warranting separate study. Yet the changes may also be linked. Formally, going to for example started as a progressive, and this may have resulted in sustained mutual influence. Functionally all but the last may be responses to changing word order. Until c1500 time adverbs (THEN ran he), focal elements (EVE loves he) or empty subjects (THEY say he’s nice) could precede the verb. After, this position got restricted to subjects that are topics (HE ran). Progressives need no time adverbs, clefts move the focal element, and passivization/subject-raising align topic & subject; all of this helped to realize the new order. Grow & get are unassociated to other cases, and serve as a control group. Max ERC Funding 1 208 025 € Duration Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31 Project acronym MINDREHAB Project Consciousness In basic Science And Neurorehabilitation Researcher (PI) Morten Overgaard Host Institution (HI) AARHUS UNIVERSITET Country Denmark Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2009-StG Summary This project studies the topic of human consciousness from a multidisciplinary perspective. Human consciousness can be defined as the inner subjective experience of mental states such as perceptions, judgments, thoughts, intentions to act, feelings or desires. These experiences are to be described from a subjective, phenomenal first-person account. On the other hand, cognitive neurosciences explore the neural correlates with respect to brain topology and brain dynamics from an objective third-person account. Despite a great interest in consciousness among cognitive neuroscientists, there are yet no general agreement on definitions or models, and no attempts to draw conclusions from the existing body of work to make progress in the treatment of patients. While it is generally the case that research in cognitive neuroscience has a minimal influence on clinical work in neurorehabilitation, this is very much the case in consciousness studies. Here, so far, there is no direct connection to clinical practice MindRehab will make use of an integrated approach to find new ways to understand cognitive dysfunctions and to actually rehabilitate patients with cognitive problems after brain injury. This integrated approach, using consciousness studies to create progress in a clinical area, is novel and does not exist as an explicit goal for any other research group in the world. The objective of MindRehab is to integrate three aspects: Philosophy and basic research on consciousness, and clinical work in neurorehabilitation. Furthermore, the objective is to realize a number of research projects leading to novel contributions at the frontier of all three domains. However, contrary to all other current research projects in this field, the emphasis is put on the latter the clinical work. Summary This project studies the topic of human consciousness from a multidisciplinary perspective. Human consciousness can be defined as the inner subjective experience of mental states such as perceptions, judgments, thoughts, intentions to act, feelings or desires. These experiences are to be described from a subjective, phenomenal first-person account. On the other hand, cognitive neurosciences explore the neural correlates with respect to brain topology and brain dynamics from an objective third-person account. Despite a great interest in consciousness among cognitive neuroscientists, there are yet no general agreement on definitions or models, and no attempts to draw conclusions from the existing body of work to make progress in the treatment of patients. While it is generally the case that research in cognitive neuroscience has a minimal influence on clinical work in neurorehabilitation, this is very much the case in consciousness studies. Here, so far, there is no direct connection to clinical practice MindRehab will make use of an integrated approach to find new ways to understand cognitive dysfunctions and to actually rehabilitate patients with cognitive problems after brain injury. This integrated approach, using consciousness studies to create progress in a clinical area, is novel and does not exist as an explicit goal for any other research group in the world. The objective of MindRehab is to integrate three aspects: Philosophy and basic research on consciousness, and clinical work in neurorehabilitation. Furthermore, the objective is to realize a number of research projects leading to novel contributions at the frontier of all three domains. However, contrary to all other current research projects in this field, the emphasis is put on the latter the clinical work. Max ERC Funding 1 641 232 € Duration Start date: 2010-06-01, End date: 2015-05-31 Project acronym MINDTIME Project From implicit timing in the brain to explicit time abstraction in the mind. Researcher (PI) Virginie Van Wassenhove Host Institution (HI) COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES Country France Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2010-StG_20091209 Summary "When is ""now""? What mental representations and neural computations mediate the construction of our perceived present? If seeing starts through the retinal transduction of photons, there is no dedicated sensory receptor for the transduction of time per se; as such, time perception offers a particularly challenging problem to our understanding of human cognition. Indeed, time is a prime example of perceptual construct shaped by the anatomical and dynamical constraints of the nervous system. To clarify the principles and the mental operations underlying time perception, this research proposal focuses on a novel theoretical framework for the understanding of how the human mind affords the temporal experience of ""now"". The empirical work proposed here narrows down the problem to three specific questions which are addressed using psychophysical measures combined with sophisticated brain imaging methods that have excellent temporal resolution, namely magneto- and electro-encephalography (thereafter referred to as MEEG). (i) The first empirical question asks whether our perceptual present reflects the objective present, future or the objective past. Said differently, is the perceived present slightly off with respect to the objective reality? And if so, does it reflect predictive and/or postdictive brain mechanisms? (ii) The second question focuses on the representation of time in the brain. All senses provide latent means to encode temporal information and brain dynamics are likely to convey the raw material for time perception in an amodal form (i.e. independent of sensory modality). The passage from neural dynamics to perceptual abstraction of time is not trivial considering, for instance, the inherent asynchronies of neural processing times. This experiment tests the perception of duration within and across sensory modalities to systematically derive the perceptual resolution afforded by our sense of time. (iii) The third question focuses on tracking the construction of ""now"" by using an illusion resulting from the transformation of veridical temporal properties of events into an explicit temporal construct. An ambitious challenge in this experiment will be to develop a brain classifying/decoding technique using MEEG signals to track the evolution from the veridical encoding of temporal properties to the construction of the illusory percept of time. The goal of this research proposal is to provide a novel approach to the study of time perception. Extension of this work will pave the way to a better understanding of what distinguishes temporal processing impairments from explicit time perception impairments in clinical disorders." Summary "When is ""now""? What mental representations and neural computations mediate the construction of our perceived present? If seeing starts through the retinal transduction of photons, there is no dedicated sensory receptor for the transduction of time per se; as such, time perception offers a particularly challenging problem to our understanding of human cognition. Indeed, time is a prime example of perceptual construct shaped by the anatomical and dynamical constraints of the nervous system. To clarify the principles and the mental operations underlying time perception, this research proposal focuses on a novel theoretical framework for the understanding of how the human mind affords the temporal experience of ""now"". The empirical work proposed here narrows down the problem to three specific questions which are addressed using psychophysical measures combined with sophisticated brain imaging methods that have excellent temporal resolution, namely magneto- and electro-encephalography (thereafter referred to as MEEG). (i) The first empirical question asks whether our perceptual present reflects the objective present, future or the objective past. Said differently, is the perceived present slightly off with respect to the objective reality? And if so, does it reflect predictive and/or postdictive brain mechanisms? (ii) The second question focuses on the representation of time in the brain. All senses provide latent means to encode temporal information and brain dynamics are likely to convey the raw material for time perception in an amodal form (i.e. independent of sensory modality). The passage from neural dynamics to perceptual abstraction of time is not trivial considering, for instance, the inherent asynchronies of neural processing times. This experiment tests the perception of duration within and across sensory modalities to systematically derive the perceptual resolution afforded by our sense of time. (iii) The third question focuses on tracking the construction of ""now"" by using an illusion resulting from the transformation of veridical temporal properties of events into an explicit temporal construct. An ambitious challenge in this experiment will be to develop a brain classifying/decoding technique using MEEG signals to track the evolution from the veridical encoding of temporal properties to the construction of the illusory percept of time. The goal of this research proposal is to provide a novel approach to the study of time perception. Extension of this work will pave the way to a better understanding of what distinguishes temporal processing impairments from explicit time perception impairments in clinical disorders." Max ERC Funding 1 500 000 € Duration Start date: 2011-03-01, End date: 2017-02-28 Project acronym MitO2Health Project Major depression as a metabolic disorder: The role of oxygen homeostasis and mitochondrial bioenergetics in depression etiology and therapy Researcher (PI) Iris Tatjana KOLASSA Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAET ULM Country Germany Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2019-COG Summary MitO2Health aims to develop and empirically prove a radically new pathophysiological model of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) as a systemic energy deficiency disease. Traditionally, MDD is conceptualized as a neurotransmitter deficiency in the brain. However, with pioneering methods my group has provided evi-dence for reduced mitochondrial energy production in MDD, characterizing it as a cellular-metabolic disorder with a lowered production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Reduced mitochondrial bioenergy production and impairments in oxygen (O2) homeostasis (reduced levels of erythrocytes, less hemoglobin and its lower O2-binding affinity due to oxidative stress), as well as oxidative stress and inflammation (the “MitO2Health parameters”) were consistently associated with an increased risk for MDD, but have been neglected so far in MDD research and therapy. In MitO2Health we will more comprehensively than ever before investigate the physiological mechanisms underlying MDD and will provide first longitudinal evidence on the mutual in-terplay between the MitO2Health parameters and MDD. Moreover, we will apply cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as randomized treatment condition to test whether CBT-related MDD symptom reduction is coupled to a normalization of the MitO2Health parameters. We will treat 100 MDD patients with 6 months of CBT and compare them to 100 MDD patients of a waiting-list group and 100 healthy controls. Clinical and biological status will be assessed at four points over 18 months. We will thus characterize the biomarker pro-files of MDD treatment response and resistance as well as MDD symptom recurrence during a follow-up pe-riod. MitO2Health will not only establish a modern etiological model of MDD, but also identify biomarkers of individual therapy response and relapse. This will lead to new diagnostic standards and inspire personalized MDD treatment concepts that will fundamentally improve clinical outcomes in psychotherapy and psychiatry. Summary MitO2Health aims to develop and empirically prove a radically new pathophysiological model of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) as a systemic energy deficiency disease. Traditionally, MDD is conceptualized as a neurotransmitter deficiency in the brain. However, with pioneering methods my group has provided evi-dence for reduced mitochondrial energy production in MDD, characterizing it as a cellular-metabolic disorder with a lowered production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Reduced mitochondrial bioenergy production and impairments in oxygen (O2) homeostasis (reduced levels of erythrocytes, less hemoglobin and its lower O2-binding affinity due to oxidative stress), as well as oxidative stress and inflammation (the “MitO2Health parameters”) were consistently associated with an increased risk for MDD, but have been neglected so far in MDD research and therapy. In MitO2Health we will more comprehensively than ever before investigate the physiological mechanisms underlying MDD and will provide first longitudinal evidence on the mutual in-terplay between the MitO2Health parameters and MDD. Moreover, we will apply cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as randomized treatment condition to test whether CBT-related MDD symptom reduction is coupled to a normalization of the MitO2Health parameters. We will treat 100 MDD patients with 6 months of CBT and compare them to 100 MDD patients of a waiting-list group and 100 healthy controls. Clinical and biological status will be assessed at four points over 18 months. We will thus characterize the biomarker pro-files of MDD treatment response and resistance as well as MDD symptom recurrence during a follow-up pe-riod. MitO2Health will not only establish a modern etiological model of MDD, but also identify biomarkers of individual therapy response and relapse. This will lead to new diagnostic standards and inspire personalized MDD treatment concepts that will fundamentally improve clinical outcomes in psychotherapy and psychiatry. Max ERC Funding 1 999 364 € Duration Start date: 2020-10-01, End date: 2025-09-30 Project acronym MOBETA Project Motor cortical beta bursts for movement planning and evaluation: Mechanisms, functional roles, and development Researcher (PI) James Bonaiuto Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS Country France Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2019-COG Summary Each of us performs thousands of actions during the course of daily tasks, ranging from relatively simple (e.g. clicking on a mouse button), to highly complex (e.g. holding a sheet of paper in one hand while using scissors to cut it in a straight line with the other). All of these actions involve an intricate interplay between sensory integration, muscle coordination, and movement evaluation processes. Motor cortical activity in the beta frequency range (13-30Hz) is a hallmark signature of healthy and pathological movement, but its behavioral relevance remains unclear. Recently, it has become apparent that oscillatory beta activity actually occurs in discrete, transient bursts, and that short-lasting, high-powered bursts of activity only appear to be sustained oscillations when averaged over multiple trials. This renders previous theories of beta activity’s functional relevance, which involve slow changes of oscillatory power, untenable. However, this insight provides an exciting opportunity to examine beta activity on a trial-by-trial basis and directly relate it to forthcoming and ongoing motor behavior. Here, I propose a new theory for understanding motor-related beta activity that has the potential to overturn current thinking of the motor role of beta. The proposed project will build upon my recent research and use a multi-modal (electrophysiological recordings, non-invasive neuroimaging, and computational modeling), multi-scale (from cortical columns to multi-region networks), comparative (monkey and human), and developmental (longitudinal measures of human infants) approach to develop and test this theory. Not only will results from this project substantially extend our knowledge on the role of motor-related beta activity, they will have important implications for personalized, online treatments for pathophysiological disorders characterized by aberrant beta signaling. Summary Each of us performs thousands of actions during the course of daily tasks, ranging from relatively simple (e.g. clicking on a mouse button), to highly complex (e.g. holding a sheet of paper in one hand while using scissors to cut it in a straight line with the other). All of these actions involve an intricate interplay between sensory integration, muscle coordination, and movement evaluation processes. Motor cortical activity in the beta frequency range (13-30Hz) is a hallmark signature of healthy and pathological movement, but its behavioral relevance remains unclear. Recently, it has become apparent that oscillatory beta activity actually occurs in discrete, transient bursts, and that short-lasting, high-powered bursts of activity only appear to be sustained oscillations when averaged over multiple trials. This renders previous theories of beta activity’s functional relevance, which involve slow changes of oscillatory power, untenable. However, this insight provides an exciting opportunity to examine beta activity on a trial-by-trial basis and directly relate it to forthcoming and ongoing motor behavior. Here, I propose a new theory for understanding motor-related beta activity that has the potential to overturn current thinking of the motor role of beta. The proposed project will build upon my recent research and use a multi-modal (electrophysiological recordings, non-invasive neuroimaging, and computational modeling), multi-scale (from cortical columns to multi-region networks), comparative (monkey and human), and developmental (longitudinal measures of human infants) approach to develop and test this theory. Not only will results from this project substantially extend our knowledge on the role of motor-related beta activity, they will have important implications for personalized, online treatments for pathophysiological disorders characterized by aberrant beta signaling. Max ERC Funding 1 988 189 € Duration Start date: 2020-07-01, End date: 2025-06-30 Project acronym ModularExperience Project How the modularization of the mind unfolds in the brain Researcher (PI) Hans Pieter P Op De Beeck Host Institution (HI) KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN Country Belgium Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2011-StG_20101124 Summary The mind is not an unitary entity, nor is its physical substrate, the brain. Both can be divided into multiple components, some of which have been referred to as modules. Many controversies exist in cognitive science, psychology, and philosophy about the properties and the status of these modules. A compromise view is offered by an hypothesis of modularization which has two central tenets: (i) Genetic influences determine a weak non-modular organization of the mind and (ii) this map develops into a set of module-like compartments. Here we will test this hypothesis in the domain of visual object knowledge. Testable predictions are derived from a novel extension and integration of previous proposals (i) for the presence of non-modular maps (Op de Beeck et al., 2008, Nature Rev. Neurosci.), which are logical candidates for the starting point proposed in the modularization hypothesis, and (ii) for how maps might be transformed by further experience (Op de Beeck & Baker, 2010, Trends in Cognit. Sci.) into a strong compartmentalization for specific types of visual stimuli. We will determine whether the same rules govern modularization for face perception and reading, despite the very different evolutionary history of faces and word stimuli. We will apply well-known analysis tools from the psychology literature, such as multidimensional scaling, to the patterns of activity obtained by brain imaging, so that we can directly compare the structure and modularity of visual processing in mental space with the structure of “brain space” (functional anatomy). The combined behavioral and imaging experiments will characterize the properties of non-modular maps and module-like regions in sighted and congenitally blind adults and in children, and test specific hypotheses about how experience affects non-modular maps and the degree of modularization. The findings will reveal how the structure of the adult mind is the dynamic end point of a process of modularization in the brain. Summary The mind is not an unitary entity, nor is its physical substrate, the brain. Both can be divided into multiple components, some of which have been referred to as modules. Many controversies exist in cognitive science, psychology, and philosophy about the properties and the status of these modules. A compromise view is offered by an hypothesis of modularization which has two central tenets: (i) Genetic influences determine a weak non-modular organization of the mind and (ii) this map develops into a set of module-like compartments. Here we will test this hypothesis in the domain of visual object knowledge. Testable predictions are derived from a novel extension and integration of previous proposals (i) for the presence of non-modular maps (Op de Beeck et al., 2008, Nature Rev. Neurosci.), which are logical candidates for the starting point proposed in the modularization hypothesis, and (ii) for how maps might be transformed by further experience (Op de Beeck & Baker, 2010, Trends in Cognit. Sci.) into a strong compartmentalization for specific types of visual stimuli. We will determine whether the same rules govern modularization for face perception and reading, despite the very different evolutionary history of faces and word stimuli. We will apply well-known analysis tools from the psychology literature, such as multidimensional scaling, to the patterns of activity obtained by brain imaging, so that we can directly compare the structure and modularity of visual processing in mental space with the structure of “brain space” (functional anatomy). The combined behavioral and imaging experiments will characterize the properties of non-modular maps and module-like regions in sighted and congenitally blind adults and in children, and test specific hypotheses about how experience affects non-modular maps and the degree of modularization. The findings will reveal how the structure of the adult mind is the dynamic end point of a process of modularization in the brain. Max ERC Funding 1 474 800 € Duration Start date: 2012-06-01, End date: 2017-05-31 Project acronym MOR-PHON Project Resolving Morpho-Phonological Alternation: Historical, Neurolinguistic, and Computational Approaches Researcher (PI) Aditi LAHIRI Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Country United Kingdom Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2015-AdG Summary In morpho-phonological alternations the shapes of morphemes differ between morphologically related word forms. In these alternations the morphological environment is also implicated (revére ~ réverence verb [iː] ~ noun [ɛ] and stress differ) unlike alternations which are conditioned only by the phonological environment. The opaque phonological relationship between morphologically related forms has been a long-standing challenge in theoretical, historical, psycho- and neuro-linguistics, and computational linguistics alike. Morpho-phonological alternations of all kinds have been analysed across the languages of the world; but fundamental questions have remained controversial or indeed unasked: ▪ Why do they exist in the first place and why are they so widespread? ▪ How do they come about and what is their diachronic time-course? ▪ How are they represented in mental lexicons and how are they processed? Rather than setting morpho-phonological alternations aside as irregularities of morphology (requiring individual listing and storing), we recognise certain kinds of them (stress shifts, feature changes, deletions, and tonal changes) as something universally to be expected in mental lexicons and as something the brains of speakers and listeners can easily handle. The position that we advocate is that morpho-phonological variants are not listed and stored independently, but rather are mapped onto single abstract representations. This is a controversial position, and its defence requires the systematic study of types of alternations and their histories, and precise hypotheses about the nature of mental representations. What distinguishes our approach is that we combine expertise in (a) theoretical and typological linguistics, (b) brain-imaging methods, and (c) computational modeling to shed light on our questions concerning the existence and cross-linguistic incidence of morpho-phonological alternations, their diachronic profiles, their processing and mental representation. Summary In morpho-phonological alternations the shapes of morphemes differ between morphologically related word forms. In these alternations the morphological environment is also implicated (revére ~ réverence verb [iː] ~ noun [ɛ] and stress differ) unlike alternations which are conditioned only by the phonological environment. The opaque phonological relationship between morphologically related forms has been a long-standing challenge in theoretical, historical, psycho- and neuro-linguistics, and computational linguistics alike. Morpho-phonological alternations of all kinds have been analysed across the languages of the world; but fundamental questions have remained controversial or indeed unasked: ▪ Why do they exist in the first place and why are they so widespread? ▪ How do they come about and what is their diachronic time-course? ▪ How are they represented in mental lexicons and how are they processed? Rather than setting morpho-phonological alternations aside as irregularities of morphology (requiring individual listing and storing), we recognise certain kinds of them (stress shifts, feature changes, deletions, and tonal changes) as something universally to be expected in mental lexicons and as something the brains of speakers and listeners can easily handle. The position that we advocate is that morpho-phonological variants are not listed and stored independently, but rather are mapped onto single abstract representations. This is a controversial position, and its defence requires the systematic study of types of alternations and their histories, and precise hypotheses about the nature of mental representations. What distinguishes our approach is that we combine expertise in (a) theoretical and typological linguistics, (b) brain-imaging methods, and (c) computational modeling to shed light on our questions concerning the existence and cross-linguistic incidence of morpho-phonological alternations, their diachronic profiles, their processing and mental representation. Max ERC Funding 2 605 261 € Duration Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30 Project acronym MORALSELF Project Unravelling the moral self Researcher (PI) Markus Paulus Host Institution (HI) LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN Country Germany Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2015-STG Summary Philosophers and social scientists have emphasized that our moral self-concept, the degree to which being moral is central for us, plays a pivotal role in explaining humans’ tendency to act prosocially. Clarifying the development of the moral self-concept and discovering the functional mechanisms is thus central for clarifying the basis of human morality. Despite a set of perennial questions that the moral self-concept relates to and the empirically proven relevance, research has largely neglected the early ontogeny of the moral self-concept. This is all the more surprising as recent developmental research demonstrated a hitherto unknown inclination of young children to act prosocially, which has led to a theoretical reorientation in developmental science. Moreover, the neurocognitive basis of moral identity as well as the functional mechanisms that relate moral identity to prosocial behaviour have have yet to be discovered, leaving the ontogeny and the nature of the moral self-concept in the dark. In this proposal I will take a new approach by combining novel tools derived from developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience to provide a comprehensive model of the moral self-concept that integrates (i) knowledge on the developmental origins and changes, (ii) its neurocognitive basis, and (iii) the functional mechanisms that relate the moral self-concept to actual prosocial behavior. To this end, the project relies on an interdisciplinary methodological approach by combining explicit interview measures, implicit attitudes tests, behavioral assessments, and electrophysiological methods with both children and adults to empirically explore the human moral self-concept. The current project not only contributes to a perennial debate on the origins of human morality; providing knowledge on the factors that promote the moral self-concept will also have societal impact by informing theory and practice of moral education. Summary Philosophers and social scientists have emphasized that our moral self-concept, the degree to which being moral is central for us, plays a pivotal role in explaining humans’ tendency to act prosocially. Clarifying the development of the moral self-concept and discovering the functional mechanisms is thus central for clarifying the basis of human morality. Despite a set of perennial questions that the moral self-concept relates to and the empirically proven relevance, research has largely neglected the early ontogeny of the moral self-concept. This is all the more surprising as recent developmental research demonstrated a hitherto unknown inclination of young children to act prosocially, which has led to a theoretical reorientation in developmental science. Moreover, the neurocognitive basis of moral identity as well as the functional mechanisms that relate moral identity to prosocial behaviour have have yet to be discovered, leaving the ontogeny and the nature of the moral self-concept in the dark. In this proposal I will take a new approach by combining novel tools derived from developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience to provide a comprehensive model of the moral self-concept that integrates (i) knowledge on the developmental origins and changes, (ii) its neurocognitive basis, and (iii) the functional mechanisms that relate the moral self-concept to actual prosocial behavior. To this end, the project relies on an interdisciplinary methodological approach by combining explicit interview measures, implicit attitudes tests, behavioral assessments, and electrophysiological methods with both children and adults to empirically explore the human moral self-concept. The current project not only contributes to a perennial debate on the origins of human morality; providing knowledge on the factors that promote the moral self-concept will also have societal impact by informing theory and practice of moral education. Max ERC Funding 1 498 958 € Duration Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31 Project acronym moreSense Project The Motor Representation of Sensory Experience Researcher (PI) Eckart ZIMMERMANN Host Institution (HI) HEINRICH-HEINE-UNIVERSITAET DUESSELDORF Country Germany Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2017-STG Summary How do we experience the visual world around us? The traditional view holds that the retinal input is analyzed to reconstruct an internal image that generates our perceptual experience. However, a general theory of how visual features are experienced in space and time is lacking. The fundamental claim of this grant proposal is that only motor knowledge - i.e. the way we interact with the world - establishes the underlying metric of space and time perception. In this model view, the spatial and temporal structure of perception is embedded in the processing of neural motor maps. The project moreSense has four major objectives: First, it will unravel how neural motor maps provide the metric for the experience of visual space. It will be hypothesised that there is no central neural map of space or time but a weighted contribution of all maps. Novel experimental techniques are required to uncover the motor basis of perception, which are available by recent developments in head-mounted displays and online motion tracking. Second, it will provide a general understanding of time perception being implicitly coded in movement plans to objects in space. Third, results from the first two objectives will be applied to the long-standing mystery of visual stability and continuity across movements. A bayesian model, supported by quantitative measurements, will demonstrate how information combination from the various motor maps leads naturally to stable and continuous perception. Fourth, this new theory of space and time perception will be investigated in patients suffering from a breakdown of space perception. The results will establish causal evidence that space and time perception are generated by processing in motor maps. New rehabilitation procedures will be developed to re-establish spatial perception in these patients. The experiments in this grant proposal will unravel the fundamental spatiotemporal structure of perception which organizes our sensory experience. Summary How do we experience the visual world around us? The traditional view holds that the retinal input is analyzed to reconstruct an internal image that generates our perceptual experience. However, a general theory of how visual features are experienced in space and time is lacking. The fundamental claim of this grant proposal is that only motor knowledge - i.e. the way we interact with the world - establishes the underlying metric of space and time perception. In this model view, the spatial and temporal structure of perception is embedded in the processing of neural motor maps. The project moreSense has four major objectives: First, it will unravel how neural motor maps provide the metric for the experience of visual space. It will be hypothesised that there is no central neural map of space or time but a weighted contribution of all maps. Novel experimental techniques are required to uncover the motor basis of perception, which are available by recent developments in head-mounted displays and online motion tracking. Second, it will provide a general understanding of time perception being implicitly coded in movement plans to objects in space. Third, results from the first two objectives will be applied to the long-standing mystery of visual stability and continuity across movements. A bayesian model, supported by quantitative measurements, will demonstrate how information combination from the various motor maps leads naturally to stable and continuous perception. Fourth, this new theory of space and time perception will be investigated in patients suffering from a breakdown of space perception. The results will establish causal evidence that space and time perception are generated by processing in motor maps. New rehabilitation procedures will be developed to re-establish spatial perception in these patients. The experiments in this grant proposal will unravel the fundamental spatiotemporal structure of perception which organizes our sensory experience. Max ERC Funding 1 494 059 € Duration Start date: 2018-04-01, End date: 2023-03-31 Project acronym MORPHOLOGY Project Morphological Complexity: Typology as a Tool for Delineating Cognitive Organization Researcher (PI) Greville Corbett Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF SURREY Country United Kingdom Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2008-AdG Summary Charting the limits of linguistic complexity will open up new perspectives for researching both language and the human mind. We focus on inflectional morphology, which is the systematic manipulation of word forms to express grammatical meaning. As a uniquely linguistic and uniquely human component of communication, morphology stands to reveal otherwise inaccessible aspects of cognition. Morphological systems introduce an extra layer of structure in between meaning and its expression. This layer may operate at cross purposes to functional distinctions, attaining in some languages an astonishing degree of complexity. Such apparently arbitrary distinctions in form (inflection classes, irregularity and similar phenomena) are the particular focus of this project. They are a key resource for understanding mental processes as they represent an unconscious and yet highly structured autonomous system. The project core is a comprehensive typological and historical investigation of morphological complexity (surveying 200 languages), with input from psycholinguistic and computational methodology. Such an interdisciplinary approach has not been attempted before. A deeper understanding of morphological complexity, a component of language which is free of the functional, physiological and sociological constraints that normally shape other linguistic structures, promises to advance both linguistic theory in particular, and the cognitive sciences as a whole. Summary Charting the limits of linguistic complexity will open up new perspectives for researching both language and the human mind. We focus on inflectional morphology, which is the systematic manipulation of word forms to express grammatical meaning. As a uniquely linguistic and uniquely human component of communication, morphology stands to reveal otherwise inaccessible aspects of cognition. Morphological systems introduce an extra layer of structure in between meaning and its expression. This layer may operate at cross purposes to functional distinctions, attaining in some languages an astonishing degree of complexity. Such apparently arbitrary distinctions in form (inflection classes, irregularity and similar phenomena) are the particular focus of this project. They are a key resource for understanding mental processes as they represent an unconscious and yet highly structured autonomous system. The project core is a comprehensive typological and historical investigation of morphological complexity (surveying 200 languages), with input from psycholinguistic and computational methodology. Such an interdisciplinary approach has not been attempted before. A deeper understanding of morphological complexity, a component of language which is free of the functional, physiological and sociological constraints that normally shape other linguistic structures, promises to advance both linguistic theory in particular, and the cognitive sciences as a whole. Max ERC Funding 1 712 538 € Duration Start date: 2009-02-01, End date: 2015-01-31 Project acronym MotMotLearn Project Motivating Motor Learning: The Role of Reward, Punishment and Dopamine Researcher (PI) Joseph Michael Galea Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM Country United Kingdom Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2014-STG Summary Motor learning (the ability of the brain to learn and update how an action is executed) is a fundamental process which influences many aspects of our lives such as learning to walk during childhood; the day-to-day behavioural adjustments required as an adult or in healthy ageing; and the rehabilitation process following an illness or injury. Despite the impact to society, it has proved extremely difficult to develop interventions that significantly enhance human motor learning. Therefore, devising protocols which optimise motor learning is a state-of-the-art research question that promises to deliver scientific, clinical and societal impact.Seeking reward and avoiding punishment are powerful factors in motivating humans to alter behaviour during cognition-based learning (selecting which action to perform), with sensitivity to reward and punishment being biased by the availability of dopamine in the brain. Intriguingly, reward and punishment are also known to affect generic motor learning (deciding how an action is executed) tasks which involve multiple underlying mechanisms. However to establish their potential for optimizing motor learning, we must understand how explicit reward- and punishment-based motivational feedback impact motor learning systems with unique computational and anatomical features (use-dependent/model-free/model-based). Using an unprecedented combination of behavioural analysis, computational modelling, genetics and pharmacology, MotMotLearn will provide the first systems-based account of how reward, punishment and dopamine influence motor learning. This novel approach will enable MotMotLearn to develop theoretically-grounded protocols that utilise reward/punishment in conjunction with dopaminergic medication to optimise motor learning in healthy individuals and stroke patients suffering motor impairments. MotMotLearn will have a profound scientific impact in motor learning with applications to development, ageing, rehabilitation and sports. Summary Motor learning (the ability of the brain to learn and update how an action is executed) is a fundamental process which influences many aspects of our lives such as learning to walk during childhood; the day-to-day behavioural adjustments required as an adult or in healthy ageing; and the rehabilitation process following an illness or injury. Despite the impact to society, it has proved extremely difficult to develop interventions that significantly enhance human motor learning. Therefore, devising protocols which optimise motor learning is a state-of-the-art research question that promises to deliver scientific, clinical and societal impact.Seeking reward and avoiding punishment are powerful factors in motivating humans to alter behaviour during cognition-based learning (selecting which action to perform), with sensitivity to reward and punishment being biased by the availability of dopamine in the brain. Intriguingly, reward and punishment are also known to affect generic motor learning (deciding how an action is executed) tasks which involve multiple underlying mechanisms. However to establish their potential for optimizing motor learning, we must understand how explicit reward- and punishment-based motivational feedback impact motor learning systems with unique computational and anatomical features (use-dependent/model-free/model-based). Using an unprecedented combination of behavioural analysis, computational modelling, genetics and pharmacology, MotMotLearn will provide the first systems-based account of how reward, punishment and dopamine influence motor learning. This novel approach will enable MotMotLearn to develop theoretically-grounded protocols that utilise reward/punishment in conjunction with dopaminergic medication to optimise motor learning in healthy individuals and stroke patients suffering motor impairments. MotMotLearn will have a profound scientific impact in motor learning with applications to development, ageing, rehabilitation and sports. Max ERC Funding 1 497 885 € Duration Start date: 2015-10-01, End date: 2020-09-30 Project acronym MULTISENSE Project The merging of the senses: understanding multisensory experience Researcher (PI) Andreas Karl Engel Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAETSKLINIKUM HAMBURG-EPPENDORF Country Germany Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2010-AdG_20100407 Summary The integration of information across different sensory channels is a fundamental problem that we have to solve in every moment of daily life. We will study four key aspects of multisensory processing that are currently unresolved: (1) the role of dynamic binding in multisensory experience; (2) the role of action and sensorimotor contingencies in multisensory processing; (3) the modulation of multisensory experience by top-down factors; (4) the adaptivity of these three mechanisms in conditions of altered multisensory experience. We will apply psychophysiological, behavioural and physiological approaches in studies on human subjects and combine these with advanced signal analysis approaches and computational modelling. The project objectives are: to test the role of dynamic crossmodal binding in multisensory processing; to address multisensory processing in rarely studied modalities such as pain and olfaction; to test the role of active sensorimotor exploration for multisensory experience; to study the role of top-down factors such as attention, or semantic knowledge; to address pathophysiological implications in congenitally blind subjects and synesthetes; to manipulate crossmodal interactions by application of multi-site TMS; to investigate dynamic crossmodal interactions in subjects undergoing training with an innovative sensory substitution device; to derive computational models of crossmodal integration to account for the empirical findings; and to explore the potential of our approach for enhancing human performance in application scenarios that exploit multisensory experience. Taken together, our proposal constitutes a highly innovative and systematic approach that will foster our understanding of the nature and mechanisms of unified multisensory experience. Summary The integration of information across different sensory channels is a fundamental problem that we have to solve in every moment of daily life. We will study four key aspects of multisensory processing that are currently unresolved: (1) the role of dynamic binding in multisensory experience; (2) the role of action and sensorimotor contingencies in multisensory processing; (3) the modulation of multisensory experience by top-down factors; (4) the adaptivity of these three mechanisms in conditions of altered multisensory experience. We will apply psychophysiological, behavioural and physiological approaches in studies on human subjects and combine these with advanced signal analysis approaches and computational modelling. The project objectives are: to test the role of dynamic crossmodal binding in multisensory processing; to address multisensory processing in rarely studied modalities such as pain and olfaction; to test the role of active sensorimotor exploration for multisensory experience; to study the role of top-down factors such as attention, or semantic knowledge; to address pathophysiological implications in congenitally blind subjects and synesthetes; to manipulate crossmodal interactions by application of multi-site TMS; to investigate dynamic crossmodal interactions in subjects undergoing training with an innovative sensory substitution device; to derive computational models of crossmodal integration to account for the empirical findings; and to explore the potential of our approach for enhancing human performance in application scenarios that exploit multisensory experience. Taken together, our proposal constitutes a highly innovative and systematic approach that will foster our understanding of the nature and mechanisms of unified multisensory experience. Max ERC Funding 3 472 800 € Duration Start date: 2011-08-01, End date: 2016-07-31 Project acronym MULTISENSE Project Lifespan Development of Typical and Atypical Multisensory Perception Researcher (PI) Julia Claire Simner Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX Country United Kingdom Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2013-CoG Summary Daily life confronts us with information across multiple senses in parallel and we must somehow unite these sensations into a coherent interpretation of the world. MULTISENSE will explain how the human brain comes to develop this complex ability, and how certain genetically ‘pre-marked’ brains can come to experience multisensory integration in remarkable ways. Implicit associations across the senses can have a profound and sometimes surprising effect on our experiences (eg, the taste of food can be altered simply by changing its colour, its shape, or even its name). People with the neurological condition synaesthesia have cross-sensory interactions to an extreme degree (eg, they might experience tastes as colourful moving shapes in the visual field). Synaesthesia can give profound insights into normal perception because all people experience crossed sensations to an implicit degree, and often in ways that mimic synaesthetes (eg, rougher textures tend to be ‘seen’ as darker colours by synaesthetes, and are also paired to darker colours by nonsynaesthetes in sensory matching tasks). In this ambitious proposal I will examine the life-span development of multisensory integration in both synaesthetes and nonsynaesthetes, considering changes that occur throughout childhood, non-elderly adulthood, and older age. My project will unfold over 48 months across 4 inter-related Work Programmes, in which I will develop a state-of-the-art assessment tool to identify child synaesthetes, and use cognitive tests and experimental techniques to evaluate multisensory functions in synaesthetes and nonsynaesthetes across the lifespan. My questions stand at the frontier of our scientific understanding, and will develop an embryonic field of childhood synaesthesia research, and forge a wholly novel field in synaesthesia and aging. My findings will be fed back to both researchers and educational policy makers, and will frame this field for current and future academics. Summary Daily life confronts us with information across multiple senses in parallel and we must somehow unite these sensations into a coherent interpretation of the world. MULTISENSE will explain how the human brain comes to develop this complex ability, and how certain genetically ‘pre-marked’ brains can come to experience multisensory integration in remarkable ways. Implicit associations across the senses can have a profound and sometimes surprising effect on our experiences (eg, the taste of food can be altered simply by changing its colour, its shape, or even its name). People with the neurological condition synaesthesia have cross-sensory interactions to an extreme degree (eg, they might experience tastes as colourful moving shapes in the visual field). Synaesthesia can give profound insights into normal perception because all people experience crossed sensations to an implicit degree, and often in ways that mimic synaesthetes (eg, rougher textures tend to be ‘seen’ as darker colours by synaesthetes, and are also paired to darker colours by nonsynaesthetes in sensory matching tasks). In this ambitious proposal I will examine the life-span development of multisensory integration in both synaesthetes and nonsynaesthetes, considering changes that occur throughout childhood, non-elderly adulthood, and older age. My project will unfold over 48 months across 4 inter-related Work Programmes, in which I will develop a state-of-the-art assessment tool to identify child synaesthetes, and use cognitive tests and experimental techniques to evaluate multisensory functions in synaesthetes and nonsynaesthetes across the lifespan. My questions stand at the frontier of our scientific understanding, and will develop an embryonic field of childhood synaesthesia research, and forge a wholly novel field in synaesthesia and aging. My findings will be fed back to both researchers and educational policy makers, and will frame this field for current and future academics. Max ERC Funding 1 314 131 € Duration Start date: 2014-10-01, End date: 2018-09-30 Project acronym MULTISENSORY-MIND Project The multisensory mind: From neural mechanisms to cognition Researcher (PI) Daniel Senkowski Host Institution (HI) CHARITE - UNIVERSITAETSMEDIZIN BERLIN Country Germany Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2010-StG_20091209 Summary Why does food lose its taste when your nose is stuffed up? Why are we better in hearing speech when we see a speaker’s lip movements? These are questions of interest in the emerging field of multisensory integration (MI). Although the scientific study of MI on the behavioral level has existed since psychology became an experimental discipline, little is known about the precise mechanisms underlying MI in the human brain. The application of advanced methods of cognitive neuroscience now allow us to uncover the finer details of how sensory inputs are merged to become coherent multisensory percepts. This is of utmost importance in improving our understanding and treatment of conditions in which multisensory integration is impaired, such as schizophrenia. The main objective of the proposed research program is to examine neural and neurochemical markers of MI and to test a new hypothesis that considers dynamic interplay of synchronized neural populations as a key to multisensory processes. The studies within this program include healthy subjects and patients with schizophrenia, as a prototype of a mental disorder with deficits in MI. Multisensory processes will be examined in a series of experiments requiring various modes of cognitive processes. Reaching beyond the state-of-the-art, this comprises a combination of human EEG data as a macroscopic measure of cortical processing; source modeling of synchronized EEG activity; and neurochemical markers (magnetic resonance spectroscopy of resting neurotransmitter concentrations in selected brain areas). This research program will potentially lead to a major breakthrough in our understanding of MI and will open new horizons in the generation of ideas, approaches, and theories regarding multisensory processes in the human brain. Summary Why does food lose its taste when your nose is stuffed up? Why are we better in hearing speech when we see a speaker’s lip movements? These are questions of interest in the emerging field of multisensory integration (MI). Although the scientific study of MI on the behavioral level has existed since psychology became an experimental discipline, little is known about the precise mechanisms underlying MI in the human brain. The application of advanced methods of cognitive neuroscience now allow us to uncover the finer details of how sensory inputs are merged to become coherent multisensory percepts. This is of utmost importance in improving our understanding and treatment of conditions in which multisensory integration is impaired, such as schizophrenia. The main objective of the proposed research program is to examine neural and neurochemical markers of MI and to test a new hypothesis that considers dynamic interplay of synchronized neural populations as a key to multisensory processes. The studies within this program include healthy subjects and patients with schizophrenia, as a prototype of a mental disorder with deficits in MI. Multisensory processes will be examined in a series of experiments requiring various modes of cognitive processes. Reaching beyond the state-of-the-art, this comprises a combination of human EEG data as a macroscopic measure of cortical processing; source modeling of synchronized EEG activity; and neurochemical markers (magnetic resonance spectroscopy of resting neurotransmitter concentrations in selected brain areas). This research program will potentially lead to a major breakthrough in our understanding of MI and will open new horizons in the generation of ideas, approaches, and theories regarding multisensory processes in the human brain. Max ERC Funding 1 483 408 € Duration Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2016-03-31 Project acronym MULTISIGN Project Multilingual Behaviours In Sign Language Users Researcher (PI) Ulrike Andrea Hildegard Zeshan Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL LANCASHIRE Country United Kingdom Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2010-StG_20091209 Summary This project examines a range of complex multilingual behaviours in sign language users and pursues three thematically related studies: a) Cross-signing : The development of improvised communication (ad hoc pidgins) between users of different sign languages in language contact situations; b) Sign-speaking : The simultaneous production of sign and speech, where the different structures of both languages are kept largely intact; and c) Sign-switching : Code-switching between sign languages in multilingual sign language users. None of these multilingual behaviours has ever been systematically investigated. The three studies use both lab-based experimental methodologies and discourse data from natural communicative situations. Subjects are drawn from a group of multilingual, mostly deaf, sign language users from various countries around the world. This project is situated at the crossroads between the domains of sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, typological, and diachronic approaches to language. Together, the three focused studies break new ground and lay the foundation to a previously uncovered field of research that can be called sign multilingualism studies . This field arises when existing concepts of bi- and multilingualism are brought to bear on sign languages. Of particular interest are phenomena that are peculiar to situations involving sign languages, such as the rapid emergence of improvised inter-languages in cross-signing , or the simultaneous combination of conflicting syntactic structures in sign-speaking . In addition to the theme of sign multilingualism, the three sub-projects are also united by a particular interest in the meta-linguistic skills that the subjects use in both the experimental and the natural discourse settings. Some of these previously undocumented high-level skills take us right to the limits of linguistic abilities and have wider implications for our understanding of the human language faculty. Summary This project examines a range of complex multilingual behaviours in sign language users and pursues three thematically related studies: a) Cross-signing : The development of improvised communication (ad hoc pidgins) between users of different sign languages in language contact situations; b) Sign-speaking : The simultaneous production of sign and speech, where the different structures of both languages are kept largely intact; and c) Sign-switching : Code-switching between sign languages in multilingual sign language users. None of these multilingual behaviours has ever been systematically investigated. The three studies use both lab-based experimental methodologies and discourse data from natural communicative situations. Subjects are drawn from a group of multilingual, mostly deaf, sign language users from various countries around the world. This project is situated at the crossroads between the domains of sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, typological, and diachronic approaches to language. Together, the three focused studies break new ground and lay the foundation to a previously uncovered field of research that can be called sign multilingualism studies . This field arises when existing concepts of bi- and multilingualism are brought to bear on sign languages. Of particular interest are phenomena that are peculiar to situations involving sign languages, such as the rapid emergence of improvised inter-languages in cross-signing , or the simultaneous combination of conflicting syntactic structures in sign-speaking . In addition to the theme of sign multilingualism, the three sub-projects are also united by a particular interest in the meta-linguistic skills that the subjects use in both the experimental and the natural discourse settings. Some of these previously undocumented high-level skills take us right to the limits of linguistic abilities and have wider implications for our understanding of the human language faculty. Max ERC Funding 1 169 936 € Duration Start date: 2011-03-01, End date: 2016-08-31 Project acronym MULTITASK Project Towards safe and productive human multitasking Researcher (PI) Niels Anne Taatgen Host Institution (HI) RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN Country Netherlands Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2011-StG_20101124 Summary People show a strong inclination for multitasking: they use multiple devices while driving a car, students do homework while sending text-messages and watching television, and office workers rapidly switch from one task to another. It is crucial to understand the role of multitasking in modern society, whether in terms of set-ting legal limits to multitasking in cases where it leads to unacceptable risks, or designing work situations in which productivity is supported or security is maintained. The goal of this project is to understand what circumstances change a person from an effective multitasker into one overwhelmed by too many demands, and to design countermeasures to keep people in control. A strong interdisciplinary research program in this area is necessary, because improper multitasking can lead to increased risks, loss of productivity and even long-term decrements in cognitive abilities. To investigate these questions we have developed two new groundbreaking methods. The first is the threaded cognition computational model of multitasking. Threaded cognition predicts when and how tasks interfere, by simulating the cognitive processes in the mind. The second is a new method highlighting the areas of interference. This done by using threaded cognition to analyze fMRI neuroimaging data, mapping functional units in the model onto brain areas. The new challenge is to use both methods to understand and predict how people select tasks for multitasking. The unique combination of methods is expected to result in fundamental knowledge on identifying the mechanisms that determine human task decisions, and in under-standing how sequences of such decisions can lead to multitasking situations with dangerous cognitive over-load or productivity dead-ends. Understanding the cognitive mechanisms of task selection in multitasking can be crucially important in designing multitasking environments that improve productivity and safety in-stead of thwarting it. Summary People show a strong inclination for multitasking: they use multiple devices while driving a car, students do homework while sending text-messages and watching television, and office workers rapidly switch from one task to another. It is crucial to understand the role of multitasking in modern society, whether in terms of set-ting legal limits to multitasking in cases where it leads to unacceptable risks, or designing work situations in which productivity is supported or security is maintained. The goal of this project is to understand what circumstances change a person from an effective multitasker into one overwhelmed by too many demands, and to design countermeasures to keep people in control. A strong interdisciplinary research program in this area is necessary, because improper multitasking can lead to increased risks, loss of productivity and even long-term decrements in cognitive abilities. To investigate these questions we have developed two new groundbreaking methods. The first is the threaded cognition computational model of multitasking. Threaded cognition predicts when and how tasks interfere, by simulating the cognitive processes in the mind. The second is a new method highlighting the areas of interference. This done by using threaded cognition to analyze fMRI neuroimaging data, mapping functional units in the model onto brain areas. The new challenge is to use both methods to understand and predict how people select tasks for multitasking. The unique combination of methods is expected to result in fundamental knowledge on identifying the mechanisms that determine human task decisions, and in under-standing how sequences of such decisions can lead to multitasking situations with dangerous cognitive over-load or productivity dead-ends. Understanding the cognitive mechanisms of task selection in multitasking can be crucially important in designing multitasking environments that improve productivity and safety in-stead of thwarting it. Max ERC Funding 1 434 574 € Duration Start date: 2011-11-01, End date: 2016-10-31 Project acronym MUSICOM Project Sensorimotor Foundations of Communicative Musicality Researcher (PI) Giacomo Novembre Host Institution (HI) FONDAZIONE ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA Country Italy Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2020-STG Summary Most human communication relies on experience, with few exceptions, one being music. Communicative musicality – the ability to communicate through music – can cross developmental, linguistic and cultural boundaries. Identifying the foundations of communicative musicality is a question of outstanding importance in cognitive science, as this ability has been suggested to support all human communication. Yet, to date, music is either studied in non-communicative contexts (i.e. with players or listeners in isolation) or not as a predisposition (i.e. focusing only on expert musicians). Building on the fact that it takes movement to make music, and that listeners move in response to music, MUSICOM tests whether the predisposition for communicative musicality is grounded in the capacity to instinctively communicate through movement. MUSICOM examines the behaviour and brain activity of laymen making music, and lay listeners responding to it, in real-time and interactive scenarios. A pillar of MUSICOM is the use of a validated novel experimental device offering the unique opportunity to allow everyone to make music and selectively control three fundamental musical features – rhythm, pitch and loudness – irrespective of training. Communicative musicality will be examined as a function of: (i) information transfer between a player and a listener, with gradually richer tasks moving from pure listening to listener-directed performance and joint music making; (ii) musical expertise, from non-musically-trained adults to expert musicians; and (iii) development, from children to adults. MUSICOM could change how we view and study music: shifting from an elite activity to a communicative predisposition accessible to everyone. MUSICOM will have groundbreaking implications for understanding the neurocognitive building blocks of human communication and its development. It will ultimately provide an empirical ground for testing the widespread use of music in clinical settings. Summary Most human communication relies on experience, with few exceptions, one being music. Communicative musicality – the ability to communicate through music – can cross developmental, linguistic and cultural boundaries. Identifying the foundations of communicative musicality is a question of outstanding importance in cognitive science, as this ability has been suggested to support all human communication. Yet, to date, music is either studied in non-communicative contexts (i.e. with players or listeners in isolation) or not as a predisposition (i.e. focusing only on expert musicians). Building on the fact that it takes movement to make music, and that listeners move in response to music, MUSICOM tests whether the predisposition for communicative musicality is grounded in the capacity to instinctively communicate through movement. MUSICOM examines the behaviour and brain activity of laymen making music, and lay listeners responding to it, in real-time and interactive scenarios. A pillar of MUSICOM is the use of a validated novel experimental device offering the unique opportunity to allow everyone to make music and selectively control three fundamental musical features – rhythm, pitch and loudness – irrespective of training. Communicative musicality will be examined as a function of: (i) information transfer between a player and a listener, with gradually richer tasks moving from pure listening to listener-directed performance and joint music making; (ii) musical expertise, from non-musically-trained adults to expert musicians; and (iii) development, from children to adults. MUSICOM could change how we view and study music: shifting from an elite activity to a communicative predisposition accessible to everyone. MUSICOM will have groundbreaking implications for understanding the neurocognitive building blocks of human communication and its development. It will ultimately provide an empirical ground for testing the widespread use of music in clinical settings. Max ERC Funding 1 499 562 € Duration Start date: 2021-05-01, End date: 2026-04-30 Project acronym MYSpace Project The role of vision on perceptual space representation Researcher (PI) Monica GORI Host Institution (HI) FONDAZIONE ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA Country Italy Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2020-STG Summary To interact with the world that surrounds us, we rely on integrated spatial representations which we build during infancy. Visual experience is crucial for integrating sensory signals in a coherent configuration, taking into account the changes of body position in space. When vision is absent, as in the case of blind infants, how the space representation develops is still unclear. The aim of MYSpace is to identify the specific developmental periods when visual experience is crucial in establishing multisensory associations between vision and other modalities. Blind infants, blind children and blind adolescents will take part in longitudinal and cross-sectional studies spanning the developmental windows when spatial skills are acquired in sighted children. Advanced methods in psychophysics and neuroscience (high-density EEG and MRI), modeling and high-resolution motion tracking analysis will be used to investigate the following: - the role of vision on the development of independent (Objective 1) and multisensory (Objective 2) audio and tactile spatial representations at the behavioral and cortical levels; - the involvement of the visual cortex on this spatial processing when vision is absent (Objective 3); - the benefit of multisensory trainings to recover spatial impairments (Objective 4). By elucidating these aspects, the project will bridge a fundamental gap in the knowledge of spatial representations and determine how their development is shaped by visual experiences. As an outcome, MYSpace will provide a new quantitative methodology to restore the coherent spatial representations of blind infants through multisensory trainings. Summary To interact with the world that surrounds us, we rely on integrated spatial representations which we build during infancy. Visual experience is crucial for integrating sensory signals in a coherent configuration, taking into account the changes of body position in space. When vision is absent, as in the case of blind infants, how the space representation develops is still unclear. The aim of MYSpace is to identify the specific developmental periods when visual experience is crucial in establishing multisensory associations between vision and other modalities. Blind infants, blind children and blind adolescents will take part in longitudinal and cross-sectional studies spanning the developmental windows when spatial skills are acquired in sighted children. Advanced methods in psychophysics and neuroscience (high-density EEG and MRI), modeling and high-resolution motion tracking analysis will be used to investigate the following: - the role of vision on the development of independent (Objective 1) and multisensory (Objective 2) audio and tactile spatial representations at the behavioral and cortical levels; - the involvement of the visual cortex on this spatial processing when vision is absent (Objective 3); - the benefit of multisensory trainings to recover spatial impairments (Objective 4). By elucidating these aspects, the project will bridge a fundamental gap in the knowledge of spatial representations and determine how their development is shaped by visual experiences. As an outcome, MYSpace will provide a new quantitative methodology to restore the coherent spatial representations of blind infants through multisensory trainings. Max ERC Funding 1 500 000 € Duration Start date: 2021-01-01, End date: 2025-12-31 Project acronym NATREP Project The nature of representation Researcher (PI) John Robert Gareth Williams Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS Country United Kingdom Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124 Summary This project aims to transform our understanding of mental and linguistic representation, its nature and significance for explanatory projects inside and outside philosophy. It seeks to show that the contemporary trend towards “deflationary” and non-explanatory treatments of representation is misguided, and that a naturalistic treatment of representation is available. By bringing together contemporary work in metaphysics with the lessons of the naturalizing projects of the 80s, I can make a breakthrough in the philosophical account of the mind in nature. I will shows that the key to the correct understanding of the representational relation is to develop the correct conception of the media of representation---the metaphysics of words, in the case of language; and the metaphysics of thought, in the case of mental representation. This topic is neglected, or studied only in abstraction from the metaphysics of representation. But I show that the true value of the groundbreaking approaches developed in the 80s lay in providing a satisfactory individuation of syntax---which provides a basis for resolving outstanding puzzles for interpretationist theories of semantics. This allows a synthesis of the two leading traditions in the foundations of representation. I develop the unified theory in unprecedented detail, use it to pinpoint what goes wrong in recent trends in the field, and examine its interactions with cutting edge problems in philosophy. The project will open up new approaches to the philosophy of representation, shed new light on the relation between language and thought, and develop a systematic and unified account of the nature, explanatory role, and epistemology of representation. Summary This project aims to transform our understanding of mental and linguistic representation, its nature and significance for explanatory projects inside and outside philosophy. It seeks to show that the contemporary trend towards “deflationary” and non-explanatory treatments of representation is misguided, and that a naturalistic treatment of representation is available. By bringing together contemporary work in metaphysics with the lessons of the naturalizing projects of the 80s, I can make a breakthrough in the philosophical account of the mind in nature. I will shows that the key to the correct understanding of the representational relation is to develop the correct conception of the media of representation---the metaphysics of words, in the case of language; and the metaphysics of thought, in the case of mental representation. This topic is neglected, or studied only in abstraction from the metaphysics of representation. But I show that the true value of the groundbreaking approaches developed in the 80s lay in providing a satisfactory individuation of syntax---which provides a basis for resolving outstanding puzzles for interpretationist theories of semantics. This allows a synthesis of the two leading traditions in the foundations of representation. I develop the unified theory in unprecedented detail, use it to pinpoint what goes wrong in recent trends in the field, and examine its interactions with cutting edge problems in philosophy. The project will open up new approaches to the philosophy of representation, shed new light on the relation between language and thought, and develop a systematic and unified account of the nature, explanatory role, and epistemology of representation. Max ERC Funding 1 499 099 € Duration Start date: 2012-11-01, End date: 2017-10-31 Project acronym NATVIS Project Characterizing neural mechanisms underlying the efficiency of naturalistic human vision Researcher (PI) Marius Vincent PEELEN Host Institution (HI) STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT Country Netherlands Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2016-COG Summary Our daily-life visual environments, such as city streets and living rooms, contain a multitude of objects. Out of this overwhelming amount of sensory information, our brains must efficiently select those objects that are relevant for current goals, such as cars when crossing a street. The visual system has developed and evolved to optimally perform tasks like these, as reflected in the remarkable efficiency of naturalistic object detection. Little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying this efficiency. NATVIS aims to fill this gap, presenting a comprehensive multi-method and hypothesis-driven approach to improve our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the efficient detection of objects in natural scenes. fMRI, MEG, and TMS will be used to study the neural basis of rapid attentional guidance based on scene context and episodic memory, resulting in a full characterization of when, where, and how context- and memory-based expectations interact with attentional templates in visual cortex and beyond. The powerful effects of scene context on object recognition will be studied by testing how context-disambiguated objects are represented in visual cortex, characterizing when context-based predictions bias object processing, and testing for causal interactions between scene- and object-selective pathways in visual cortex. NATVIS will study how the brain uses real-world regularities to support object grouping and reduce clutter in scenes, modelling the cortical representation and neural dynamics of multiple simultaneously presented objects as a function of positional regularity. Finally, advanced multivariate modelling of fMRI data will test the functional relevance and representational content of internally generated templates that are hypothesized to facilitate object detection in scenes. This program of research tackles the next frontier in the neuroscience of high-level vision and attention, embracing the complexity of naturalistic vision. Summary Our daily-life visual environments, such as city streets and living rooms, contain a multitude of objects. Out of this overwhelming amount of sensory information, our brains must efficiently select those objects that are relevant for current goals, such as cars when crossing a street. The visual system has developed and evolved to optimally perform tasks like these, as reflected in the remarkable efficiency of naturalistic object detection. Little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying this efficiency. NATVIS aims to fill this gap, presenting a comprehensive multi-method and hypothesis-driven approach to improve our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the efficient detection of objects in natural scenes. fMRI, MEG, and TMS will be used to study the neural basis of rapid attentional guidance based on scene context and episodic memory, resulting in a full characterization of when, where, and how context- and memory-based expectations interact with attentional templates in visual cortex and beyond. The powerful effects of scene context on object recognition will be studied by testing how context-disambiguated objects are represented in visual cortex, characterizing when context-based predictions bias object processing, and testing for causal interactions between scene- and object-selective pathways in visual cortex. NATVIS will study how the brain uses real-world regularities to support object grouping and reduce clutter in scenes, modelling the cortical representation and neural dynamics of multiple simultaneously presented objects as a function of positional regularity. Finally, advanced multivariate modelling of fMRI data will test the functional relevance and representational content of internally generated templates that are hypothesized to facilitate object detection in scenes. This program of research tackles the next frontier in the neuroscience of high-level vision and attention, embracing the complexity of naturalistic vision. Max ERC Funding 1 978 194 € Duration Start date: 2017-09-01, End date: 2023-02-28 Project acronym NEODYNE Project Decision making: from neurochemical mechanisms to network dynamics to behaviour Researcher (PI) Gerhard JOCHAM Host Institution (HI) HEINRICH-HEINE-UNIVERSITAET DUESSELDORF Country Germany Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2017-COG Summary How we decide between different alternatives is a central question to cognitive neuroscience. Decisions may appear trivial (selecting between two meals), or sophisticated and long reaching (deciding whom to marry). Decisions constitute a highly dynamical process of evidence accumulation. These dynamics can be represented in cortical oscillations, which have attracted great interest as a key mechanism that coordinates fast computations. While a few studies have investigated the role of cortical oscillations in decision making, the underlying mechanisms translating neurochemical activity into network dynamics and ultimately into choice remain unknown. Although neuromodulator effects are well described at the cellular level, their network effects during high-level behaviours are not well understood. There is however evidence that neuromodulators also control cortical oscillations and that this may have behavioural relevance. For a mechanistic understanding of human decision making, it is essential to (1) study its fast temporal cortical dynamics and (2) understand how neurochemical signalling gives rise to network dynamics and ultimately to cognition. Biophysical network models are excellent tools for linking these different levels of investigation. Such an understanding is critically important not only from a basic science perspective, it will also further our understanding of psychiatric diseases, which are often characterized by anomalies in neurochemical systems, neural oscillations and decision making. The novel approach that is core to this proposal is to investigate whether and how neurochemical systems guide decision behaviour by modulating cortical dynamics. To achieve this ambitious goal, I will use a combination of imaging methods with computational modelling, pharmacological challenges and electrical brain stimulation. This new approach will allow me to move towards a mechanistic understanding of the systems-level dynamics underlying decision making. Summary How we decide between different alternatives is a central question to cognitive neuroscience. Decisions may appear trivial (selecting between two meals), or sophisticated and long reaching (deciding whom to marry). Decisions constitute a highly dynamical process of evidence accumulation. These dynamics can be represented in cortical oscillations, which have attracted great interest as a key mechanism that coordinates fast computations. While a few studies have investigated the role of cortical oscillations in decision making, the underlying mechanisms translating neurochemical activity into network dynamics and ultimately into choice remain unknown. Although neuromodulator effects are well described at the cellular level, their network effects during high-level behaviours are not well understood. There is however evidence that neuromodulators also control cortical oscillations and that this may have behavioural relevance. For a mechanistic understanding of human decision making, it is essential to (1) study its fast temporal cortical dynamics and (2) understand how neurochemical signalling gives rise to network dynamics and ultimately to cognition. Biophysical network models are excellent tools for linking these different levels of investigation. Such an understanding is critically important not only from a basic science perspective, it will also further our understanding of psychiatric diseases, which are often characterized by anomalies in neurochemical systems, neural oscillations and decision making. The novel approach that is core to this proposal is to investigate whether and how neurochemical systems guide decision behaviour by modulating cortical dynamics. To achieve this ambitious goal, I will use a combination of imaging methods with computational modelling, pharmacological challenges and electrical brain stimulation. This new approach will allow me to move towards a mechanistic understanding of the systems-level dynamics underlying decision making. Max ERC Funding 1 903 698 € Duration Start date: 2018-12-01, End date: 2023-11-30 Project acronym NEUME Project Neuroplasticity and the Musical Experience Researcher (PI) Shihab SHAMMA Host Institution (HI) ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE Country France Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2017-ADG Summary Experiencing music as a listener, performer, or a composer is an active process that engages perceptual and cognitive faculties, endowing the experience with memories, joy, and emotion. Through this active auditory engagement, humans analyze and comprehend complex musical scenes by invoking its cultural norms, segregating sound mixtures, and marshaling expectations and anticipation. These remarkable feats are beyond our understanding and far exceed the capabilities of the most sophisticated music analysis systems. The goal of the proposed research is to investigate how cortical neuroplasticity in humans and animal models facilitates the musical experience over multiple time-scales, to explain how we assimilate musical norms and scales with long-term exposure, and rapidly recruit auditory-motor associations when listening to musical rhythms. The proposed research exploits neuroscience and computational approaches developed and effectively applied by the PI to study the cortical processing of speech. It will harness the power of these ideas and techniques to delineate the role of cognitive functions and adaptive sensory processing in forming musical structure and perception. The project builds upon the internationally recognized leadership of the PI in the fields of auditory cognition, cortical physiology, and computational neuroscience, and his pioneering research into rapid neuroplasticity in the auditory cortex. The project recruits the necessary complementary expertise both to record high-resolution spatiotemporal cortical responses to music in behaving humans, and to frame the proposed experiments in a musical context by garnering insights from music theory, performance, and composition. These diverse approaches will provide new insights into brain function; they will also promote a novel view of musical perception and cognition that will mutually benefit this team and the intellectually vibrant landscape of the neuroscience of music cognition in Paris and Europe Summary Experiencing music as a listener, performer, or a composer is an active process that engages perceptual and cognitive faculties, endowing the experience with memories, joy, and emotion. Through this active auditory engagement, humans analyze and comprehend complex musical scenes by invoking its cultural norms, segregating sound mixtures, and marshaling expectations and anticipation. These remarkable feats are beyond our understanding and far exceed the capabilities of the most sophisticated music analysis systems. The goal of the proposed research is to investigate how cortical neuroplasticity in humans and animal models facilitates the musical experience over multiple time-scales, to explain how we assimilate musical norms and scales with long-term exposure, and rapidly recruit auditory-motor associations when listening to musical rhythms. The proposed research exploits neuroscience and computational approaches developed and effectively applied by the PI to study the cortical processing of speech. It will harness the power of these ideas and techniques to delineate the role of cognitive functions and adaptive sensory processing in forming musical structure and perception. The project builds upon the internationally recognized leadership of the PI in the fields of auditory cognition, cortical physiology, and computational neuroscience, and his pioneering research into rapid neuroplasticity in the auditory cortex. The project recruits the necessary complementary expertise both to record high-resolution spatiotemporal cortical responses to music in behaving humans, and to frame the proposed experiments in a musical context by garnering insights from music theory, performance, and composition. These diverse approaches will provide new insights into brain function; they will also promote a novel view of musical perception and cognition that will mutually benefit this team and the intellectually vibrant landscape of the neuroscience of music cognition in Paris and Europe Max ERC Funding 2 495 938 € Duration Start date: 2018-10-01, End date: 2023-09-30 Project acronym NEURAL-PROB Project A Bayesian sense of probability in the human brain: Its characteristics, neural bases and functions Researcher (PI) Florent MEYNIEL Host Institution (HI) COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES Country France Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2020-STG Summary Bayesian inference optimally estimates probabilities from limited and noisy data by taking into account levels of uncertainty. I noticed that human probability estimates are accompanied by rational confidence levels denoting their precision; I thus propose here that the human sense of probability is Bayesian. This Bayesian nature constrains the estimation, neural representation and use of probabilities, which I aim to characterize by combining psychology, computational models and neuro-imaging. I will characterize the Bayesian sense of probability computationally and psychologically. Human confidence as Bayesian precision will be my starting point, I will test other formalizations and look for the human algorithms that approximate Bayesian inference. I will test whether confidence depends on explicit reasoning (with implicit electrophysiological measures), develop ways of measuring its accuracy in a learning context, test whether it is trainable and domain-general. I will then look for the neural codes of Bayesian probabilities, leveraging encoding models for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and goal-driven artificial neural networks to propose new codes. I will ask whether the confidence information is embedded in the neural representation of the probability estimate itself, or separable. Last, I will investigate a key function of confidence: the regulation of learning. I will test the implication of neuromodulators such as noradrenaline in this process, using both within and between-subject variability in the activity of key neuromodulatory nuclei (with advanced fMRI), the cortical release of noradrenaline during learning and its receptor density (with positron-emission tomography) and test for causality with pharmacological intervention. Characterizing the sense of probability has broad implications: it should improve our understanding of the way we represent our world with probabilistic internal models, the way we learn and make decisions. Summary Bayesian inference optimally estimates probabilities from limited and noisy data by taking into account levels of uncertainty. I noticed that human probability estimates are accompanied by rational confidence levels denoting their precision; I thus propose here that the human sense of probability is Bayesian. This Bayesian nature constrains the estimation, neural representation and use of probabilities, which I aim to characterize by combining psychology, computational models and neuro-imaging. I will characterize the Bayesian sense of probability computationally and psychologically. Human confidence as Bayesian precision will be my starting point, I will test other formalizations and look for the human algorithms that approximate Bayesian inference. I will test whether confidence depends on explicit reasoning (with implicit electrophysiological measures), develop ways of measuring its accuracy in a learning context, test whether it is trainable and domain-general. I will then look for the neural codes of Bayesian probabilities, leveraging encoding models for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and goal-driven artificial neural networks to propose new codes. I will ask whether the confidence information is embedded in the neural representation of the probability estimate itself, or separable. Last, I will investigate a key function of confidence: the regulation of learning. I will test the implication of neuromodulators such as noradrenaline in this process, using both within and between-subject variability in the activity of key neuromodulatory nuclei (with advanced fMRI), the cortical release of noradrenaline during learning and its receptor density (with positron-emission tomography) and test for causality with pharmacological intervention. Characterizing the sense of probability has broad implications: it should improve our understanding of the way we represent our world with probabilistic internal models, the way we learn and make decisions. Max ERC Funding 1 499 963 € Duration Start date: 2021-02-01, End date: 2026-01-31 Project acronym NEUROABSTRACTION Project Abstraction and Generalisation in Human Decision-Making Researcher (PI) Christopher SUMMERFIELD Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Country United Kingdom Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2016-COG Summary Intelligent agents make good decisions in novel environments. Understanding how humans deal with novelty is a key problem in the cognitive and neural sciences, and building artificial agents that behave effectively with novel settings remains an unsolved challenge in machine learning. According to one view, humans form abstract representations that encode latent variables pertaining to the high-level structure of the environment (a “model” of the world). These abstractions facilitate generalisation of extant task and category information to novel domains. For example, an individual who can ride a bicycle, or speak Spanish, will learn more rapidly to ride a motorcycle, or speak Portuguese. However, the neural basis for these abstractions, and the computational underpinnings of high-level generalisation, remain largely unexplored topics in cognitive neuroscience. In the current proposal, we describe 4 experimental series in which humans learn to perform structured decision-making tasks, and then generalise this behaviour to input domains populated by previously unseen stimuli, categories, or tasks. Building on extant pilot work, we will use representational similarity analysis (RSA) of neuroimaging (fMRI or EEG) data to chart the emergence of neural representations encoding abstract structure in patterns of brain activity. We will then assess how the formation of these abstractions at the neural level predicts successful human generalisation to previously unseen contexts. Our proposal is centered around a new theory, that task generalisation depends on the formation of low-dimensional population codes in the human dorsal stream, that are scaffolded by existing neural basis functions for space, value and number. The work will have important implications for psychologists and neuroscientists interested in decision-making and executive function, and for machine learning researchers seeking to build intelligent artificial agents. Summary Intelligent agents make good decisions in novel environments. Understanding how humans deal with novelty is a key problem in the cognitive and neural sciences, and building artificial agents that behave effectively with novel settings remains an unsolved challenge in machine learning. According to one view, humans form abstract representations that encode latent variables pertaining to the high-level structure of the environment (a “model” of the world). These abstractions facilitate generalisation of extant task and category information to novel domains. For example, an individual who can ride a bicycle, or speak Spanish, will learn more rapidly to ride a motorcycle, or speak Portuguese. However, the neural basis for these abstractions, and the computational underpinnings of high-level generalisation, remain largely unexplored topics in cognitive neuroscience. In the current proposal, we describe 4 experimental series in which humans learn to perform structured decision-making tasks, and then generalise this behaviour to input domains populated by previously unseen stimuli, categories, or tasks. Building on extant pilot work, we will use representational similarity analysis (RSA) of neuroimaging (fMRI or EEG) data to chart the emergence of neural representations encoding abstract structure in patterns of brain activity. We will then assess how the formation of these abstractions at the neural level predicts successful human generalisation to previously unseen contexts. Our proposal is centered around a new theory, that task generalisation depends on the formation of low-dimensional population codes in the human dorsal stream, that are scaffolded by existing neural basis functions for space, value and number. The work will have important implications for psychologists and neuroscientists interested in decision-making and executive function, and for machine learning researchers seeking to build intelligent artificial agents. Max ERC Funding 1 999 775 € Duration Start date: 2017-07-01, End date: 2022-06-30 Project acronym NeuroCogPlasticity Project Neurocognitive Plasticity – Lifespan Mechanisms of Change Researcher (PI) Kristine Beate Walhovd Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITETET I OSLO Country Norway Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124 Summary Human brains and cognitive functioning are in a constant flux of change throughout life. The question is: can you decide to what extent your brain and cognition will change, and how? This has enormous implications - it is a question of by which mechanisms humans can adapt to their changing environments with changing minds. And it is a question of how to handle the frequent cognitive problems experienced by especially elderly adults. Research has yielded astonishingly different perspectives on cognitive and brain changes through life. On the one hand, studies point to brain development and aging being under genetic control. On the other hand, there are associations between intellectual and physical experiences and cognitive function across the lifespan, and recent studies show that brain and cognition are improved by targeted cognitive interventions. However, the time course, stability, generalizability and restrictions to training effects on brain and cognition are largely unknown. The aim of this proposal is to uncover mechanisms governing neurocognitive plasticity - its potential, restrictions and time course - in young and old age, and reconcile the apparent contradiction between genetic control and environmental impact. I will study the effects of memory training with repeated Magnetic Resonance Imaging and cognitive tests in a new experimental time-series cross-over design with 200 young (20-30 yrs of age) and 200 elderly (70-80 yrs of age) adults. Neurocognitive changes in controls not training are compared to those in participants undergoing alternate repeated periods of memory training and rest (A-B-A-B) for one year, with a three-year follow up. This will allow me to identify 1) distinct modulators of plastic changes in terms of age, neural integrity, and genotype, 2) the time course of plastic changes in brain and cognition, their stability across short and long time, and 3) the extent of transfer of memory training effects to other cognitive functions. Summary Human brains and cognitive functioning are in a constant flux of change throughout life. The question is: can you decide to what extent your brain and cognition will change, and how? This has enormous implications - it is a question of by which mechanisms humans can adapt to their changing environments with changing minds. And it is a question of how to handle the frequent cognitive problems experienced by especially elderly adults. Research has yielded astonishingly different perspectives on cognitive and brain changes through life. On the one hand, studies point to brain development and aging being under genetic control. On the other hand, there are associations between intellectual and physical experiences and cognitive function across the lifespan, and recent studies show that brain and cognition are improved by targeted cognitive interventions. However, the time course, stability, generalizability and restrictions to training effects on brain and cognition are largely unknown. The aim of this proposal is to uncover mechanisms governing neurocognitive plasticity - its potential, restrictions and time course - in young and old age, and reconcile the apparent contradiction between genetic control and environmental impact. I will study the effects of memory training with repeated Magnetic Resonance Imaging and cognitive tests in a new experimental time-series cross-over design with 200 young (20-30 yrs of age) and 200 elderly (70-80 yrs of age) adults. Neurocognitive changes in controls not training are compared to those in participants undergoing alternate repeated periods of memory training and rest (A-B-A-B) for one year, with a three-year follow up. This will allow me to identify 1) distinct modulators of plastic changes in terms of age, neural integrity, and genotype, 2) the time course of plastic changes in brain and cognition, their stability across short and long time, and 3) the extent of transfer of memory training effects to other cognitive functions. Max ERC Funding 1 493 737 € Duration Start date: 2013-03-01, End date: 2018-02-28 Project acronym NeuroCompSkill Project A neuro-computational account of success and failure in acquiring communication skills Researcher (PI) Merav Ahissar Host Institution (HI) THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM Country Israel Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2018-ADG Summary Why do most people acquire expertise with practice whereas others fail to master the same tasks? NeuroCompSkill offers a neuro-computational framework that explains failure in acquiring verbal and non-verbal communication skills. It focuses on individual ability of using task-relevant regularities, postulating that efficient use of such regularities is crucial for acquiring expertise. Specifically, it proposes that using stable temporal regularities, acquired across long time windows (> 3 sec to days) is crucial for the formation of linguistic (phonological, morphological and orthographic) skills. In contrast, fast updating of recent events (within ~ .3- 3 sec), is crucial for the formation of predictions in interactive, social communication. Based on this, I propose that individuals with difficulties in retaining regularities will have difficulties in verbal communication, whereas individuals with difficulties in fast updating will have difficulties in social non-verbal communications. Five inter-related work packages (WP) will test the predictions that: (WP1) behaviourally – individuals with language and reading difficulties will have impoverished categorical representations, whereas individuals with non-verbal difficulties will be slow in adapting to changed statistics. (WP2) developmentally – poor detection of relevant regularities will be an early marker of related difficulties. (WP3) computationally – profiles of impaired inference will match the predicted time window. (WP4) neuronally – dynamics of neural adaptation will match the dynamics of behavioural inference. (WP5) structurally – different brain structures will be associated with the different time windows of inference. NeuroCompSkill is ground-breaking in proposing a unifying, theory based, testable principle, which explains core difficulties in two prevalent developmental communication disorders. Its 5 WPs will lay the foundations of a comprehensive approach to failure in skill acquisition. Summary Why do most people acquire expertise with practice whereas others fail to master the same tasks? NeuroCompSkill offers a neuro-computational framework that explains failure in acquiring verbal and non-verbal communication skills. It focuses on individual ability of using task-relevant regularities, postulating that efficient use of such regularities is crucial for acquiring expertise. Specifically, it proposes that using stable temporal regularities, acquired across long time windows (> 3 sec to days) is crucial for the formation of linguistic (phonological, morphological and orthographic) skills. In contrast, fast updating of recent events (within ~ .3- 3 sec), is crucial for the formation of predictions in interactive, social communication. Based on this, I propose that individuals with difficulties in retaining regularities will have difficulties in verbal communication, whereas individuals with difficulties in fast updating will have difficulties in social non-verbal communications. Five inter-related work packages (WP) will test the predictions that: (WP1) behaviourally – individuals with language and reading difficulties will have impoverished categorical representations, whereas individuals with non-verbal difficulties will be slow in adapting to changed statistics. (WP2) developmentally – poor detection of relevant regularities will be an early marker of related difficulties. (WP3) computationally – profiles of impaired inference will match the predicted time window. (WP4) neuronally – dynamics of neural adaptation will match the dynamics of behavioural inference. (WP5) structurally – different brain structures will be associated with the different time windows of inference. NeuroCompSkill is ground-breaking in proposing a unifying, theory based, testable principle, which explains core difficulties in two prevalent developmental communication disorders. Its 5 WPs will lay the foundations of a comprehensive approach to failure in skill acquisition. Max ERC Funding 2 499 888 € Duration Start date: 2019-08-01, End date: 2024-07-31 Project acronym NEUROCOOPERATION Project Trust & Reciprocity: neural and psychological models of social cooperation Researcher (PI) Alan Sanfey Host Institution (HI) STICHTING RADBOUD UNIVERSITEIT Country Netherlands Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124 Summary Novel interdisciplinary approaches offer an exciting avenue to study interactive decision-making by combining the methods of behavioral experiments, functional neuroimaging, and formal economic models. This project employs this approach to explore decision-making related to trust, reciprocity, cooperation and fairness in social interactive scenarios. These processes are vital for the successful functioning of society, but there have been relatively few studies of the mechanisms involved. This proposal will examine in detail the psychological and neural mechanisms behind these processes. Project 1 will investigate how we place trust in others, by using behavioral, neuroimaging, and computational modeling. The aims are to explore the influence of both automatically processed cues as well as the cognitive processes of learning from experience. Project 2 will investigate how we reciprocate trust, in particular the role of positive and negative emotions in this decision. The aim is to construct detailed, neurally-inspired models of this process, and test competing theories of reciprocation. Project 3 will explore the factors underlying cooperation between individuals and groups, particularly with relevance to the roles of reward, punishment and agency. Finally, Project 4 will investigate how our expectations of the world shape our responses to social situations. Social norms can have a large impact on our decisions, and we will build models that incorporate expectations and explore their neural correlates. Overall, this project can greatly enhance our knowledge of decision-making in social interactive contexts, with both theoretical and practical relevance. The innovative approach has the potential to advance our knowledge of existing theoretical accounts by constraining models based on the underlying neurobiology, and the knowledge gleaned can have a real impact on questions of public policy. Summary Novel interdisciplinary approaches offer an exciting avenue to study interactive decision-making by combining the methods of behavioral experiments, functional neuroimaging, and formal economic models. This project employs this approach to explore decision-making related to trust, reciprocity, cooperation and fairness in social interactive scenarios. These processes are vital for the successful functioning of society, but there have been relatively few studies of the mechanisms involved. This proposal will examine in detail the psychological and neural mechanisms behind these processes. Project 1 will investigate how we place trust in others, by using behavioral, neuroimaging, and computational modeling. The aims are to explore the influence of both automatically processed cues as well as the cognitive processes of learning from experience. Project 2 will investigate how we reciprocate trust, in particular the role of positive and negative emotions in this decision. The aim is to construct detailed, neurally-inspired models of this process, and test competing theories of reciprocation. Project 3 will explore the factors underlying cooperation between individuals and groups, particularly with relevance to the roles of reward, punishment and agency. Finally, Project 4 will investigate how our expectations of the world shape our responses to social situations. Social norms can have a large impact on our decisions, and we will build models that incorporate expectations and explore their neural correlates. Overall, this project can greatly enhance our knowledge of decision-making in social interactive contexts, with both theoretical and practical relevance. The innovative approach has the potential to advance our knowledge of existing theoretical accounts by constraining models based on the underlying neurobiology, and the knowledge gleaned can have a real impact on questions of public policy. Max ERC Funding 1 451 927 € Duration Start date: 2013-03-01, End date: 2018-02-28 Project acronym NEURODEFENSE Project Neural control of human freeze-fight-flight Researcher (PI) Karin Roelofs Host Institution (HI) STICHTING RADBOUD UNIVERSITEIT Country Netherlands Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124 Summary This study investigates the mechanistic bases of human freeze-fight-flight reactions. The ability to control our social behavior is essential for almost every social interaction. It frequently fails in challenging situations when people fall back on basic defensive „freeze-fight-flight‟ (FFF) reactions. It chronically fails in social motivational disorders, with social anxiety as one extreme, and aggression as another. Such disorders are notoriously resistant to therapy. Accordingly, it is essential that we obtain mechanistic insight into the psychological and neurobiological control of human FFF behavior. Upon a social challenge, an automatic attentive immobility, the freeze reaction, serves fast risk-assessment, needed to optimize subsequent fight-or-flight responses. Precise temporal tuning of FFF responses is critical to adequate coping with social challenges. It is orchestrated by complex neuroendocrine systems, utilizing the steroid hormone testosterone. Imbalances in the temporal dynamics and associated neuroendocrine control of FFF behaviors are highly predictive of animal fear and aggression. Testing these mechanisms in humans is critical to advance mechanistic insight in human FFF control, but has as of yet been foreclosed in the absence of the requisite tools to objectively measure human FFF. Recent innovations have enabled us to demonstrate that human freeze reactions to social threat mimic animal freeze responses (bodily immobility and fear bradycardia). These findings open up paths toward investigating the role of FFF reactions in social motivational disorders. The major aim of the proposed research program is to reveal the mechanistic basis of human FFF regulation through the use of three cutting-edge methods: First I intend to integrate body-postural and electroencephalographic measures to detect, for the first time, the temporal dynamics and neuroendocrine control of the full FFF sequence in healthy individuals and patients with social anxiety and aggressive disorders. Second, I will apply hormonal and neural interventions to directly manipulate human FFF control using testosterone administration and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Third, and most crucially, I will validate the predictive value of basic FFF tendencies prospectively in a large longitudinal study. I will test adolescents in a critical transition phase (age 14-17) when they are most vulnerable to social and hormonal influences and when most symptoms develop. The projected findings will advance core theoretical knowledge of the mechanistic basis of human emotion regulation. Moreover they are of critical importance for clinical treatment and society, breaking the grounds for early symptom detection and (preventive) intervention into social anxiety and aggressive disorders that form an ever-growing burden for society. Summary This study investigates the mechanistic bases of human freeze-fight-flight reactions. The ability to control our social behavior is essential for almost every social interaction. It frequently fails in challenging situations when people fall back on basic defensive „freeze-fight-flight‟ (FFF) reactions. It chronically fails in social motivational disorders, with social anxiety as one extreme, and aggression as another. Such disorders are notoriously resistant to therapy. Accordingly, it is essential that we obtain mechanistic insight into the psychological and neurobiological control of human FFF behavior. Upon a social challenge, an automatic attentive immobility, the freeze reaction, serves fast risk-assessment, needed to optimize subsequent fight-or-flight responses. Precise temporal tuning of FFF responses is critical to adequate coping with social challenges. It is orchestrated by complex neuroendocrine systems, utilizing the steroid hormone testosterone. Imbalances in the temporal dynamics and associated neuroendocrine control of FFF behaviors are highly predictive of animal fear and aggression. Testing these mechanisms in humans is critical to advance mechanistic insight in human FFF control, but has as of yet been foreclosed in the absence of the requisite tools to objectively measure human FFF. Recent innovations have enabled us to demonstrate that human freeze reactions to social threat mimic animal freeze responses (bodily immobility and fear bradycardia). These findings open up paths toward investigating the role of FFF reactions in social motivational disorders. The major aim of the proposed research program is to reveal the mechanistic basis of human FFF regulation through the use of three cutting-edge methods: First I intend to integrate body-postural and electroencephalographic measures to detect, for the first time, the temporal dynamics and neuroendocrine control of the full FFF sequence in healthy individuals and patients with social anxiety and aggressive disorders. Second, I will apply hormonal and neural interventions to directly manipulate human FFF control using testosterone administration and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Third, and most crucially, I will validate the predictive value of basic FFF tendencies prospectively in a large longitudinal study. I will test adolescents in a critical transition phase (age 14-17) when they are most vulnerable to social and hormonal influences and when most symptoms develop. The projected findings will advance core theoretical knowledge of the mechanistic basis of human emotion regulation. Moreover they are of critical importance for clinical treatment and society, breaking the grounds for early symptom detection and (preventive) intervention into social anxiety and aggressive disorders that form an ever-growing burden for society. Max ERC Funding 1 499 530 € Duration Start date: 2013-06-01, End date: 2018-05-31 Project acronym NeuroFlux Project Understanding the impact of brain fluctuations on decision making Researcher (PI) Tobias Hauser Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON Country United Kingdom Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2020-STG Summary Our societies are built on the premise that humans are rational agents who make decisions that are in line with their held beliefs. A central principle is that of choice consistency, i.e. that humans will make identical choices when facing the same problem. However, experimental work overwhelmingly demonstrates that humans are consistently inconsistent and that an exaggerated behavioural variability is a key feature of impulsive psychiatric disorders. The causes for these inconsistencies are unknown and economic theories and computational models fail to explain this omnipresent human characteristic. I propose that intrinsic fluctuations of brain activity are causing us to behave seemingly inconsistent, and the overarching aim of NeuroFlux is to examine how endogenous brain activity changes how we act and make decisions. NeuroFlux will use a novel neuroimaging framework that I have recently developed and that allows to quantify whether and how strongly endogenous fluctuations in a specific brain area contribute to behaviour. I will use this cutting-edge technology to answer the following questions: (i) How do endogenous fluctuations in the dopaminergic midbrain influence decision making and learning? (ii) How do endogenous fluctuations in the noradrenergic midbrain influence decision making? (iii) Is impulsivity driven by an exaggerated brain-behaviour coupling? To address these questions, I will combine real-time functional MRI with pharmacological manipulations and transdiagnostic studies across three intertwined work packages. NeuroFlux will reveal how the brain’s idle states drive and alter our behaviours. This project will provide a new computational understanding that no longer treats behavioural inconsistency as irrelevant noise but as a meaningful window into the brain’s inner workings. NeuroFlux thus has the potential to revolutionise how we understand human behaviour per se and may reveal the mechanisms underlying impulsive psychiatric disorders. Summary Our societies are built on the premise that humans are rational agents who make decisions that are in line with their held beliefs. A central principle is that of choice consistency, i.e. that humans will make identical choices when facing the same problem. However, experimental work overwhelmingly demonstrates that humans are consistently inconsistent and that an exaggerated behavioural variability is a key feature of impulsive psychiatric disorders. The causes for these inconsistencies are unknown and economic theories and computational models fail to explain this omnipresent human characteristic. I propose that intrinsic fluctuations of brain activity are causing us to behave seemingly inconsistent, and the overarching aim of NeuroFlux is to examine how endogenous brain activity changes how we act and make decisions. NeuroFlux will use a novel neuroimaging framework that I have recently developed and that allows to quantify whether and how strongly endogenous fluctuations in a specific brain area contribute to behaviour. I will use this cutting-edge technology to answer the following questions: (i) How do endogenous fluctuations in the dopaminergic midbrain influence decision making and learning? (ii) How do endogenous fluctuations in the noradrenergic midbrain influence decision making? (iii) Is impulsivity driven by an exaggerated brain-behaviour coupling? To address these questions, I will combine real-time functional MRI with pharmacological manipulations and transdiagnostic studies across three intertwined work packages. NeuroFlux will reveal how the brain’s idle states drive and alter our behaviours. This project will provide a new computational understanding that no longer treats behavioural inconsistency as irrelevant noise but as a meaningful window into the brain’s inner workings. NeuroFlux thus has the potential to revolutionise how we understand human behaviour per se and may reveal the mechanisms underlying impulsive psychiatric disorders. Max ERC Funding 1 499 727 € Duration Start date: 2022-02-01, End date: 2027-01-31 Project acronym NEUROINT Project How the brain codes the past to predict the future Researcher (PI) Uri Hasson Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TRENTO Country Italy Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2010-StG_20091209 Summary The overarching objective of this research program is to use neuroimaging methods to determine how the recent past is coded in the human brain and how this coding contributes to the processing of incoming information. A central tenet of this proposal is that being able to maintain a representation of the recent past is fundamental for constructing internal predictions about future states of the environment. The construction of such has been called predictive coding, such predictions have been argued to play a fundamental role in disambiguating signal information from a noisy or degraded array. We implement a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary research program to understand how regularities in the recent past are coded, and how they give rise to predictive codes of future states. On the basis of prior work we propose that disambiguation of signals is performed by a predictive system that relies strongly on representing the statistical properties of the recent past. This system is instantiated via interactions between three neural systems: (1) medial temporal structures including the hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex that encode statistical features of the recent past and signal whether predictions are licensed, (2) higher level cortical regions that code for detailed predictions in various modalities and generate efferent top-down predictions, and (3) lower-level sensory cortices whose activity at any given moment reflects not only bottom-up processing of sensory inputs, but also the assessment of these inputs against top-down predictions propagated from higher-levels regions. We will use neuroimaging methods with high spatial and temporal resolution (fMRI, MEG) to study neural activity in these three neural systems and the interaction between them. Summary The overarching objective of this research program is to use neuroimaging methods to determine how the recent past is coded in the human brain and how this coding contributes to the processing of incoming information. A central tenet of this proposal is that being able to maintain a representation of the recent past is fundamental for constructing internal predictions about future states of the environment. The construction of such has been called predictive coding, such predictions have been argued to play a fundamental role in disambiguating signal information from a noisy or degraded array. We implement a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary research program to understand how regularities in the recent past are coded, and how they give rise to predictive codes of future states. On the basis of prior work we propose that disambiguation of signals is performed by a predictive system that relies strongly on representing the statistical properties of the recent past. This system is instantiated via interactions between three neural systems: (1) medial temporal structures including the hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex that encode statistical features of the recent past and signal whether predictions are licensed, (2) higher level cortical regions that code for detailed predictions in various modalities and generate efferent top-down predictions, and (3) lower-level sensory cortices whose activity at any given moment reflects not only bottom-up processing of sensory inputs, but also the assessment of these inputs against top-down predictions propagated from higher-levels regions. We will use neuroimaging methods with high spatial and temporal resolution (fMRI, MEG) to study neural activity in these three neural systems and the interaction between them. Max ERC Funding 978 678 € Duration Start date: 2011-01-01, End date: 2015-12-31 Project acronym NEUROLEX Project Neurocognitive systems for morpho-lexical analysis: The cross-linguistic foundations for language comprehension Researcher (PI) William Marslen-Wilson Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Country United Kingdom Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2008-AdG Summary Language comprehension is a fundamentally dynamic process, where incoming speech information interfaces with two markedly different neuro-cognitive processing systems a left lateralised fronto-temporal system that is critical for linguistic processes of morphological and syntactic analysis, and a distributed bi-hemispheric system that supports semantic and pragmatic interpretation. This view of the neurocognitive language system has emerged from interdisciplinary research focusing mainly on English. The research proposed here will take our understanding of these systems to a new level of specificity in terms of the spatio-temporal pattern of different language processing procedures across the brain, while achieving a new level of generality by conducting parallel investigations in three contrasting languages. The first strand (English) will use behavioural and neuro-imaging methods (fMRI, MEG) to analyse the neural networks engaged by different types of morpho-lexical complexity. We will contrast specifically linguistic forms of complexity (derivational and inflectional morphology, argument structure, etc.) with more general sources of complexity reflecting on-line competition between different lexical and phrasal interpretations. Research in English suggests that these engage different processing systems across the two hemispheres. The second strand (Polish) examines the neural dynamics of the same sources of processing complexity in a morphologically much richer language, but sharing with English the same concatenative word-formation mechanisms. The third strand will analyse neural responses to processing complexity in the radically different morpho-lexical context of Arabic, where the fundamental mechanism of word formation is non-concatenative, and where key grammatical morphemes serve multiple linguistic functions. These cross-linguistic neuro-cognitive comparisons will provide important new information about the relationship between language and the brain. Summary Language comprehension is a fundamentally dynamic process, where incoming speech information interfaces with two markedly different neuro-cognitive processing systems a left lateralised fronto-temporal system that is critical for linguistic processes of morphological and syntactic analysis, and a distributed bi-hemispheric system that supports semantic and pragmatic interpretation. This view of the neurocognitive language system has emerged from interdisciplinary research focusing mainly on English. The research proposed here will take our understanding of these systems to a new level of specificity in terms of the spatio-temporal pattern of different language processing procedures across the brain, while achieving a new level of generality by conducting parallel investigations in three contrasting languages. The first strand (English) will use behavioural and neuro-imaging methods (fMRI, MEG) to analyse the neural networks engaged by different types of morpho-lexical complexity. We will contrast specifically linguistic forms of complexity (derivational and inflectional morphology, argument structure, etc.) with more general sources of complexity reflecting on-line competition between different lexical and phrasal interpretations. Research in English suggests that these engage different processing systems across the two hemispheres. The second strand (Polish) examines the neural dynamics of the same sources of processing complexity in a morphologically much richer language, but sharing with English the same concatenative word-formation mechanisms. The third strand will analyse neural responses to processing complexity in the radically different morpho-lexical context of Arabic, where the fundamental mechanism of word formation is non-concatenative, and where key grammatical morphemes serve multiple linguistic functions. These cross-linguistic neuro-cognitive comparisons will provide important new information about the relationship between language and the brain. Max ERC Funding 2 414 558 € Duration Start date: 2009-09-01, End date: 2015-08-31 Project acronym NEUROMEM Project A Neurocomputational Model of Episodic Memory Researcher (PI) Neil BURGESS Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON Country United Kingdom Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2015-AdG Summary Our memories define us, and their disruption in psychiatric and neurological conditions can be devastating. However, how we are able, e.g., to remember our wedding day and re-imagine the scene that was around us, remains one of the great mysteries of the human mind. NEUROMEM is an integrated experimental and computational attempt at a fundamental breakthrough in this problem. Building on recent insights into how environmental location and orientation is encoded by neurons in the mammalian brain, I aim to develop a mechanistic understanding of how events we experience are stored, recalled and imagined, i.e. a neurocomputational model of how specific memories result from patterns of activity in neuronal populations. NEUROMEM will provide mechanistic answers to 3 long-standing questions: 1) What is the link between memory and space, and role of spatial context in re-imagining episodes? 2) How are the multiple diverse elements of complex life-like events recollected together? 3) How can remembered events be read-out as visuospatial imagery? Work will comprise psychological and functional neuroimaging experiments using sophisticated designs including use of virtual reality, and corresponding simulations of how such behaviour can be driven by neuronal activity. The computational modelling will directly contact neurophysiological data such as the firing of place and grid cells in the hippocampal formation, and provide quantitative behavioural predictions, while neuroimaging provides a read out of population activity during this processing in the human brain. NEUROMEM will generate new hypotheses and explanations at the cognitive level, of interest to all scholars of the complexity of the human mind, and allow neurophysiological interpretation of behavioural data - providing a vital link between cognitive theory and neuroimaging and neurological data. Its implications extend beyond memory, including the mechanism for imagining views that have not been experienced. Summary Our memories define us, and their disruption in psychiatric and neurological conditions can be devastating. However, how we are able, e.g., to remember our wedding day and re-imagine the scene that was around us, remains one of the great mysteries of the human mind. NEUROMEM is an integrated experimental and computational attempt at a fundamental breakthrough in this problem. Building on recent insights into how environmental location and orientation is encoded by neurons in the mammalian brain, I aim to develop a mechanistic understanding of how events we experience are stored, recalled and imagined, i.e. a neurocomputational model of how specific memories result from patterns of activity in neuronal populations. NEUROMEM will provide mechanistic answers to 3 long-standing questions: 1) What is the link between memory and space, and role of spatial context in re-imagining episodes? 2) How are the multiple diverse elements of complex life-like events recollected together? 3) How can remembered events be read-out as visuospatial imagery? Work will comprise psychological and functional neuroimaging experiments using sophisticated designs including use of virtual reality, and corresponding simulations of how such behaviour can be driven by neuronal activity. The computational modelling will directly contact neurophysiological data such as the firing of place and grid cells in the hippocampal formation, and provide quantitative behavioural predictions, while neuroimaging provides a read out of population activity during this processing in the human brain. NEUROMEM will generate new hypotheses and explanations at the cognitive level, of interest to all scholars of the complexity of the human mind, and allow neurophysiological interpretation of behavioural data - providing a vital link between cognitive theory and neuroimaging and neurological data. Its implications extend beyond memory, including the mechanism for imagining views that have not been experienced. Max ERC Funding 2 429 964 € Duration Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2022-09-30 Project acronym NEUROSYNTAX Project Neural basis of syntax in the developing brain Researcher (PI) Angela Dorkas Friederici-Haag Host Institution (HI) MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV Country Germany Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2010-AdG_20100407 Summary Language is a capacity specific to humans and thus biologically based. While our knowledge concerning the neural basis of language in the adult brain has increased considerably, little is known about the relation between language and brain during ontogeny. The present study will focus on the development of brain structure and language function in the domain of syntax. Behavioural and electrophysiological studies indicate that children's basic syntactic knowledge is well advanced at around 3 years of age. However, the ability to process complex hierarchically structured sentences only develops after the age of 5 and is still not adult-like by the age of 7. In adults, two different neural networks supporting syntax have been shown: one processing complex hierarchical syntactic structures and one processing local syntactic constraints. The latter consists of inferior frontal and anterior temporal regions connected via a fibre bundle called the extreme capsule fibre system, whereas the network supporting the processing of complex syntactic structures is based on inferior frontal and posterior temporal regions connected via the superior longitudinal fascile and arcuate fascile (SLF/AF). There is some neuroanatomical evidence that the latter fibre bundles develop relatively late in children. Here, we will investigate the hypothesis that the maturation of the SLF/AF is a prerequisite for the development of the human ability to process complex syntax. We will do so by correlating behavioural, functional and structural brain imaging data in children at different developmental stages. This research will provide fundamental knowledge about the codevelopment of language and the brain, and furthermore serve as a prerequisite for the diagnosis of atypical language development. Summary Language is a capacity specific to humans and thus biologically based. While our knowledge concerning the neural basis of language in the adult brain has increased considerably, little is known about the relation between language and brain during ontogeny. The present study will focus on the development of brain structure and language function in the domain of syntax. Behavioural and electrophysiological studies indicate that children's basic syntactic knowledge is well advanced at around 3 years of age. However, the ability to process complex hierarchically structured sentences only develops after the age of 5 and is still not adult-like by the age of 7. In adults, two different neural networks supporting syntax have been shown: one processing complex hierarchical syntactic structures and one processing local syntactic constraints. The latter consists of inferior frontal and anterior temporal regions connected via a fibre bundle called the extreme capsule fibre system, whereas the network supporting the processing of complex syntactic structures is based on inferior frontal and posterior temporal regions connected via the superior longitudinal fascile and arcuate fascile (SLF/AF). There is some neuroanatomical evidence that the latter fibre bundles develop relatively late in children. Here, we will investigate the hypothesis that the maturation of the SLF/AF is a prerequisite for the development of the human ability to process complex syntax. We will do so by correlating behavioural, functional and structural brain imaging data in children at different developmental stages. This research will provide fundamental knowledge about the codevelopment of language and the brain, and furthermore serve as a prerequisite for the diagnosis of atypical language development. Max ERC Funding 2 366 688 € Duration Start date: 2011-07-01, End date: 2016-06-30 Project acronym NewEat Project Transdiagnostic views on eating disorders and obesity and new approaches for treatment Researcher (PI) Jens Blechert Host Institution (HI) PARIS-LODRON-UNIVERSITAT SALZBURG Country Austria Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2014-STG Summary Eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa (AN), Bulimia Nervosa (BN), Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and overweight/obesity are highly prevalent in the EU and worldwide. They cause tremendous suffering, elevate suicide rates, and account for multiple organic effects that increase all-cause mortality. Etiological and maintenance factors are not well understood and transdiagnostic theoretical models across eating and weight disorders are largely missing. The present project aims to develop an integrated theoretical framework by studying psychological factors that contribute to non-homeostatic eating across the full spectrum of eating-related disorders. It is proposed that high levels on psychological traits such as restraint eating (i.e., chronic dieting behaviour), emotional eating (i.e., eating in response to negative emotional events rather than hunger), craving/food addiction (i.e., intense and chronic urge to consume palatable foods), impulsivity (i.e., inadequate food consumption planning and low self-control), and low self-esteem influence neural systems that balance appetitive (mostly bottom-up) with regulatory (mostly top-down) processes. This model is tested in the four patient groups and healthy controls utilizing an integrated set of assessment methods, involving psychometric testing, smartphone based ambulatory assessment, and neurocognitive laboratory measurement. Derived from this model, novel behavioural interventions such as smartphone based stimulus control and cognitive inhibition training will be developed. Results will have implications for theoretical models of eating and weight disorders as well as for neuroaffective models of appetite regulation. Smartphone technology might usefully complement current interventions in supporting an effective transfer to daily life and help alleviate the burden for patients with eating-related mental and physical diseases. Summary Eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa (AN), Bulimia Nervosa (BN), Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and overweight/obesity are highly prevalent in the EU and worldwide. They cause tremendous suffering, elevate suicide rates, and account for multiple organic effects that increase all-cause mortality. Etiological and maintenance factors are not well understood and transdiagnostic theoretical models across eating and weight disorders are largely missing. The present project aims to develop an integrated theoretical framework by studying psychological factors that contribute to non-homeostatic eating across the full spectrum of eating-related disorders. It is proposed that high levels on psychological traits such as restraint eating (i.e., chronic dieting behaviour), emotional eating (i.e., eating in response to negative emotional events rather than hunger), craving/food addiction (i.e., intense and chronic urge to consume palatable foods), impulsivity (i.e., inadequate food consumption planning and low self-control), and low self-esteem influence neural systems that balance appetitive (mostly bottom-up) with regulatory (mostly top-down) processes. This model is tested in the four patient groups and healthy controls utilizing an integrated set of assessment methods, involving psychometric testing, smartphone based ambulatory assessment, and neurocognitive laboratory measurement. Derived from this model, novel behavioural interventions such as smartphone based stimulus control and cognitive inhibition training will be developed. Results will have implications for theoretical models of eating and weight disorders as well as for neuroaffective models of appetite regulation. Smartphone technology might usefully complement current interventions in supporting an effective transfer to daily life and help alleviate the burden for patients with eating-related mental and physical diseases. Max ERC Funding 1 327 016 € Duration Start date: 2015-07-01, End date: 2020-12-31 Project acronym NewSense Project Perception with New Sensory Signals Researcher (PI) Marko NARDINI Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM Country United Kingdom Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2018-COG Summary Advances in wearable displays and networked devices lead to the exciting possibility that humans can transcend the senses they were born with and learn to ‘see’ the world in radically new ways. Genuinely incorporating new signals in our sensory repertoire would transform our everyday experience, from social encounters to surgery, and advance us towards a technologically-enhanced ‘transhuman’ state. In contrast, current additions to sensory streams such as navigating with GPS are far from being incorporated into our natural perception: we interpret them effortfully, like words from a foreign menu, rather than feeling them directly. In this project, we use a ground-breaking new approach to test how new sensory signals can be incorporated into the fundamental human experience. We train participants using new immersive virtual-reality paradigms developed in our lab, which give us unprecedented speed, control and flexibility. We test what is learned by comparing different mathematical model predictions with perceptual performance. This model-based approach uniquely shows when new signals are integrated into standard sensory processing. We compare neuroimaging data with model predictions to detect integration of newly-learned signals within brain circuits processing familiar signals. We test predictions that short-term changes to normal visual input can improve adult plasticity, and measure age-changes in plasticity by testing 8- to 12-year-old children. In a wide-ranging design allowing for domain-general conclusions, we work across modalities (visual, auditory, tactile) and across two fundamental perceptual problems: judging spatial layout (‘where’ objects are) and material properties (‘what’ they are made of). The work will provide fundamental insights into computational and brain mechanisms underlying sensory learning, and a platform for transcending the limits of human perception. Summary Advances in wearable displays and networked devices lead to the exciting possibility that humans can transcend the senses they were born with and learn to ‘see’ the world in radically new ways. Genuinely incorporating new signals in our sensory repertoire would transform our everyday experience, from social encounters to surgery, and advance us towards a technologically-enhanced ‘transhuman’ state. In contrast, current additions to sensory streams such as navigating with GPS are far from being incorporated into our natural perception: we interpret them effortfully, like words from a foreign menu, rather than feeling them directly. In this project, we use a ground-breaking new approach to test how new sensory signals can be incorporated into the fundamental human experience. We train participants using new immersive virtual-reality paradigms developed in our lab, which give us unprecedented speed, control and flexibility. We test what is learned by comparing different mathematical model predictions with perceptual performance. This model-based approach uniquely shows when new signals are integrated into standard sensory processing. We compare neuroimaging data with model predictions to detect integration of newly-learned signals within brain circuits processing familiar signals. We test predictions that short-term changes to normal visual input can improve adult plasticity, and measure age-changes in plasticity by testing 8- to 12-year-old children. In a wide-ranging design allowing for domain-general conclusions, we work across modalities (visual, auditory, tactile) and across two fundamental perceptual problems: judging spatial layout (‘where’ objects are) and material properties (‘what’ they are made of). The work will provide fundamental insights into computational and brain mechanisms underlying sensory learning, and a platform for transcending the limits of human perception. Max ERC Funding 1 955 953 € Duration Start date: 2019-05-01, End date: 2024-10-31 Project acronym NGBMI Project Building Next-Generation Brain/Neural-Machine Interfaces For Restoration of Brain Functions Researcher (PI) Surjo SOEKADAR Host Institution (HI) CHARITE - UNIVERSITAETSMEDIZIN BERLIN Country Germany Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2017-STG Summary Today, five out of ten diseases worldwide resulting in long-term disability are related to the central nervous system. Due to the immense complexity and inter-individual variability of the human mind and brain there are still no effective and side effect free treatment options for many serious neuropsychiatric disorders, such as major depression, dementia or schizophrenia. Recent advancements in sensor technology and computational capacities resulted in the development of brain/neural-machine interfaces (B/NMIs) that translate electric, magnetic or metabolic brain activity into control signals of external devices, robots or machines. Moreover, novel transcranial magnetic and electric brain stimulation (TMS/TES) systems were developed allowing for direct modulation of brain activity. However, current B/NMIs are limited by the low information extraction rate constraining fluent direct brain-machine interaction. Furthermore, as simultaneous assessment of brain oscillations during TES was regarded unfeasible due to stimulation artefacts, current TES systems can only deliver “open-loop” stimulation unrelated to the underlying dynamic brain states resulting in highly variable TES effects. Building on the applicant’s previous work that includes pioneering work on in vivo assessment of brain oscillations during TES (Soekadar et al. 2013, Nature Communications) and full restoration of daily living activities after quadriplegia using a novel B/NMI hand exoskeleton (Soekadar et al. 2016, Science Robotics), the NGBMI project will overcome these limitations by merging both techniques. After developing the first real-time B/NMI-TES system allowing for effective modulation of brain functions and fluent direct brain-machine interaction, the system will be tested in persons with impaired brain function (e.g. depression, dementia or stroke). Finally, the B/NMI-TES paradigm will be implemented in a wireless and wearable EEG-based system that can be used in everyday life environments. Summary Today, five out of ten diseases worldwide resulting in long-term disability are related to the central nervous system. Due to the immense complexity and inter-individual variability of the human mind and brain there are still no effective and side effect free treatment options for many serious neuropsychiatric disorders, such as major depression, dementia or schizophrenia. Recent advancements in sensor technology and computational capacities resulted in the development of brain/neural-machine interfaces (B/NMIs) that translate electric, magnetic or metabolic brain activity into control signals of external devices, robots or machines. Moreover, novel transcranial magnetic and electric brain stimulation (TMS/TES) systems were developed allowing for direct modulation of brain activity. However, current B/NMIs are limited by the low information extraction rate constraining fluent direct brain-machine interaction. Furthermore, as simultaneous assessment of brain oscillations during TES was regarded unfeasible due to stimulation artefacts, current TES systems can only deliver “open-loop” stimulation unrelated to the underlying dynamic brain states resulting in highly variable TES effects. Building on the applicant’s previous work that includes pioneering work on in vivo assessment of brain oscillations during TES (Soekadar et al. 2013, Nature Communications) and full restoration of daily living activities after quadriplegia using a novel B/NMI hand exoskeleton (Soekadar et al. 2016, Science Robotics), the NGBMI project will overcome these limitations by merging both techniques. After developing the first real-time B/NMI-TES system allowing for effective modulation of brain functions and fluent direct brain-machine interaction, the system will be tested in persons with impaired brain function (e.g. depression, dementia or stroke). Finally, the B/NMI-TES paradigm will be implemented in a wireless and wearable EEG-based system that can be used in everyday life environments. Max ERC Funding 1 498 125 € Duration Start date: 2018-11-01, End date: 2023-10-31 Project acronym NINI Project Neuronal Information through Neuronal Interactions Researcher (PI) Markus SIEGEL Host Institution (HI) EBERHARD KARLS UNIVERSITAET TUEBINGEN Country Germany Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2019-COG Summary Our thoughts and actions result from the activity of functionally specialized neurons in the brain. We have learned a lot about how individual neurons encode sensory, cognitive and motor information. But we lack understanding of how this information comes about. The fundamental, yet rarely addresses, assumption is that this information results from neuronal interactions within local and large-scale brain networks. However, little is known about which specific interactions establish information coding. This is because neuronal interactions and information coding are largely studied in isolation in separate research fields. The key objective of this proposal is to close this gap, and to directly test which neuronal interactions establish information coding. We will employ a novel interdisciplinary approach that tightly integrates human and monkey electrophysiology and that combines several key advances established in our lab. First, we will perform directly comparable human M/EEG and monkey EEG recordings during the same decision-making task. We will employ a common analysis platform to identify local and large-scale interactions underlying information coding in both species. Second, we will characterize the circuit interactions underlying information predictive interactions in monkeys using simultaneous large-scale multi-area microelectrode and EEG recordings in the same behavioral task. We will combine these recordings with manipulative techniques to causally probe the circuit interactions underlying information coding. If successful, this work will constitute a paradigm shift in cognitive neuroscience by linking to largely disconnected fields: neuronal interactions and information coding. Identifying neuronal interactions that underlie neuronal information coding will establish a breakthrough for understanding the neural basis of our thoughts and actions. Summary Our thoughts and actions result from the activity of functionally specialized neurons in the brain. We have learned a lot about how individual neurons encode sensory, cognitive and motor information. But we lack understanding of how this information comes about. The fundamental, yet rarely addresses, assumption is that this information results from neuronal interactions within local and large-scale brain networks. However, little is known about which specific interactions establish information coding. This is because neuronal interactions and information coding are largely studied in isolation in separate research fields. The key objective of this proposal is to close this gap, and to directly test which neuronal interactions establish information coding. We will employ a novel interdisciplinary approach that tightly integrates human and monkey electrophysiology and that combines several key advances established in our lab. First, we will perform directly comparable human M/EEG and monkey EEG recordings during the same decision-making task. We will employ a common analysis platform to identify local and large-scale interactions underlying information coding in both species. Second, we will characterize the circuit interactions underlying information predictive interactions in monkeys using simultaneous large-scale multi-area microelectrode and EEG recordings in the same behavioral task. We will combine these recordings with manipulative techniques to causally probe the circuit interactions underlying information coding. If successful, this work will constitute a paradigm shift in cognitive neuroscience by linking to largely disconnected fields: neuronal interactions and information coding. Identifying neuronal interactions that underlie neuronal information coding will establish a breakthrough for understanding the neural basis of our thoughts and actions. Max ERC Funding 1 999 375 € Duration Start date: 2020-07-01, End date: 2025-06-30 Project acronym NOAM Project Navigation of a mind-space. The spatial organization of declarative knowledge Researcher (PI) Roberto Bottini Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TRENTO Country Italy Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2018-STG Summary "Your brain is among the most complex existing systems, and it processes every second an amazing amount of data. The most amazing thing, however, is that you get to know some of it. Declarative knowledge, meaning the portion of knowledge that we can consciously access and manipulate, is one of the most enduring mysteries of the human mind. How did it evolve? And what are the mechanisms behind it? One possibility is that the complex neural machinery that mammals evolved to navigate space has been recycled to ""navigate"" declarative knowledge. Research from single cell recordings in rodents to brain imaging studies with humans is converging toward the fascinating hypothesis that conscious declarative knowledge is spatially organized, and can be stored, retrieved and manipulated through the same computations used to represent and navigate physical space. Crucially, this spatial scaffolding may be what makes knowledge accessible to us. The time is mature for an integral and ambitious attempt to test and develop this innovative hypothesis. NOAM will be at the frontline of this endeavour relying upon cutting-edge neuroimaging and analysis techniques. In this project we will test the relationships between spatial and conceptual navigation asking whether people that navigate space in a different way (congenitally blind individuals) also navigate concepts in a different way. Then, we will explore how low-dimensional cognitive maps interact with multidimensional semantic information, and we will test whether the spatial organization is a trademark of conscious declarative knowledge or extends to unconscious conceptual processing. Finally we will adopt a translational approach to characterize the neural basis of pre-clinical Alzheimer Disease. Thanks to its groundbreaking nature and high-risk/high-gain approach, NOAM has the potential to ensure major progresses in cognitive neuroscience, artificial intelligence and related fields, changing the way we think about the human mind" Summary "Your brain is among the most complex existing systems, and it processes every second an amazing amount of data. The most amazing thing, however, is that you get to know some of it. Declarative knowledge, meaning the portion of knowledge that we can consciously access and manipulate, is one of the most enduring mysteries of the human mind. How did it evolve? And what are the mechanisms behind it? One possibility is that the complex neural machinery that mammals evolved to navigate space has been recycled to ""navigate"" declarative knowledge. Research from single cell recordings in rodents to brain imaging studies with humans is converging toward the fascinating hypothesis that conscious declarative knowledge is spatially organized, and can be stored, retrieved and manipulated through the same computations used to represent and navigate physical space. Crucially, this spatial scaffolding may be what makes knowledge accessible to us. The time is mature for an integral and ambitious attempt to test and develop this innovative hypothesis. NOAM will be at the frontline of this endeavour relying upon cutting-edge neuroimaging and analysis techniques. In this project we will test the relationships between spatial and conceptual navigation asking whether people that navigate space in a different way (congenitally blind individuals) also navigate concepts in a different way. Then, we will explore how low-dimensional cognitive maps interact with multidimensional semantic information, and we will test whether the spatial organization is a trademark of conscious declarative knowledge or extends to unconscious conceptual processing. Finally we will adopt a translational approach to characterize the neural basis of pre-clinical Alzheimer Disease. Thanks to its groundbreaking nature and high-risk/high-gain approach, NOAM has the potential to ensure major progresses in cognitive neuroscience, artificial intelligence and related fields, changing the way we think about the human mind" Max ERC Funding 1 498 644 € Duration Start date: 2019-04-01, End date: 2024-03-31 Project acronym NOISYDECISIONS Project Neural decisions under uncertainty Researcher (PI) Janneke Frouke Margareth Jehee Host Institution (HI) STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT Country Netherlands Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2015-STG Summary Virtually anything we sense, think and do is uncertain. For instance, when driving a car, you often need to determine how close you are to the car in front of you. It is near impossible to estimate this distance with absolute certainty – but it is possible to guess and even to estimate the uncertainty associated with that guess. Accordingly, we reduce speed when driving at night, because we realize perceived distance is more uncertain in the dark than on a sunny, clear day. How do we infer that visual information is less reliable at night? How does the brain represent knowledge of sensory uncertainty? How do we decide to reduce speed? The overall aim of this proposal is to investigate the neural basis of perceptual decision-making under uncertainty. I will concentrate on three major research questions. First, I aim to establish the degree to which sensory uncertainty is represented in human visual cortex. Second, I will examine whether observers are aware of this uncertainty when making decisions. Third, I will investigate the sources of noise that cause the uncertainty in our perceptual decisions. I will address these questions using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in combination with a novel analytical method to analyzing fMRI data that I recently developed. This novel approach allows me to characterize, on a trial-by-trial basis, the uncertainty in cortical stimulus representations, and to address unresolved issues regarding the neural mechanisms of human perceptual decision-making. The results from this project will provide important new insights into the neural basis of perceptual decisions, with profound implications for theories of cortical visual function. Given that mechanisms of visual decision-making likely resemble the mechanisms underlying other forms of decisions throughout the brain, the proposed research will also provide a basis for understanding choice under uncertainty in general. Summary Virtually anything we sense, think and do is uncertain. For instance, when driving a car, you often need to determine how close you are to the car in front of you. It is near impossible to estimate this distance with absolute certainty – but it is possible to guess and even to estimate the uncertainty associated with that guess. Accordingly, we reduce speed when driving at night, because we realize perceived distance is more uncertain in the dark than on a sunny, clear day. How do we infer that visual information is less reliable at night? How does the brain represent knowledge of sensory uncertainty? How do we decide to reduce speed? The overall aim of this proposal is to investigate the neural basis of perceptual decision-making under uncertainty. I will concentrate on three major research questions. First, I aim to establish the degree to which sensory uncertainty is represented in human visual cortex. Second, I will examine whether observers are aware of this uncertainty when making decisions. Third, I will investigate the sources of noise that cause the uncertainty in our perceptual decisions. I will address these questions using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in combination with a novel analytical method to analyzing fMRI data that I recently developed. This novel approach allows me to characterize, on a trial-by-trial basis, the uncertainty in cortical stimulus representations, and to address unresolved issues regarding the neural mechanisms of human perceptual decision-making. The results from this project will provide important new insights into the neural basis of perceptual decisions, with profound implications for theories of cortical visual function. Given that mechanisms of visual decision-making likely resemble the mechanisms underlying other forms of decisions throughout the brain, the proposed research will also provide a basis for understanding choice under uncertainty in general. Max ERC Funding 1 500 000 € Duration Start date: 2016-12-01, End date: 2021-11-30 Project acronym NOREPI Project Noradrenergic control of human cognition Researcher (PI) Sander Nieuwenhuis Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN Country Netherlands Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2011-StG_20101124 Summary The locus coeruleus (LC) is the brainstem neuromodulatory nucleus responsible for most of the norepinephrine (NE) released in the brain. The LC has widespread projections throughout the forebrain. Indeed, this small nucleus innervates a greater variety of brain areas than any other single nucleus yet described. It is clear that the neuromodulatory effects of NE must have pervasive influences on cognitive function in humans. However, these influences are poorly understood, in part because of the challenge of linking disparate levels of description: low-level neuromodulatory effects and mental computations. Furthermore, recent theories about LC function are almost exclusively based on animal studies and computational modeling. In contrast, there have been very few empirical studies of LC-NE function in humans. This is not so surprising since the study of this system in humans poses considerable methodological challenges. The major aim of the proposed research program is to enhance our understanding of the role of the LC-NE system in human cognition through the use of two cutting-edge methods: First, I intend to directly measure BOLD responses in the LC using a set of newly developed MRI methods for brainstem imaging. Second, I propose a number of psychopharmacological studies to directly manipulate LC-NE function and measure the corresponding effects on brain and behavior. These methods will allow me to address a wide range of questions—many of which have not been addressed in animal models—concerning the role of the LC-NE system in optimizing task performance in the context of uncertainty about the environment, performance errors, emotional stimuli, and other demanding situations. The proposed research will be critical in elucidating the role of LC-NE function in human attention and performance, and will have important implications for the study of clinical disorders associated with disturbed LC-NE function. Summary The locus coeruleus (LC) is the brainstem neuromodulatory nucleus responsible for most of the norepinephrine (NE) released in the brain. The LC has widespread projections throughout the forebrain. Indeed, this small nucleus innervates a greater variety of brain areas than any other single nucleus yet described. It is clear that the neuromodulatory effects of NE must have pervasive influences on cognitive function in humans. However, these influences are poorly understood, in part because of the challenge of linking disparate levels of description: low-level neuromodulatory effects and mental computations. Furthermore, recent theories about LC function are almost exclusively based on animal studies and computational modeling. In contrast, there have been very few empirical studies of LC-NE function in humans. This is not so surprising since the study of this system in humans poses considerable methodological challenges. The major aim of the proposed research program is to enhance our understanding of the role of the LC-NE system in human cognition through the use of two cutting-edge methods: First, I intend to directly measure BOLD responses in the LC using a set of newly developed MRI methods for brainstem imaging. Second, I propose a number of psychopharmacological studies to directly manipulate LC-NE function and measure the corresponding effects on brain and behavior. These methods will allow me to address a wide range of questions—many of which have not been addressed in animal models—concerning the role of the LC-NE system in optimizing task performance in the context of uncertainty about the environment, performance errors, emotional stimuli, and other demanding situations. The proposed research will be critical in elucidating the role of LC-NE function in human attention and performance, and will have important implications for the study of clinical disorders associated with disturbed LC-NE function. Max ERC Funding 1 495 200 € Duration Start date: 2012-03-01, End date: 2017-02-28 Project acronym NS-MORALITY Project Distortions of Normativity: The NS-System and Morality Researcher (PI) Herlinde Pauer-Studer Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT WIEN Country Austria Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2009-AdG Summary The Nazi system was not amoralism in the classical textbook sense but a specific, though contorted normative order. The basic argument was that political emergency conditions made it necessary to replace the unstable liberal-democratic framework of the Weimar Republic by a 'new source of law : the authority and political will of the Führer. The claim to correctly interpret the Führer s will and intentions became the new foundation of legitimate political action . Consequently emergency decrees, political initiatives, and party agitation replaced the rule of law. The Nazis worked, however, with a highly moralized conception of social reality, based on perverted notions of duty, honor, loyalty, fidelity, and sincerity. The Nazi regime provided people with justifications of policies and measures that for many followers amounted to a 'meaningful story . They managed to set a normative framework within which even fulfilling killing orders 'made sense . A perverted model of practical reasoning was propagated by the highest authorities according to which immediate reactions of resistance and revulsion counted as 'natural temptations' which had to be overcome. The aim of the project is to: - provide a detailed account of the normative order of the Nazi system and the transformations of the key political and legal institutions that it brought about; - analyze in detail the distorted notions of duty, obedience, and decency and the corresponding self-conceptions the Nazi regime encouraged; - explore the implications of our findings for the following broader questions: * How should we assess conceptions of normativity under non-ideal conditions? * What is the relationship between legality and legitimacy under non-ideal conditions? * What exactly are the standards for acting morally under non-ideal conditions? Summary The Nazi system was not amoralism in the classical textbook sense but a specific, though contorted normative order. The basic argument was that political emergency conditions made it necessary to replace the unstable liberal-democratic framework of the Weimar Republic by a 'new source of law : the authority and political will of the Führer. The claim to correctly interpret the Führer s will and intentions became the new foundation of legitimate political action . Consequently emergency decrees, political initiatives, and party agitation replaced the rule of law. The Nazis worked, however, with a highly moralized conception of social reality, based on perverted notions of duty, honor, loyalty, fidelity, and sincerity. The Nazi regime provided people with justifications of policies and measures that for many followers amounted to a 'meaningful story . They managed to set a normative framework within which even fulfilling killing orders 'made sense . A perverted model of practical reasoning was propagated by the highest authorities according to which immediate reactions of resistance and revulsion counted as 'natural temptations' which had to be overcome. The aim of the project is to: - provide a detailed account of the normative order of the Nazi system and the transformations of the key political and legal institutions that it brought about; - analyze in detail the distorted notions of duty, obedience, and decency and the corresponding self-conceptions the Nazi regime encouraged; - explore the implications of our findings for the following broader questions: * How should we assess conceptions of normativity under non-ideal conditions? * What is the relationship between legality and legitimacy under non-ideal conditions? * What exactly are the standards for acting morally under non-ideal conditions? Max ERC Funding 1 261 004 € Duration Start date: 2010-07-01, End date: 2015-06-30 Project acronym O-CODE Project Cracking the orthographic code Researcher (PI) Ian Jonathan Grainger Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS Country France Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2008-AdG Summary The proposed research is designed to test a new theory of orthographic processing - that is a theory about how information concerning letter identity and letter position is encoded during reading. The theory is couched within a general framework for word recognition that makes a critical distinction between a coarse-grained orthographic code that provides a fast-track to semantics, and a fine-grained orthographic code that is used to generate a prelexical phonological code, hence providing the connection with auditory word processing. The project is divided into three sections, each examining a specific component of this theoretical framework. Section 1 examines low-level visual constraints on the earliest phase of orthographic processing - the retinotopic mapping of visual features onto letter identities. Section 2 examines how this preliminary orthographic information can be most efficiently used to constrain lexical identity via a coarse-grained, word-centered orthographic code. Section 3 examines a further critical constraint on orthographic processing - the fact that the orthographic system is grafted onto a pre-existing phonological system during the course of reading acquisition. Each section of the research program will combine the methods of experimental cognitive psychology with visual psychophysics, brain imaging (ERPs and MEG), and computational modeling. This multi-methodological approach is one of the keys to success of the present project, along with the strong theory-driven nature of the proposed research. It is this unique combination that is expected to generate the breakthroughs that will provide the foundations for a general account of skilled reading and its breakdown in reading disabled persons. Summary The proposed research is designed to test a new theory of orthographic processing - that is a theory about how information concerning letter identity and letter position is encoded during reading. The theory is couched within a general framework for word recognition that makes a critical distinction between a coarse-grained orthographic code that provides a fast-track to semantics, and a fine-grained orthographic code that is used to generate a prelexical phonological code, hence providing the connection with auditory word processing. The project is divided into three sections, each examining a specific component of this theoretical framework. Section 1 examines low-level visual constraints on the earliest phase of orthographic processing - the retinotopic mapping of visual features onto letter identities. Section 2 examines how this preliminary orthographic information can be most efficiently used to constrain lexical identity via a coarse-grained, word-centered orthographic code. Section 3 examines a further critical constraint on orthographic processing - the fact that the orthographic system is grafted onto a pre-existing phonological system during the course of reading acquisition. Each section of the research program will combine the methods of experimental cognitive psychology with visual psychophysics, brain imaging (ERPs and MEG), and computational modeling. This multi-methodological approach is one of the keys to success of the present project, along with the strong theory-driven nature of the proposed research. It is this unique combination that is expected to generate the breakthroughs that will provide the foundations for a general account of skilled reading and its breakdown in reading disabled persons. Max ERC Funding 2 223 513 € Duration Start date: 2009-11-01, End date: 2014-10-31 Project acronym OBESITY_SPIRAL Project The obesity spiral: inflammation and effortless fast food choices Researcher (PI) Esther AARTS Host Institution (HI) STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT Country Netherlands Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2019-STG Summary Obesity is a major threat to human health, often characterized by increased consumption of energy-dense and easy-to-eat, ‘effortless fast food’. A better understanding of effort-related motivation in obesity is important to explain why healthy lifestyle changes are often so hard to maintain. Previously, I have demonstrated the neurocognitive and neurochemical processes underlying motivational control of behaviour. However, in obesity, findings about the motivation to overcome effort costs for food reward – and associated dopamine signalling - are inconsistent, suggesting another – yet unknown - variable. Here, I am the first to suggest that this variable is chronic low-grade inflammation - as a direct result of excess body fat. Peripheral inflammation can affect the brain dopamine system to decrease effortful behaviour, enforcing the downwards spiral of obesity. However, how an elevated inflammatory tone in obesity relates to effort-based decision-making is currently unknown. Here, I aim to elucidate the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying effort-based decision-making in human obesity and the explanatory role of inflammation, using both an observational and a supplementation design with the anti-inflammatory aspirin-like drug salsalate. Moreover, I will determine the causal role of dopamine in effort-based decision-making in obesity by employing acute administration of the dopamine precursor levodopa, and I will study levodopa’s effects as a function of inflammatory tone. I will develop a novel fMRI paradigm that dissociates food reward anticipation, reward sensitivity versus effort avoidance during effort decision, effort exertion and reward consumption. Lab findings will be translated to real life with experience sampling methods. This innovative, interdisciplinary approach will elucidate the inflammation-effort link in obesity and explain inconsistent findings about dopamine abnormalities and effortful behaviour in obesity. Summary Obesity is a major threat to human health, often characterized by increased consumption of energy-dense and easy-to-eat, ‘effortless fast food’. A better understanding of effort-related motivation in obesity is important to explain why healthy lifestyle changes are often so hard to maintain. Previously, I have demonstrated the neurocognitive and neurochemical processes underlying motivational control of behaviour. However, in obesity, findings about the motivation to overcome effort costs for food reward – and associated dopamine signalling - are inconsistent, suggesting another – yet unknown - variable. Here, I am the first to suggest that this variable is chronic low-grade inflammation - as a direct result of excess body fat. Peripheral inflammation can affect the brain dopamine system to decrease effortful behaviour, enforcing the downwards spiral of obesity. However, how an elevated inflammatory tone in obesity relates to effort-based decision-making is currently unknown. Here, I aim to elucidate the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying effort-based decision-making in human obesity and the explanatory role of inflammation, using both an observational and a supplementation design with the anti-inflammatory aspirin-like drug salsalate. Moreover, I will determine the causal role of dopamine in effort-based decision-making in obesity by employing acute administration of the dopamine precursor levodopa, and I will study levodopa’s effects as a function of inflammatory tone. I will develop a novel fMRI paradigm that dissociates food reward anticipation, reward sensitivity versus effort avoidance during effort decision, effort exertion and reward consumption. Lab findings will be translated to real life with experience sampling methods. This innovative, interdisciplinary approach will elucidate the inflammation-effort link in obesity and explain inconsistent findings about dopamine abnormalities and effortful behaviour in obesity. Max ERC Funding 1 500 000 € Duration Start date: 2020-11-01, End date: 2025-10-31 Project acronym Objectivity Project Making Scientific Inferences More Objective Researcher (PI) Jan (Michael) Sprenger Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TORINO Country Italy Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2014-STG Summary "What makes scientific inferences trustworthy? Why do we think that scientific knowledge is more than the subjective opinion of clever people at universities? When answering these questions, the notion of objectivity plays a crucial role: the label ""objective"" (1) marks an inference as unbiased and trustworthy and (2) grounds the authority of science in society. Conversely, any challenge to this image of objectivity undermines public trust in science. Sometimes these challenges consist in outright conflicts of interests, but sometimes, they are of a foundational epistemic nature. For instance, standard inference techniques in medicine and psychology have been shown to give a biased and misleading picture of reality. My project addresses precisely those epistemic challenges and develops ways of making scientific inferences more objective. Our key move is to go beyond the traditional definition of objectivity as a ""view from nowhere"" and to calibrate the most recent philosophical accounts of objectivity (e.g., convergence of different inference methods) with the practice of scientific inference. The combination of normative and descriptive analysis is likely to break new ground in philosophy of science and beyond. In particular, we demonstrate how two salient features of scientific practice––methodological pluralism and subjective choices in inference––can be reconciled with the aim of objective knowledge. The benefits of the proposed research are manifold. First and foremost, it will greatly enhance our understanding of the scope and limits of scientific objectivity. Second, it will improve standard forms of scientific inference, such as hypothesis testing and causal and explanatory reasoning. This will be highly useful for scientific practitioners from nearly all empirical disciplines. Third, we will apply our theoretical insights to ameliorating the design and interpretation of clinical trials, where objectivity and impartiality are sine qua non requirements." Summary "What makes scientific inferences trustworthy? Why do we think that scientific knowledge is more than the subjective opinion of clever people at universities? When answering these questions, the notion of objectivity plays a crucial role: the label ""objective"" (1) marks an inference as unbiased and trustworthy and (2) grounds the authority of science in society. Conversely, any challenge to this image of objectivity undermines public trust in science. Sometimes these challenges consist in outright conflicts of interests, but sometimes, they are of a foundational epistemic nature. For instance, standard inference techniques in medicine and psychology have been shown to give a biased and misleading picture of reality. My project addresses precisely those epistemic challenges and develops ways of making scientific inferences more objective. Our key move is to go beyond the traditional definition of objectivity as a ""view from nowhere"" and to calibrate the most recent philosophical accounts of objectivity (e.g., convergence of different inference methods) with the practice of scientific inference. The combination of normative and descriptive analysis is likely to break new ground in philosophy of science and beyond. In particular, we demonstrate how two salient features of scientific practice––methodological pluralism and subjective choices in inference––can be reconciled with the aim of objective knowledge. The benefits of the proposed research are manifold. First and foremost, it will greatly enhance our understanding of the scope and limits of scientific objectivity. Second, it will improve standard forms of scientific inference, such as hypothesis testing and causal and explanatory reasoning. This will be highly useful for scientific practitioners from nearly all empirical disciplines. Third, we will apply our theoretical insights to ameliorating the design and interpretation of clinical trials, where objectivity and impartiality are sine qua non requirements." Max ERC Funding 1 487 928 € Duration Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31 Project acronym OCMATE Project Do oral contraceptives alter women’s mate preferences? Researcher (PI) Benedict Jones Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW Country United Kingdom Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2011-StG_20101124 Summary "Worldwide, ~100 million women use oral contraceptives (OCs). Discontinuation of OC use due to concerns about possible side effects is common among women who do not intend to become pregnant. Many recent studies have reported that women using OCs and women not using OCs have different mate preferences, raising the possibility that OCs alter mate preferences. Although these findings have been widely reported in the popular press as evidence that OCs alter women’s mate preferences, the between-subjects designs used in these studies mean that it is not known whether such differences reflect pre-existing differences in the mate preferences of OC users and non-users or occur because OCs alter mate preferences. If OCs alter mate preferences, knowledge of this phenomenon would likely figure in women’s decisions about contraception. If OCs do not alter mate preferences, reports in the media that ascribe causality to the effects of OCs in between-subjects studies are very misleading. My research will combine within-subjects and between-subjects designs to establish if OCs alter women’s mate preferences and if there are pre-existing differences in the mate preferences of OC users and non-users. The project is groundbreaking in 4 important ways: (1) it will resolve whether OCs alter women’s mate preferences, (2) it will be by far the most comprehensive study of hormone-mediated social perception ever undertaken, (3) it will use sophisticated computer graphic methods to assess women’s mate preferences using photorealistic static face images and more ecologically valid video stimuli, and (4) it will use powerful new statistical techniques (multilevel statistical methods) that have not previously been used to investigate hormone-mediated social perception. Importantly, the proposed research will provide essential information for women’s contraceptive choices and illuminate the roles of endogenous and exogenous hormones in the regulation of social perception." Summary "Worldwide, ~100 million women use oral contraceptives (OCs). Discontinuation of OC use due to concerns about possible side effects is common among women who do not intend to become pregnant. Many recent studies have reported that women using OCs and women not using OCs have different mate preferences, raising the possibility that OCs alter mate preferences. Although these findings have been widely reported in the popular press as evidence that OCs alter women’s mate preferences, the between-subjects designs used in these studies mean that it is not known whether such differences reflect pre-existing differences in the mate preferences of OC users and non-users or occur because OCs alter mate preferences. If OCs alter mate preferences, knowledge of this phenomenon would likely figure in women’s decisions about contraception. If OCs do not alter mate preferences, reports in the media that ascribe causality to the effects of OCs in between-subjects studies are very misleading. My research will combine within-subjects and between-subjects designs to establish if OCs alter women’s mate preferences and if there are pre-existing differences in the mate preferences of OC users and non-users. The project is groundbreaking in 4 important ways: (1) it will resolve whether OCs alter women’s mate preferences, (2) it will be by far the most comprehensive study of hormone-mediated social perception ever undertaken, (3) it will use sophisticated computer graphic methods to assess women’s mate preferences using photorealistic static face images and more ecologically valid video stimuli, and (4) it will use powerful new statistical techniques (multilevel statistical methods) that have not previously been used to investigate hormone-mediated social perception. Importantly, the proposed research will provide essential information for women’s contraceptive choices and illuminate the roles of endogenous and exogenous hormones in the regulation of social perception." Max ERC Funding 1 367 597 € Duration Start date: 2012-07-01, End date: 2017-06-30 Project acronym ODMIR Project The origins and development of the human mirror neuron system Researcher (PI) Chiara Turati Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA' DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO-BICOCCA Country Italy Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2009-StG Summary Evidence demonstrating the presence of mirror neurons in the adult human brain has led many researchers to suggest a fundamental role for the mirror neuron system (MNS) in human mentalizing behavior and social cognition. Recent findings have also suggested strong relationships between MNS impairments and neurodevelopmental disorders in which mentalizing behavior is impaired. In light of this evidence, it has become of paramount importance to understand whether or not the MNS is present at birth and how its functional properties develop throughout infancy. The current project will address these questions within the context of a neuroconstructivist framework, according to which a basic perception-action coupling mechanism would be present from birth, and undergoes a series of refinements through experience and visuomotor learning. Using behavioral, electromyographic and electrophysiological measures, the project aims to investigate action understanding and emotion recognition in newborns and infants. Behavioral looking time and eye-movement paradigms will be used to test infants ability to visually anticipate the action s goal. Electromyographic paradigms will allow for testing of when and how the activation of infants muscles is affected by the goal of the observed action or the emotion expressed by the observed face. Electrophysiological paradigms will be used to investigate modulations of infants EEG activity during the execution and observation of grasping actions. Summary Evidence demonstrating the presence of mirror neurons in the adult human brain has led many researchers to suggest a fundamental role for the mirror neuron system (MNS) in human mentalizing behavior and social cognition. Recent findings have also suggested strong relationships between MNS impairments and neurodevelopmental disorders in which mentalizing behavior is impaired. In light of this evidence, it has become of paramount importance to understand whether or not the MNS is present at birth and how its functional properties develop throughout infancy. The current project will address these questions within the context of a neuroconstructivist framework, according to which a basic perception-action coupling mechanism would be present from birth, and undergoes a series of refinements through experience and visuomotor learning. Using behavioral, electromyographic and electrophysiological measures, the project aims to investigate action understanding and emotion recognition in newborns and infants. Behavioral looking time and eye-movement paradigms will be used to test infants ability to visually anticipate the action s goal. Electromyographic paradigms will allow for testing of when and how the activation of infants muscles is affected by the goal of the observed action or the emotion expressed by the observed face. Electrophysiological paradigms will be used to investigate modulations of infants EEG activity during the execution and observation of grasping actions. Max ERC Funding 1 208 400 € Duration Start date: 2009-12-01, End date: 2015-05-31 Project acronym OLFLINK Project Olfaction as the link between flavor preference formation and retrieval during food consumption Researcher (PI) Janina SEUBERT Host Institution (HI) KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET Country Sweden Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2020-STG Summary To change human diets is an urgent global health and sustainability goal; yet, overcoming preferences for familiar food flavors in favor of healthier or more sustainable options remains a major challenge. Odor-taste associative learning is the principal perceptual support process for flavor preference formation and retrieval. Mechanistic insight into the cortical processes that transfer appetitive properties of an odor from the mouth onto environmental objects is, however, almost completely absent. As a result, fundamental questions about the processes that drive the acquisition of new flavor preferences, and their regulation by signals from the digestive tract, still remain to be answered. OLFLINK will uncover processes that link olfactory perception inside and outside the mouth across three nested levels of investigation that are usually studied in separation. In doing so, I propose to discover key factors that facilitate or hinder acquisition of new flavor preferences. Specifically, I will 1: determine the distributed CODE by which odors acquire and evoke taste associations (WP1), 2: delineate the cortical CONTROL mechanisms that facilitate encoding and retrieval of odor-taste associations in the light of contextual variability (WP2), and 3: determine the interactions with digestive feedback that REGULATE this flexible coding system during flavor preference acquisition and retrieval (WP3). This final step especially provides insight into the body’s ability to adjust learning and retrieval of food preferences based on nutritional needs, and has potential to transform our thinking about the biological basis of maladaptive eating patterns. The novel insights from OLFLINK will fill the knowledge gap that currently exists between the mechanisms driving perceptual experiences during food consumption and the subsequent evaluation of food in the outside world, and will inspire the development of novel interventions to facilitate dietary changes over the life course. Summary To change human diets is an urgent global health and sustainability goal; yet, overcoming preferences for familiar food flavors in favor of healthier or more sustainable options remains a major challenge. Odor-taste associative learning is the principal perceptual support process for flavor preference formation and retrieval. Mechanistic insight into the cortical processes that transfer appetitive properties of an odor from the mouth onto environmental objects is, however, almost completely absent. As a result, fundamental questions about the processes that drive the acquisition of new flavor preferences, and their regulation by signals from the digestive tract, still remain to be answered. OLFLINK will uncover processes that link olfactory perception inside and outside the mouth across three nested levels of investigation that are usually studied in separation. In doing so, I propose to discover key factors that facilitate or hinder acquisition of new flavor preferences. Specifically, I will 1: determine the distributed CODE by which odors acquire and evoke taste associations (WP1), 2: delineate the cortical CONTROL mechanisms that facilitate encoding and retrieval of odor-taste associations in the light of contextual variability (WP2), and 3: determine the interactions with digestive feedback that REGULATE this flexible coding system during flavor preference acquisition and retrieval (WP3). This final step especially provides insight into the body’s ability to adjust learning and retrieval of food preferences based on nutritional needs, and has potential to transform our thinking about the biological basis of maladaptive eating patterns. The novel insights from OLFLINK will fill the knowledge gap that currently exists between the mechanisms driving perceptual experiences during food consumption and the subsequent evaluation of food in the outside world, and will inspire the development of novel interventions to facilitate dietary changes over the life course. Max ERC Funding 1 499 600 € Duration Start date: 2021-05-01, End date: 2026-04-30 Project acronym ONACSA Project Oscillatory neural and autonomic correlates of social attunedness during early life: new mechanistic insights into how we learn to learn from one another Researcher (PI) Samuel Wass Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON Country United Kingdom Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2019-STG Summary We are a social species. Most infants, and young children, spend the majority of their early waking lives in the company of others. But, for practical reasons, almost everything that we know about how the brain subserves early attention and learning comes from studies that examined brain function in one individual at a time. This means that we understand lots about how children attend and learn from information presented while they are alone, viewing a computer screen - but little about how attention is shared between people during social interaction. ONASCA will develop new techniques to look, for the first time, at how two brains dynamically interact with one another during early learning exchanges. The project will determine how children’s active, participatory bids during learning lead to reactive changes in both members of the dyad – and how these changes, in turn, influence both partners’ subsequent attention, and learning. It will also determine how, and why, some infants, and some parents, show greater sensitivity during social exchanges than others. And, using targeted interventions, it will investigate whether social sensitivity can be improved. The question of how two brains dynamically influence one another during learning exchanges has been described as the ‘dark matter’ of social neuroscience. Yet nobody has looked at these questions before from the perspective of early learning. Our results may help us to move beyond viewing children primarily as passive recipients of information during learning exchanges, to a perspective that better appreciates children’s role as active participants in learning. Our findings may also have practical implications for educationalists, and clinicians. Summary We are a social species. Most infants, and young children, spend the majority of their early waking lives in the company of others. But, for practical reasons, almost everything that we know about how the brain subserves early attention and learning comes from studies that examined brain function in one individual at a time. This means that we understand lots about how children attend and learn from information presented while they are alone, viewing a computer screen - but little about how attention is shared between people during social interaction. ONASCA will develop new techniques to look, for the first time, at how two brains dynamically interact with one another during early learning exchanges. The project will determine how children’s active, participatory bids during learning lead to reactive changes in both members of the dyad – and how these changes, in turn, influence both partners’ subsequent attention, and learning. It will also determine how, and why, some infants, and some parents, show greater sensitivity during social exchanges than others. And, using targeted interventions, it will investigate whether social sensitivity can be improved. The question of how two brains dynamically influence one another during learning exchanges has been described as the ‘dark matter’ of social neuroscience. Yet nobody has looked at these questions before from the perspective of early learning. Our results may help us to move beyond viewing children primarily as passive recipients of information during learning exchanges, to a perspective that better appreciates children’s role as active participants in learning. Our findings may also have practical implications for educationalists, and clinicians. Max ERC Funding 1 499 274 € Duration Start date: 2020-09-01, End date: 2025-08-31 Project acronym ONOFF Project Perception of voices that do not exist: Tracking the temporal signatures of auditory hallucinations Researcher (PI) Jan Kenneth Hugdahl Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN Country Norway Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2015-AdG Summary "One of the most perplexing phenomena of the human mind is the conviction of perceiving a ""voice"" in the absence of an external auditory source. This is called an auditory hallucination (AH), and is the most characteristic symptom of the most severe mental disorder, schizophrenia. Understanding the phenomenology, cognitive, and neurobiological underpinnings of AHs will not only provide new insights for explaining schizophrenia, but will also provide new insights into the ""complexities of the mind"". In my previous research, I have uncovered the neurocognitive markers of the initiation of an AH, focusing on what causes the onset of a hallucinatory episode. The current proposal further narrows the focus, asking a single question; why do AHs spontaneously come-and-go over time, or stated otherwise, why are they not permanently present once initiated? If we believe that the onset of an episode has neurocognitive markers, which all evidence supports, then we must also acknowledge that the offset must have corresponding markers. This question has to my knowledge never been addressed, although it is vital for the understanding of the underlying mechanisms, and for new treatment strategies. I will track the fluctuations of AH episodes in real-time with iPhone app technology, going beyond interview questionnaires. I will track how cognition modulates the onset and offset with an experimental dichotic listening paradigm, going beyond standard tests. I will track what happens in the brain the few seconds before the onset and, in particular the offset of an episode, using component-based fMRI analysis, going beyond ""blobology"". I will track with MR spectroscopy the interaction of excitatory and inhibitory transmitters that are hypothesized to mediate episode onsets and offsets, respectively, going beyond systems imaging. Thus, I will track AH episodes from the clinical to the receptor level, working vertically through a “levels of explanation” model, from higher to lower levels" Summary "One of the most perplexing phenomena of the human mind is the conviction of perceiving a ""voice"" in the absence of an external auditory source. This is called an auditory hallucination (AH), and is the most characteristic symptom of the most severe mental disorder, schizophrenia. Understanding the phenomenology, cognitive, and neurobiological underpinnings of AHs will not only provide new insights for explaining schizophrenia, but will also provide new insights into the ""complexities of the mind"". In my previous research, I have uncovered the neurocognitive markers of the initiation of an AH, focusing on what causes the onset of a hallucinatory episode. The current proposal further narrows the focus, asking a single question; why do AHs spontaneously come-and-go over time, or stated otherwise, why are they not permanently present once initiated? If we believe that the onset of an episode has neurocognitive markers, which all evidence supports, then we must also acknowledge that the offset must have corresponding markers. This question has to my knowledge never been addressed, although it is vital for the understanding of the underlying mechanisms, and for new treatment strategies. I will track the fluctuations of AH episodes in real-time with iPhone app technology, going beyond interview questionnaires. I will track how cognition modulates the onset and offset with an experimental dichotic listening paradigm, going beyond standard tests. I will track what happens in the brain the few seconds before the onset and, in particular the offset of an episode, using component-based fMRI analysis, going beyond ""blobology"". I will track with MR spectroscopy the interaction of excitatory and inhibitory transmitters that are hypothesized to mediate episode onsets and offsets, respectively, going beyond systems imaging. Thus, I will track AH episodes from the clinical to the receptor level, working vertically through a “levels of explanation” model, from higher to lower levels" Max ERC Funding 2 413 371 € Duration Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-12-31 Project acronym OPIOIDREWARD Project How distress alters opioid drug effects and abuse liability Researcher (PI) Siri LEKNES Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITETET I OSLO Country Norway Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2018-STG Summary As the opioid epidemic escalates, we must ask: why are opioids so addictive? Non-human animal research links addiction with the powerful relief opioids can offer to animals in distress. In humans, epidemiological and clinical studies converge upon social stressors and a poor social support network as key risk factors for addiction. Despite this, it is currently unknown how pre-drug distress might alter opioid drug effects. Tremendous resources are dedicated to charting how people feel after taking a drug, sidestepping the potentially profound influence of how people feel before they take the drug. Here, I will turn the current approach on its head. Using acute social distress induction before morphine administration in healthy humans, I will create a human model to determine the psychological, physiological and brain underpinnings of how social stressors increase opioids’ abuse liability. First, I will test the hypothesis that pre-drug distress enhances drug wanting (self-administration) but not drug liking (self-report) compared to drug effects in a control condition. Second, I will use opioid blockade to confirm or falsify the hypothesis that opioid drugs ‘hijack’ brain mechanisms underpinning social support. Third, I will determine to what extent opioid drug effects are dopamine-dependent by blocking dopamine before morphine administration. I will also apply computational modelling and functional imaging to elucidate the underlying brain mechanisms. Thus, the proposal offers a powerful new methodology for resolving hotly debated questions on the independent contributions of opioids and dopamine for reward and abuse liability. In sum, the project aims to achieve a breakthrough in our understanding of how a pre-drug social distress state can alter opioid drug mechanisms. The mechanistic understanding arising from this project could have profound implications for science, as well as for clinical care and new policies designed to contain the opioid epidemic. Summary As the opioid epidemic escalates, we must ask: why are opioids so addictive? Non-human animal research links addiction with the powerful relief opioids can offer to animals in distress. In humans, epidemiological and clinical studies converge upon social stressors and a poor social support network as key risk factors for addiction. Despite this, it is currently unknown how pre-drug distress might alter opioid drug effects. Tremendous resources are dedicated to charting how people feel after taking a drug, sidestepping the potentially profound influence of how people feel before they take the drug. Here, I will turn the current approach on its head. Using acute social distress induction before morphine administration in healthy humans, I will create a human model to determine the psychological, physiological and brain underpinnings of how social stressors increase opioids’ abuse liability. First, I will test the hypothesis that pre-drug distress enhances drug wanting (self-administration) but not drug liking (self-report) compared to drug effects in a control condition. Second, I will use opioid blockade to confirm or falsify the hypothesis that opioid drugs ‘hijack’ brain mechanisms underpinning social support. Third, I will determine to what extent opioid drug effects are dopamine-dependent by blocking dopamine before morphine administration. I will also apply computational modelling and functional imaging to elucidate the underlying brain mechanisms. Thus, the proposal offers a powerful new methodology for resolving hotly debated questions on the independent contributions of opioids and dopamine for reward and abuse liability. In sum, the project aims to achieve a breakthrough in our understanding of how a pre-drug social distress state can alter opioid drug mechanisms. The mechanistic understanding arising from this project could have profound implications for science, as well as for clinical care and new policies designed to contain the opioid epidemic. Max ERC Funding 1 500 000 € Duration Start date: 2019-07-01, End date: 2024-06-30 Project acronym OPTIMAL Project Coming-of-age of Process Research: Connecting Theory with Measurement and Modelling Researcher (PI) Ellen HAMAKER Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT Country Netherlands Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2019-COG Summary Recent innovations in measurement such as ambulatory assessments and experience sampling, have created the unique opportunity to study psychological processes as they unfold over time in everyday life. Combined with novel statistical models that focus on within-person dynamics, these developments offer a radically new perspective on foundational concepts in psychology. In clinical psychology for instance, these innovations are used to study mental disorders as networks of symptoms that trigger each other over time, and this is leading to valuable new insights on the emergence and persistence of psychopathology. How to optimally employ these new tools is a major methodological challenge, however: Researchers must determine whether to use self-reports or physiological measures, what the frequency and duration of the measures should be, and which model fits their data and allows to test their theory. The costs of choosing inapt measurement and modelling methods can be severe and include: invalid results, erroneous conclusions, poor theory building, wasting resources, diminished trust in psychological science, and outcomes that are less useful or even harmful for individuals and society. The aim of OPTIMAL is to resolve this challenge by developing an overarching methodological framework of process research that allows psychological researchers to connect theory, measurement and modelling. To achieve this, I will: a) strengthen the pairwise links between theory, measurement and modelling; b) conduct literature inventories in five substantive areas to elicit information on how to measure and model particular processes; and c) develop a taxonomy of models and an interactive website that researchers can use to guide them to optimal models. The generic nature of this methodological framework guarantees that it will be applicable in virtually all substantive fields within psychology that focus on processes, thus impacting psychological science in its full breadth. Summary Recent innovations in measurement such as ambulatory assessments and experience sampling, have created the unique opportunity to study psychological processes as they unfold over time in everyday life. Combined with novel statistical models that focus on within-person dynamics, these developments offer a radically new perspective on foundational concepts in psychology. In clinical psychology for instance, these innovations are used to study mental disorders as networks of symptoms that trigger each other over time, and this is leading to valuable new insights on the emergence and persistence of psychopathology. How to optimally employ these new tools is a major methodological challenge, however: Researchers must determine whether to use self-reports or physiological measures, what the frequency and duration of the measures should be, and which model fits their data and allows to test their theory. The costs of choosing inapt measurement and modelling methods can be severe and include: invalid results, erroneous conclusions, poor theory building, wasting resources, diminished trust in psychological science, and outcomes that are less useful or even harmful for individuals and society. The aim of OPTIMAL is to resolve this challenge by developing an overarching methodological framework of process research that allows psychological researchers to connect theory, measurement and modelling. To achieve this, I will: a) strengthen the pairwise links between theory, measurement and modelling; b) conduct literature inventories in five substantive areas to elicit information on how to measure and model particular processes; and c) develop a taxonomy of models and an interactive website that researchers can use to guide them to optimal models. The generic nature of this methodological framework guarantees that it will be applicable in virtually all substantive fields within psychology that focus on processes, thus impacting psychological science in its full breadth. Max ERC Funding 2 000 000 € Duration Start date: 2020-09-01, End date: 2025-08-31 Project acronym OPTIMIZERR Project Errors as cost-optimizing decisions? Redefining the origin and nature of human decision errors in light of associated neural computations Researcher (PI) Valentin François WYART Host Institution (HI) INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTE ET DE LA RECHERCHE MEDICALE Country France Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2017-STG Summary Making decisions, from simple perceptual judgments to complex policy-making orientations, often requires to combine multiple pieces of ambiguous or conflicting information. In such uncertain conditions, human decisions exhibit a suboptimal variability whose origin remains poorly understood. Dominant psychological theories attribute the resulting errors to imperfections at the peripheries of an otherwise optimal inference process, and consider them essentially as failures of human cognition. Instead, my research program seeks to redefine decision errors not as cognitive failures, but as cognitive compromises which optimize a trade-off between the expected accuracy of a decision and the cost associated with neural computations required to reach this accuracy. I hypothesize that human decision errors arise to a large part from the limited computational precision of probabilistic inference, and that humans adapt this precision to the cognitive demands imposed by their environment - by increasing it when it is deemed necessary or decreasing it when they can rely on 'cheaper' sources of information to decide. I propose to test this original research hypothesis using a combination of computational modeling and multimodal functional neuroimaging of human decision-making. The degree of generality of the obtained findings will be assessed by bridging research across two types of decisions historically studied separately: perceptual decisions and reward-guided decisions. I will also test the clinical relevance of the hypothesized 'accuracy-cost' trade-off for two psychiatric conditions associated with dysfunctions of decision-making under uncertainty: 1. the emergence of false beliefs in schizophrenia, and 2. the repetitive checking behavior observed in obsessive-compulsive disorders. Together, the proposed research will shed light on previously unsuspected cognitive pressures which shape virtually every human decision, and identify associated neural computations. Summary Making decisions, from simple perceptual judgments to complex policy-making orientations, often requires to combine multiple pieces of ambiguous or conflicting information. In such uncertain conditions, human decisions exhibit a suboptimal variability whose origin remains poorly understood. Dominant psychological theories attribute the resulting errors to imperfections at the peripheries of an otherwise optimal inference process, and consider them essentially as failures of human cognition. Instead, my research program seeks to redefine decision errors not as cognitive failures, but as cognitive compromises which optimize a trade-off between the expected accuracy of a decision and the cost associated with neural computations required to reach this accuracy. I hypothesize that human decision errors arise to a large part from the limited computational precision of probabilistic inference, and that humans adapt this precision to the cognitive demands imposed by their environment - by increasing it when it is deemed necessary or decreasing it when they can rely on 'cheaper' sources of information to decide. I propose to test this original research hypothesis using a combination of computational modeling and multimodal functional neuroimaging of human decision-making. The degree of generality of the obtained findings will be assessed by bridging research across two types of decisions historically studied separately: perceptual decisions and reward-guided decisions. I will also test the clinical relevance of the hypothesized 'accuracy-cost' trade-off for two psychiatric conditions associated with dysfunctions of decision-making under uncertainty: 1. the emergence of false beliefs in schizophrenia, and 2. the repetitive checking behavior observed in obsessive-compulsive disorders. Together, the proposed research will shed light on previously unsuspected cognitive pressures which shape virtually every human decision, and identify associated neural computations. Max ERC Funding 1 497 125 € Duration Start date: 2018-05-01, End date: 2023-04-30 Project acronym ORIENT Project Goal-directed eye-head coordination in dynamic multisensory environments Researcher (PI) John VAN OPSTAL Host Institution (HI) STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT Country Netherlands Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2015-AdG Summary Rapid object identification is crucial for survival of all organisms, but poses daunting challenges if many stimuli compete for attention, and multiple sensory and motor systems are involved in the processing, programming and generating of an eye-head gaze-orienting response to a selected goal. How do normal and sensory-impaired brains decide which signals to integrate (“goal”), or suppress (“distracter”)? Audiovisual (AV) integration only helps for spatially and temporally aligned stimuli. However, sensory inputs differ markedly in their reliability, reference frames, and processing delays, yielding considerable spatial-temporal uncertainty to the brain. Vision and audition utilize coordinates that misalign whenever eyes and head move. Meanwhile, their sensory acuities vary across space and time in essentially different ways. As a result, assessing AV alignment poses major computational problems, which so far have only been studied for the simplest stimulus-response conditions. My groundbreaking approaches will tackle these problems on different levels, by applying dynamic eye-head coordination paradigms in complex environments, while systematically manipulating visual-vestibular-auditory context and uncertainty. I parametrically vary AV goal/distracter statistics, stimulus motion, and active vs. passive-evoked body movements. We perform advanced psychophysics to healthy subjects, and to patients with well-defined sensory disorders. We probe sensorimotor strategies of normal and impaired systems, by quantifying their acquisition of priors about the (changing) environment, and use of feedback about active or passive-induced self-motion of eyes and head. I challenge current eye-head control models by incorporating top-down adaptive processes and eye-head motor feedback in realistic cortical-midbrain networks. Our modeling will be critically tested on an autonomously learning humanoid robot, equipped with binocular foveal vision and human-like audition. Summary Rapid object identification is crucial for survival of all organisms, but poses daunting challenges if many stimuli compete for attention, and multiple sensory and motor systems are involved in the processing, programming and generating of an eye-head gaze-orienting response to a selected goal. How do normal and sensory-impaired brains decide which signals to integrate (“goal”), or suppress (“distracter”)? Audiovisual (AV) integration only helps for spatially and temporally aligned stimuli. However, sensory inputs differ markedly in their reliability, reference frames, and processing delays, yielding considerable spatial-temporal uncertainty to the brain. Vision and audition utilize coordinates that misalign whenever eyes and head move. Meanwhile, their sensory acuities vary across space and time in essentially different ways. As a result, assessing AV alignment poses major computational problems, which so far have only been studied for the simplest stimulus-response conditions. My groundbreaking approaches will tackle these problems on different levels, by applying dynamic eye-head coordination paradigms in complex environments, while systematically manipulating visual-vestibular-auditory context and uncertainty. I parametrically vary AV goal/distracter statistics, stimulus motion, and active vs. passive-evoked body movements. We perform advanced psychophysics to healthy subjects, and to patients with well-defined sensory disorders. We probe sensorimotor strategies of normal and impaired systems, by quantifying their acquisition of priors about the (changing) environment, and use of feedback about active or passive-induced self-motion of eyes and head. I challenge current eye-head control models by incorporating top-down adaptive processes and eye-head motor feedback in realistic cortical-midbrain networks. Our modeling will be critically tested on an autonomously learning humanoid robot, equipped with binocular foveal vision and human-like audition. Max ERC Funding 2 523 438 € Duration Start date: 2017-01-01, End date: 2022-12-31 What is identified as the ability to change one's body's position quickly to control body's movements?Agility: The ability to change body position quickly and to control one's physicalmovements.
What is the ability to change your body's position quickly to control your body's movements example shuttle run?Agility is defined as “a skill-related component of physical fitness that relates to the ability to rapidly change the position of the entire body in space with speed and accuracy.”
What is the ability to use strength quickly?Fitness Concepts to Remember!. What is the ability to move two or more body parts together?Coordination. Coordination is the ability to use two or more body parts together.
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What is identified as the ability to change ones bodys position quickly to control bodys movements *?
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