Project acronym AlgoFinance
Project Algorithmic Finance: Inquiring into the Reshaping of Financial Markets
Researcher (PI) Christian BORCH
Host Institution (HI) COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOL
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH3, ERC-2016-COG
Summary Present-day financial markets are turning algorithmic, as market orders are increasingly being executed by fully automated computer algorithms, without any direct human intervention. Although algorithmic finance seems to fundamentally reshape the central dynamics in financial markets, and even though it prompts core sociological questions, it has not yet received any systematic attention. In a pioneering contribution to economic sociology and social studies of finance, ALGOFINANCE aims to understand how and with what consequences the turn to algorithms is changing financial markets. The overall concept and central contributions of ALGOFINANCE are the following: (1) on an intra-firm level, the project examines how the shift to algorithmic finance reshapes the ways in which trading firms operate, and does so by systematically and empirically investigating the reconfiguration of organizational structures and employee subjectivity; (2) on an inter-algorithmic level, it offers a ground-breaking methodology (agent-based modelling informed by qualitative data) to grasp how trading algorithms interact with one another in a fully digital space; and (3) on the level of market sociality, it proposes a novel theorization of how intra-firm and inter-algorithmic dynamics can be conceived of as introducing a particular form of sociality that is characteristic to algorithmic finance: a form of sociality-as-association heuristically analyzed as imitation. None of these three levels have received systematic attention in the state-of-the-art literature. Addressing them will significantly advance the understanding of present-day algorithmic finance in economic sociology. By contributing novel empirical, methodological, and theoretical understandings of the functioning and consequences of algorithms, ALGOFINANCE will pave the way for other research into digital sociology and the broader algorithmization of society.
Summary
Present-day financial markets are turning algorithmic, as market orders are increasingly being executed by fully automated computer algorithms, without any direct human intervention. Although algorithmic finance seems to fundamentally reshape the central dynamics in financial markets, and even though it prompts core sociological questions, it has not yet received any systematic attention. In a pioneering contribution to economic sociology and social studies of finance, ALGOFINANCE aims to understand how and with what consequences the turn to algorithms is changing financial markets. The overall concept and central contributions of ALGOFINANCE are the following: (1) on an intra-firm level, the project examines how the shift to algorithmic finance reshapes the ways in which trading firms operate, and does so by systematically and empirically investigating the reconfiguration of organizational structures and employee subjectivity; (2) on an inter-algorithmic level, it offers a ground-breaking methodology (agent-based modelling informed by qualitative data) to grasp how trading algorithms interact with one another in a fully digital space; and (3) on the level of market sociality, it proposes a novel theorization of how intra-firm and inter-algorithmic dynamics can be conceived of as introducing a particular form of sociality that is characteristic to algorithmic finance: a form of sociality-as-association heuristically analyzed as imitation. None of these three levels have received systematic attention in the state-of-the-art literature. Addressing them will significantly advance the understanding of present-day algorithmic finance in economic sociology. By contributing novel empirical, methodological, and theoretical understandings of the functioning and consequences of algorithms, ALGOFINANCE will pave the way for other research into digital sociology and the broader algorithmization of society.
Max ERC Funding
1 590 036 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-05-01, End date: 2021-04-30
Project acronym COEVOLVE
Project From Forest to Farmland and Meadow to Metropolis: What Role for Humans in Explaining the Enigma of Holocene CO2 and Methane Concentrations?
Researcher (PI) Jed Oliver Kaplan
Host Institution (HI) MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary The Holocene record of atmospheric CO2 and methane concentrations is an enigma. Concentrations of both gases increased from the beginning of the epoch 11,700 years ago to about 10,000 BP, then declined for several thousand years, but by 6000 BP, concentrations of both gases were steadily increasing again. This mid-late Holocene rise in greenhouse gases is unusual; similar patterns are not observed during previous interglacials. While various mechanisms have been proposed to explain these changes in Holocene CO2 and methane, there is one undisputed feature of this epoch that we know is different from the rest of Earth history: the existence of behaviorally modern humans. How humanity could have influenced the Holocene increase in CO2 and methane concentrations is the subject of the COEVOLVE project.
In an interdisciplinary study that combines the social and natural sciences, we will reconstruct anthropogenic CO2 and methane emissions over the Holocene using a state-of-the-art model of terrestrial biogeochemistry and earth surface processes. The novelty of our approach is to develop a geodatabase of anthropogenic activities derived from historical and archaeological observations to drive our model, and to evaluate our simulations against a new, comprehensive global reconstruction of past land cover. COEVOLVE is organized around three activities: 1) synthesis of observations of past land cover change from paleoecological archives, 2) development of a spatial database of the spread of technology, industry, culture, and trade that influenced global land use and resource consumption patterns and 3) informed by parts 1 and 2, modeling of terrestrial biogeochemical cycles and land surface processes including deforestation, soil erosion, and fire. With a new perspective on preindustrial environmental impact, the COEVOLVE project will make a breakthrough in our understanding of the influence of humans on greenhouse gas concentrations and global climate during the Holocene.
Summary
The Holocene record of atmospheric CO2 and methane concentrations is an enigma. Concentrations of both gases increased from the beginning of the epoch 11,700 years ago to about 10,000 BP, then declined for several thousand years, but by 6000 BP, concentrations of both gases were steadily increasing again. This mid-late Holocene rise in greenhouse gases is unusual; similar patterns are not observed during previous interglacials. While various mechanisms have been proposed to explain these changes in Holocene CO2 and methane, there is one undisputed feature of this epoch that we know is different from the rest of Earth history: the existence of behaviorally modern humans. How humanity could have influenced the Holocene increase in CO2 and methane concentrations is the subject of the COEVOLVE project.
In an interdisciplinary study that combines the social and natural sciences, we will reconstruct anthropogenic CO2 and methane emissions over the Holocene using a state-of-the-art model of terrestrial biogeochemistry and earth surface processes. The novelty of our approach is to develop a geodatabase of anthropogenic activities derived from historical and archaeological observations to drive our model, and to evaluate our simulations against a new, comprehensive global reconstruction of past land cover. COEVOLVE is organized around three activities: 1) synthesis of observations of past land cover change from paleoecological archives, 2) development of a spatial database of the spread of technology, industry, culture, and trade that influenced global land use and resource consumption patterns and 3) informed by parts 1 and 2, modeling of terrestrial biogeochemical cycles and land surface processes including deforestation, soil erosion, and fire. With a new perspective on preindustrial environmental impact, the COEVOLVE project will make a breakthrough in our understanding of the influence of humans on greenhouse gas concentrations and global climate during the Holocene.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-05-01, End date: 2018-04-30
Project acronym COLSOC
Project The Legacy of Colonialism: Origins and Outcomes of Social Protection
Researcher (PI) Carina SCHMITT
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAET BREMEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2017-STG
Summary Social protection has been one of the most popular instruments for promoting human development across the globe. However, the great majority of the global population is not or only partly covered by social protection. Especially in developing countries it is often the very poorest who do not receive essential social benefits. This is highly problematic since inclusive social protection is assumed to be a key factor for national productivity, global economic growth and domestic stability. Social protection in many developing countries can be traced back to colonial times. Surprisingly, the influence of colonialism has been a blind spot for existing theories and empirical studies of comparative social policy. In this project it is argued that the colonial legacy in terms of the imperial strategy of the colonial power, the characteristics of the colonized society and the interplay between the two is crucial in explaining early and contemporary social protection. Hence, the main objective of this project is to systematically understand how colonialism has shaped the remarkable differences in social protection and its postcolonial outcomes. Given the paucity of our information and understanding of social protection in former colonies, an interactive dataset on the characteristics, origins and outcomes of social protection will be developed including comprehensive data on former British and French colonies from the beginning of the 20th century until today. The dataset will be backed by insights derived from four case studies elucidating the causal mechanisms between the colonial legacy and early and contemporary social protection. The proposed project breaks new ground by improving our understanding of why social protection in some developing countries has led to more inclusive societies while reinforcing existing inequalities in others. Such an understanding is a prerequisite in informing the contemporary struggle against poverty and social inequality.
Summary
Social protection has been one of the most popular instruments for promoting human development across the globe. However, the great majority of the global population is not or only partly covered by social protection. Especially in developing countries it is often the very poorest who do not receive essential social benefits. This is highly problematic since inclusive social protection is assumed to be a key factor for national productivity, global economic growth and domestic stability. Social protection in many developing countries can be traced back to colonial times. Surprisingly, the influence of colonialism has been a blind spot for existing theories and empirical studies of comparative social policy. In this project it is argued that the colonial legacy in terms of the imperial strategy of the colonial power, the characteristics of the colonized society and the interplay between the two is crucial in explaining early and contemporary social protection. Hence, the main objective of this project is to systematically understand how colonialism has shaped the remarkable differences in social protection and its postcolonial outcomes. Given the paucity of our information and understanding of social protection in former colonies, an interactive dataset on the characteristics, origins and outcomes of social protection will be developed including comprehensive data on former British and French colonies from the beginning of the 20th century until today. The dataset will be backed by insights derived from four case studies elucidating the causal mechanisms between the colonial legacy and early and contemporary social protection. The proposed project breaks new ground by improving our understanding of why social protection in some developing countries has led to more inclusive societies while reinforcing existing inequalities in others. Such an understanding is a prerequisite in informing the contemporary struggle against poverty and social inequality.
Max ERC Funding
1 486 250 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-04-01, End date: 2023-03-31
Project acronym CRIMTANG
Project Criminal Entanglements.A new ethnographic approach to transnational organised crime.
Researcher (PI) Henrik VIGH
Host Institution (HI) KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH3, ERC-2016-COG
Summary Linked to terrorism, moral breakdown, and societal decay, Transnational Organised Crime (TOC) has come to embody current global anxieties as a figure of fear and cause of disquiet. Yet despite its central position on the social and political radar, our knowledge of it remains limited and fragmentary. Quantitative analyses may have identified the scale of the problem, but its underlying socio-cultural logic and practices remain under-researched and largely obscure. TOC is on the rise, and we need better insights into how it develops and expands, who engages in it and why, and how it is linked to and embedded in social networks that straddle countries and contexts.
CRIMTANG proposes a unique approach to the study of the social infrastructure of contemporary TOC. It develops a research strategy that is ethnographic and transnational in design and so attuned to the human flows and formations of TOC. The project comprises a trans-disciplinary research team of anthropologists, criminologists and political scientists, and builds on their prior experience of the people, regions and languages under study. It explores the illegal and overlapping flows of migrants and drugs from North-West Africa into Europe, following a key trafficking trajectory stretching from Tangiers to Barcelona, Paris and beyond.
In so doing, CRIMTANG sheds new light on the actual empirical processes in operation at different points along this trafficking route, whilst simultaneously developing new theoretical and methodological apparatuses for apprehending TOC that can be exported and applied in other regions and contexts. It reimagines the idea of social entanglement and proposes new transnational and collective fieldwork strategies. Finally, it will advance and consolidate the European research environment on TOC by creating a research hub for transnational ethnographic criminology at the University of Copenhagen.
Summary
Linked to terrorism, moral breakdown, and societal decay, Transnational Organised Crime (TOC) has come to embody current global anxieties as a figure of fear and cause of disquiet. Yet despite its central position on the social and political radar, our knowledge of it remains limited and fragmentary. Quantitative analyses may have identified the scale of the problem, but its underlying socio-cultural logic and practices remain under-researched and largely obscure. TOC is on the rise, and we need better insights into how it develops and expands, who engages in it and why, and how it is linked to and embedded in social networks that straddle countries and contexts.
CRIMTANG proposes a unique approach to the study of the social infrastructure of contemporary TOC. It develops a research strategy that is ethnographic and transnational in design and so attuned to the human flows and formations of TOC. The project comprises a trans-disciplinary research team of anthropologists, criminologists and political scientists, and builds on their prior experience of the people, regions and languages under study. It explores the illegal and overlapping flows of migrants and drugs from North-West Africa into Europe, following a key trafficking trajectory stretching from Tangiers to Barcelona, Paris and beyond.
In so doing, CRIMTANG sheds new light on the actual empirical processes in operation at different points along this trafficking route, whilst simultaneously developing new theoretical and methodological apparatuses for apprehending TOC that can be exported and applied in other regions and contexts. It reimagines the idea of social entanglement and proposes new transnational and collective fieldwork strategies. Finally, it will advance and consolidate the European research environment on TOC by creating a research hub for transnational ethnographic criminology at the University of Copenhagen.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 909 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-02-01, End date: 2023-01-31
Project acronym CRYOSOCIETIES
Project Suspended Life: Exploring Cryopreservation Practices in Contemporary Societies
Researcher (PI) Thomas LEMKE
Host Institution (HI) JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE-UNIVERSITATFRANKFURT AM MAIN
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH3, ERC-2017-ADG
Summary Cryopreservation practices are an essential dimension of contemporary life sciences. They make possible the freezing and storage of cells, tissues and other organic materials at very low temperatures and the subsequent thawing of these at a future date without apparent loss of vitality. Although cryotechnologies are fundamental to reproductive technologies, regenerative medicine, transplantation surgery and conservation biology, they have largely escaped scholarly attention in science and technology studies, anthropology and sociology.
CRYOSOCIETIES explores the crucial role of cryopreservation in affecting temporalities and the concept of life. The project is based on the thesis that in contemporary societies, cryopreservation practices bring into existence a new form of life: “suspended life”. “Suspended life” enables vital processes to be kept in a liminal state in which biological substances are neither fully alive nor dead. CRYOSOCIETIES generates profound empirical knowledge about the creation of “suspended life” through three ethnographic studies that investigate various sites of cryopreservation. A fourth subproject develops a complex theoretical framework in order to grasp the temporal and spatial regimes of the different cryopractices.
CRYOSOCIETIES breaks analytical ground in three important ways. First, the project provides the first systematic and comprehensive empirical study of “suspended life” and deepens our knowledge of how cryopreservation works in different settings. Secondly, it undertakes pioneering work on cryopreservation practices in Europe, generating novel ways of understanding how “suspended life” is assembled, negotiated and mobilised in European societies. Thirdly, CRYOSOCIETIES develops an innovative methodological and theoretical framework in order to address the relationality and materiality of cryopreservation practices and to explore the concept of vitality and the politics of life in the 21st century.
Summary
Cryopreservation practices are an essential dimension of contemporary life sciences. They make possible the freezing and storage of cells, tissues and other organic materials at very low temperatures and the subsequent thawing of these at a future date without apparent loss of vitality. Although cryotechnologies are fundamental to reproductive technologies, regenerative medicine, transplantation surgery and conservation biology, they have largely escaped scholarly attention in science and technology studies, anthropology and sociology.
CRYOSOCIETIES explores the crucial role of cryopreservation in affecting temporalities and the concept of life. The project is based on the thesis that in contemporary societies, cryopreservation practices bring into existence a new form of life: “suspended life”. “Suspended life” enables vital processes to be kept in a liminal state in which biological substances are neither fully alive nor dead. CRYOSOCIETIES generates profound empirical knowledge about the creation of “suspended life” through three ethnographic studies that investigate various sites of cryopreservation. A fourth subproject develops a complex theoretical framework in order to grasp the temporal and spatial regimes of the different cryopractices.
CRYOSOCIETIES breaks analytical ground in three important ways. First, the project provides the first systematic and comprehensive empirical study of “suspended life” and deepens our knowledge of how cryopreservation works in different settings. Secondly, it undertakes pioneering work on cryopreservation practices in Europe, generating novel ways of understanding how “suspended life” is assembled, negotiated and mobilised in European societies. Thirdly, CRYOSOCIETIES develops an innovative methodological and theoretical framework in order to address the relationality and materiality of cryopreservation practices and to explore the concept of vitality and the politics of life in the 21st century.
Max ERC Funding
2 497 587 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-04-01, End date: 2024-03-31
Project acronym DigitalValues
Project The Construction of Values in Digital Spheres
Researcher (PI) Limor Shifman
Host Institution (HI) THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH3, ERC-2018-COG
Summary In recent decades, social media has emerged as a central arena for the construction of values. Artifacts such as YouTube videos, Facebook posts, and tweets reflect and shape what people across the globe consider important, desirable, or reprehensible. Understanding this pervasive value ecology is key to deciphering the political, cultural, and social processes governing the twenty-first century. In this project, I will conduct the first comprehensive study of values in social media. I will explore the following over-arching questions: How are values constructed through social media? Which values are emphasized in these spheres? To what extent are social media platforms associated with the globalization of values? In addressing these fundamental issues, I will apply an entirely new approach for the conceptualization and study of values.
Carried out comparatively in five languages, DigitalValues will explore the interaction between three facets of value construction: (a) explicit uses of the terms “value” and “values”; (b) the implicit construction of values in genres of user-generated content; and (c) users’ interpretation and evaluation of values through both private meaning-making and public social practices of commenting, sharing, and liking. The project is theoretically, empirically, and methodologically groundbreaking in a number of ways: (1) it will be a pioneering large-scale study employing inductive methods to explore the construction of values through everyday cultural artifacts; (2) as a foundational study of values in social media, it will yield a novel theory of value construction as an intersection between individuals, technologies, and sociocultural contexts; (3) it will generate new methods for infering values from verbal texts, combining qualitative, quantitative, and automated analyses; (4) finally, it will yield a comprehensive map of values as expressed across languages and platforms, leading to a new understanding of the globalization of values.
Summary
In recent decades, social media has emerged as a central arena for the construction of values. Artifacts such as YouTube videos, Facebook posts, and tweets reflect and shape what people across the globe consider important, desirable, or reprehensible. Understanding this pervasive value ecology is key to deciphering the political, cultural, and social processes governing the twenty-first century. In this project, I will conduct the first comprehensive study of values in social media. I will explore the following over-arching questions: How are values constructed through social media? Which values are emphasized in these spheres? To what extent are social media platforms associated with the globalization of values? In addressing these fundamental issues, I will apply an entirely new approach for the conceptualization and study of values.
Carried out comparatively in five languages, DigitalValues will explore the interaction between three facets of value construction: (a) explicit uses of the terms “value” and “values”; (b) the implicit construction of values in genres of user-generated content; and (c) users’ interpretation and evaluation of values through both private meaning-making and public social practices of commenting, sharing, and liking. The project is theoretically, empirically, and methodologically groundbreaking in a number of ways: (1) it will be a pioneering large-scale study employing inductive methods to explore the construction of values through everyday cultural artifacts; (2) as a foundational study of values in social media, it will yield a novel theory of value construction as an intersection between individuals, technologies, and sociocultural contexts; (3) it will generate new methods for infering values from verbal texts, combining qualitative, quantitative, and automated analyses; (4) finally, it will yield a comprehensive map of values as expressed across languages and platforms, leading to a new understanding of the globalization of values.
Max ERC Funding
1 985 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-08-01, End date: 2024-07-31
Project acronym EDGE
Project Evaluating the Delivery Of Participatory Environmental Governance using an Evidence-based Research Design
Researcher (PI) Jens Newig
Host Institution (HI) LEUPHANA UNIVERSITAT LUNEBURG
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary Participation of citizens and stakeholders in environmental governance is widely believed to enhance environmental policy outcomes. This claim has, however, been challenged both on theoretical grounds and with respect to a lack of reliable evidence. EDGE uses an evidence-based approach: By combining case survey, comparative case studies and field experimentation, the project draws on complementary methods with a high natural variety and thus external validity (case survey) and those with a higher controllability and thus higher internal validity (experimentation).
Case survey: Numerous single case studies are available across Europe and North America, providing a rich, but scattered and yet untapped resource of data. A sample of c.200 cases will be precisely coded and systematically compared based on a theoretical framework that provides relevant context, process and outcome variables.
A sample of around 10 comparative case studies on governance processes in the course of the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) will be conducted.
EDGE will perform one of the first field experiments in governance research. Field experiments are highly promising, yet controversially debated and in practice challenging. Around 10 cases of ongoing local WFD implementation processes will be subject to random selection of a participatory or non-participatory governance design.
Data from all three sources will be stringently analysed using the same analytical scheme. Results will be analysed with statistical and set-theoretic methods. EDGE thus aims to drastically improve the scientific knowledge on whether and under what conditions participation actually improves policy delivery in environmental governance, thus radically informing scholarly research and political practice.
Summary
Participation of citizens and stakeholders in environmental governance is widely believed to enhance environmental policy outcomes. This claim has, however, been challenged both on theoretical grounds and with respect to a lack of reliable evidence. EDGE uses an evidence-based approach: By combining case survey, comparative case studies and field experimentation, the project draws on complementary methods with a high natural variety and thus external validity (case survey) and those with a higher controllability and thus higher internal validity (experimentation).
Case survey: Numerous single case studies are available across Europe and North America, providing a rich, but scattered and yet untapped resource of data. A sample of c.200 cases will be precisely coded and systematically compared based on a theoretical framework that provides relevant context, process and outcome variables.
A sample of around 10 comparative case studies on governance processes in the course of the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) will be conducted.
EDGE will perform one of the first field experiments in governance research. Field experiments are highly promising, yet controversially debated and in practice challenging. Around 10 cases of ongoing local WFD implementation processes will be subject to random selection of a participatory or non-participatory governance design.
Data from all three sources will be stringently analysed using the same analytical scheme. Results will be analysed with statistical and set-theoretic methods. EDGE thus aims to drastically improve the scientific knowledge on whether and under what conditions participation actually improves policy delivery in environmental governance, thus radically informing scholarly research and political practice.
Max ERC Funding
900 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2016-03-31
Project acronym GRASP-CN
Project Human reaching and grasping - cognitive networks of visual action control
Researcher (PI) Marc Himmelbach
Host Institution (HI) EBERHARD KARLS UNIVERSITAET TUEBINGEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2007-StG
Summary Cognitive Neuroscience throughout the last decade was dominated by a two stream model of visual processing. A ventral pathway was presumed to be dedicated to perception-related processing. A dorsal pathway was presumed to be dedicated to action-related processing. The proposed project challenges this view combining neuroimaging and neuropsychological methods. Neuroimaging in healthy humans allows for a view on correlated activity of the intact perception-action system, patients with visuomotor deficits reveal causalities between perception- and action-related information processing and the demonstration of neural reorganisation. However, neuroimaging studies including patients with brain lesions have rarely been conducted. Patients with optic ataxia after brain damage demonstrate specific visuomotor disorders: (i) deficient grip scaling to object size and (ii) spatial mismatch between perceived positions and goal-directed hand movements. These deficits vary with temporal parameters and knowledge about the object to be grasped and/or manipulated. Furthermore, the patients seem to adopt cognitive strategies to improve their performance. Therefore, they allow for the investigation of interactions between visual perception, spatial memory, and cognitive processing for the purpose of goal-directed action control. The proposed project comprises behavioural experiments to reveal the impact of object/action knowledge on movement control and of movement timing in optic ataxia patients. Investigations of reaching and grasping using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation in healthy subjects and patients complement the neuropsychological research approach. The analysis of specific activation patterns and behavioural changes upon TMS application in patients - under consideration of their individual brain damage - in comparison with large groups of healthy controls will allow for a causal description of human visual action control.
Summary
Cognitive Neuroscience throughout the last decade was dominated by a two stream model of visual processing. A ventral pathway was presumed to be dedicated to perception-related processing. A dorsal pathway was presumed to be dedicated to action-related processing. The proposed project challenges this view combining neuroimaging and neuropsychological methods. Neuroimaging in healthy humans allows for a view on correlated activity of the intact perception-action system, patients with visuomotor deficits reveal causalities between perception- and action-related information processing and the demonstration of neural reorganisation. However, neuroimaging studies including patients with brain lesions have rarely been conducted. Patients with optic ataxia after brain damage demonstrate specific visuomotor disorders: (i) deficient grip scaling to object size and (ii) spatial mismatch between perceived positions and goal-directed hand movements. These deficits vary with temporal parameters and knowledge about the object to be grasped and/or manipulated. Furthermore, the patients seem to adopt cognitive strategies to improve their performance. Therefore, they allow for the investigation of interactions between visual perception, spatial memory, and cognitive processing for the purpose of goal-directed action control. The proposed project comprises behavioural experiments to reveal the impact of object/action knowledge on movement control and of movement timing in optic ataxia patients. Investigations of reaching and grasping using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation in healthy subjects and patients complement the neuropsychological research approach. The analysis of specific activation patterns and behavioural changes upon TMS application in patients - under consideration of their individual brain damage - in comparison with large groups of healthy controls will allow for a causal description of human visual action control.
Max ERC Funding
1 120 440 €
Duration
Start date: 2008-09-01, End date: 2013-08-31
Project acronym HUCO
Project Human Cooperation to Protect the Global Commons
Researcher (PI) Astrid Dannenberg
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAET KASSEL
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2014-STG
Summary The objectives of this research are to reveal the nature of large-scale human cooperation and to develop strategies for the protection of our global environment. Human activities are now the major driver of change in the biosphere, including the climate, the water cycle, and the distribution of species and biodiversity – with adverse effects that range from the local to the global scale. Since there is no world government that can enforce the protection of the global commons we have to rely on voluntary cooperation by sovereign actors. Previous findings from various disciplines have taught us important lessons about the nature of human cooperation. However, these literatures have almost exclusively focused on local or regional cooperation problems and their findings cannot be readily transferred to the international level. The research proposed here will fill this crucial gap. The methodological approach is genuinely interdisciplinary. In particular, the project will use and combine theoretical, experimental, evolutionary, and empirical methods. The interdisciplinary research team will start by analyzing case studies of international cooperation (or lack thereof). In an iterative process, the case-specific results will be explored in a rigorous context-free analysis using theoretical modeling, experiments, and simulations. With this, the project will: systematically analyze human cooperation from the local to the global scale and the differences between those scales; investigate which institutional arrangements enhance or prevent cooperative behavior at the global level; investigate whether individuals and groups are able to choose the right institutions and which factors determine their choice; synthesize the results to derive theoretical and practical insights about human cooperation and develop effective strategies for the management of the global commons; bring forward the integration of concepts and methods across disciplines for the study of human cooperation.
Summary
The objectives of this research are to reveal the nature of large-scale human cooperation and to develop strategies for the protection of our global environment. Human activities are now the major driver of change in the biosphere, including the climate, the water cycle, and the distribution of species and biodiversity – with adverse effects that range from the local to the global scale. Since there is no world government that can enforce the protection of the global commons we have to rely on voluntary cooperation by sovereign actors. Previous findings from various disciplines have taught us important lessons about the nature of human cooperation. However, these literatures have almost exclusively focused on local or regional cooperation problems and their findings cannot be readily transferred to the international level. The research proposed here will fill this crucial gap. The methodological approach is genuinely interdisciplinary. In particular, the project will use and combine theoretical, experimental, evolutionary, and empirical methods. The interdisciplinary research team will start by analyzing case studies of international cooperation (or lack thereof). In an iterative process, the case-specific results will be explored in a rigorous context-free analysis using theoretical modeling, experiments, and simulations. With this, the project will: systematically analyze human cooperation from the local to the global scale and the differences between those scales; investigate which institutional arrangements enhance or prevent cooperative behavior at the global level; investigate whether individuals and groups are able to choose the right institutions and which factors determine their choice; synthesize the results to derive theoretical and practical insights about human cooperation and develop effective strategies for the management of the global commons; bring forward the integration of concepts and methods across disciplines for the study of human cooperation.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-08-01, End date: 2020-07-31
Project acronym INSPIRE
Project Interhemispheric stimulation promotes reading: two brains are better then one
Researcher (PI) Michal Lavidor
Host Institution (HI) BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2007-StG
Summary The ultimate goal of INSPIRE is to develop Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)-based and training protocols that will improve semantic skills and creative thinking of healthy and impaired individuals by manipulating the balance between the hemispheres while they process language. Although ambitious and revolutionary, this goal is fundamental to conceptions of language processing and functional lateralization in the human brain. Specific objectives are: (1) To investigate how do semantic processes interact with creative thinking, particularly in the right hemisphere (RH). (2) To generate (reversible and temporary) localized functional impairment in healthy participants in order to specify the cortical areas involved in normal semantic processing. In particular, inhibitory TMS protocols will be used to investigate the role of the RH in processing remote associations, metaphors, sarcasm and subordinate meanings of ambiguous words. Complementary TMS-induced impairments are predicted for left hemisphere (LH) stimulation in language areas. (3) To improve RH semantic abilities and creative thinking by targeting excitatory TMS protocols at the regions of interest, and by enhancing the functioning of the homologue un-stimulated cortex with inhibitory protocols via disinhibition. (4) To improve RH semantic abilities and creative thinking by 'left' and 'right' hemisphere training. (5) To apply the research findings of objectives 1-4 above to aphasia, schizophrenia and RH brain damaged patients in order to improve their semantic skills. Prof. Lavidor is now moving back to Israel with her family after a long stay in the UK. The ERC support is requested for the re-establishment of an active and successful TMS lab in Israel, similar to the one Lavidor set up in the UK. The INSPIRE project, if funded, will allow her to build a new generation of inspired research students in her new lab, trained for excellence by Lavidor, who won the 2006 Marie Curie Excellence Award
Summary
The ultimate goal of INSPIRE is to develop Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)-based and training protocols that will improve semantic skills and creative thinking of healthy and impaired individuals by manipulating the balance between the hemispheres while they process language. Although ambitious and revolutionary, this goal is fundamental to conceptions of language processing and functional lateralization in the human brain. Specific objectives are: (1) To investigate how do semantic processes interact with creative thinking, particularly in the right hemisphere (RH). (2) To generate (reversible and temporary) localized functional impairment in healthy participants in order to specify the cortical areas involved in normal semantic processing. In particular, inhibitory TMS protocols will be used to investigate the role of the RH in processing remote associations, metaphors, sarcasm and subordinate meanings of ambiguous words. Complementary TMS-induced impairments are predicted for left hemisphere (LH) stimulation in language areas. (3) To improve RH semantic abilities and creative thinking by targeting excitatory TMS protocols at the regions of interest, and by enhancing the functioning of the homologue un-stimulated cortex with inhibitory protocols via disinhibition. (4) To improve RH semantic abilities and creative thinking by 'left' and 'right' hemisphere training. (5) To apply the research findings of objectives 1-4 above to aphasia, schizophrenia and RH brain damaged patients in order to improve their semantic skills. Prof. Lavidor is now moving back to Israel with her family after a long stay in the UK. The ERC support is requested for the re-establishment of an active and successful TMS lab in Israel, similar to the one Lavidor set up in the UK. The INSPIRE project, if funded, will allow her to build a new generation of inspired research students in her new lab, trained for excellence by Lavidor, who won the 2006 Marie Curie Excellence Award
Max ERC Funding
638 400 €
Duration
Start date: 2008-10-01, End date: 2012-09-30
