Project acronym CalorieRL
Project Reinforcement learning from post-ingestive calories: from body to brain in health and disease
Researcher (PI) ALBINO JORGE CARVALHO DE SOUSA OLIVEIRA MAIA
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACAO D. ANNA SOMMER CHAMPALIMAUD E DR. CARLOS MONTEZ CHAMPALIMAUD
Country Portugal
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2020-STG
Summary The drive to eat is one of the strongest in the modulation of behaviour. Selection of food is guided by sensory feedback, including post-ingestive information about energy content, that has been studied across several species, paradigms and nutrients. In rodents, post-oral administration of sugar is associated with striatal dopamine release and conditions robust preferences, in part as a result of viscerosensory information transmitted through the vagus nerve. Consistently, in humans there is evidence that pairing a flavour with a tasteless carbohydrate will enhance pleasantness of the pre-ingestive stimulus and increase its consumption.
However, available data in humans have provided limited mechanistic underpinnings for this process and, in our own experiments, performed with greater control of pre-ingestive stimulation, while we reproduced increased consumption of conditioned flavours, we found no evidence for post-ingestive mediated changes of pleasantness. Critically, this suggests that the impact of nutrient conditioning on behaviour and choice reflects the modulation of the value of actions, rather than that of associated stimuli. The application of computational reinforcement learning theory to human probabilistic decision-making tasks, which has allowed for renewed sophistication and progress to understand the mechanisms of appetitive learning, is yet to be applied to address this question.
In CalorieRL, we will use computational reinforcement models applied to instrumental conditioning, in addition to brain functional and molecular imaging and peripheral nerve stimulation, to study post-ingestive reinforcement of food-seeking behaviour. We hypothesize such behaviour has a dopaminergic substrate and is associated with neural activity in brain reward circuits, resulting from sensory information transmitted through the vagus nerve. Importantly, we will also address if post-ingestive reinforcement is relevant in the context of obesity.
Summary
The drive to eat is one of the strongest in the modulation of behaviour. Selection of food is guided by sensory feedback, including post-ingestive information about energy content, that has been studied across several species, paradigms and nutrients. In rodents, post-oral administration of sugar is associated with striatal dopamine release and conditions robust preferences, in part as a result of viscerosensory information transmitted through the vagus nerve. Consistently, in humans there is evidence that pairing a flavour with a tasteless carbohydrate will enhance pleasantness of the pre-ingestive stimulus and increase its consumption.
However, available data in humans have provided limited mechanistic underpinnings for this process and, in our own experiments, performed with greater control of pre-ingestive stimulation, while we reproduced increased consumption of conditioned flavours, we found no evidence for post-ingestive mediated changes of pleasantness. Critically, this suggests that the impact of nutrient conditioning on behaviour and choice reflects the modulation of the value of actions, rather than that of associated stimuli. The application of computational reinforcement learning theory to human probabilistic decision-making tasks, which has allowed for renewed sophistication and progress to understand the mechanisms of appetitive learning, is yet to be applied to address this question.
In CalorieRL, we will use computational reinforcement models applied to instrumental conditioning, in addition to brain functional and molecular imaging and peripheral nerve stimulation, to study post-ingestive reinforcement of food-seeking behaviour. We hypothesize such behaviour has a dopaminergic substrate and is associated with neural activity in brain reward circuits, resulting from sensory information transmitted through the vagus nerve. Importantly, we will also address if post-ingestive reinforcement is relevant in the context of obesity.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 945 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-11-01, End date: 2025-10-31
Project acronym COLOURCODE
Project The Mind's Eye: Decoding Colour Experience
Researcher (PI) Jenny Bosten
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2020-STG
Summary The most extraordinary products of the human mind are personal, subjective experiences such as the qualitative experience of the redness of red, yet the question of what process or processes in the brain give rise to conscious experiences remains one of the greatest scientific mysteries. The COLOURCODE project will use colour as a model system to tackle important questions necessary to approach an answer. First, COLOURCODE aims to elucidate the representation of colour in the human brain that underlies how colours appear and are experienced. Second, it aims to provide the first investigation of how the precise timing of rhythmic neural activity represents colour and drives colour perception and experience. Third, by measuring how individuals perceive colour differently from one another, the project aims to determine how colour experience is constrained by the number and type of sensors in the eye and information received from the external world. COLOURCODE will use an innovative combination of psychophysics and individual differences, along with a diverse suite of neuroscience methods including electroencephalography (EEG), steady state visually evoked potentials, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). COLOURCODE will provide the most detailed characterisation yet of how a stimulus attribute is represented by the human brain, driving a greater understanding of representation in neuroscience. Determining for the first time the encoding capacity of rhythmic brain activity will cause a paradigm shift in vision science as it is not part of existing theoretical models. COLOURCODE’s theoretical advances and methodological innovations will lead us closer to answering one of the most formidable questions in science and philosophy - the question of what processes give rise to conscious perceptual experiences.
Summary
The most extraordinary products of the human mind are personal, subjective experiences such as the qualitative experience of the redness of red, yet the question of what process or processes in the brain give rise to conscious experiences remains one of the greatest scientific mysteries. The COLOURCODE project will use colour as a model system to tackle important questions necessary to approach an answer. First, COLOURCODE aims to elucidate the representation of colour in the human brain that underlies how colours appear and are experienced. Second, it aims to provide the first investigation of how the precise timing of rhythmic neural activity represents colour and drives colour perception and experience. Third, by measuring how individuals perceive colour differently from one another, the project aims to determine how colour experience is constrained by the number and type of sensors in the eye and information received from the external world. COLOURCODE will use an innovative combination of psychophysics and individual differences, along with a diverse suite of neuroscience methods including electroencephalography (EEG), steady state visually evoked potentials, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). COLOURCODE will provide the most detailed characterisation yet of how a stimulus attribute is represented by the human brain, driving a greater understanding of representation in neuroscience. Determining for the first time the encoding capacity of rhythmic brain activity will cause a paradigm shift in vision science as it is not part of existing theoretical models. COLOURCODE’s theoretical advances and methodological innovations will lead us closer to answering one of the most formidable questions in science and philosophy - the question of what processes give rise to conscious perceptual experiences.
Max ERC Funding
1 492 132 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-12-01, End date: 2025-11-30
Project acronym HABIT
Project Making and Breaking Habits
Researcher (PI) Claire Gillan
Host Institution (HI) THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD, OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
Country Ireland
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2020-STG
Summary Every minute of every day, our brain’s habit system is hard at work automating well-practiced actions so our brains can focus on new and more complex challenges. This does not always work to our benefit, however. My research has implicated hyper-expression of habits in a range of compulsive behaviours, from drug addiction to out-of-control spending, binge-eating and obsessive-compulsive rituals. Despite the importance of habits in our lives, there are major gaps in our understanding of how they are acquired in humans and a virtual absence of research into how they can be broken. This is because the mainstay experimental paradigms in the field measure habit expression in a way that cannot distinguish impairments in goal-directed control from the strength of automatic stimulus-response associations. This has led to confounded interpretations that have seriously impeded research aiming to investigate these basic mechanisms. HABIT aims to change this by leveraging known differences in the temporal dynamics of each sysem, where stimulus-response automaticity is fast and goal-directed behaviour, slow. Our novel approach couples the millisecond precision of electrophysiology with the breadth of large-scale phenotyping via smartphone to develop a new mechanistic model of the independent functioning of these systems and their interaction. This novel combination will be used to develop a detailed neural account of both systems and their split-second trade-off, but also to test the real-world functional consequences of disruptions to either system. A series of causal manipulations anchor this grant and are designed to challenge key assumptions of our working model. Can we engineer more robust and rigid habits by-design and develop novel methods to break the most rigid of habits? With clear potential for impact, the fundamental insights from this project will reveal how we can harness the power of habits in our lives and better understand key aspects of mental illness.
Summary
Every minute of every day, our brain’s habit system is hard at work automating well-practiced actions so our brains can focus on new and more complex challenges. This does not always work to our benefit, however. My research has implicated hyper-expression of habits in a range of compulsive behaviours, from drug addiction to out-of-control spending, binge-eating and obsessive-compulsive rituals. Despite the importance of habits in our lives, there are major gaps in our understanding of how they are acquired in humans and a virtual absence of research into how they can be broken. This is because the mainstay experimental paradigms in the field measure habit expression in a way that cannot distinguish impairments in goal-directed control from the strength of automatic stimulus-response associations. This has led to confounded interpretations that have seriously impeded research aiming to investigate these basic mechanisms. HABIT aims to change this by leveraging known differences in the temporal dynamics of each sysem, where stimulus-response automaticity is fast and goal-directed behaviour, slow. Our novel approach couples the millisecond precision of electrophysiology with the breadth of large-scale phenotyping via smartphone to develop a new mechanistic model of the independent functioning of these systems and their interaction. This novel combination will be used to develop a detailed neural account of both systems and their split-second trade-off, but also to test the real-world functional consequences of disruptions to either system. A series of causal manipulations anchor this grant and are designed to challenge key assumptions of our working model. Can we engineer more robust and rigid habits by-design and develop novel methods to break the most rigid of habits? With clear potential for impact, the fundamental insights from this project will reveal how we can harness the power of habits in our lives and better understand key aspects of mental illness.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 910 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-10-01, End date: 2026-09-30
Project acronym HOPLA
Project Homeostatic Plasticity beyond the critical period
Researcher (PI) Claudia Lunghi
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Country France
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2020-STG
Summary Fine-tuning of our sensory systems, learning, memory and cognition rely on neuroplasticity, the capability of our brain to change in response to environmental pressures. Neuroplasticity is maximal during development, underlying the peak of our ability to learn in early childhood and also allowing us to adapt to the external world. As we age, the plastic potential of the brain decreases, especially for sensory cortices. The classical view is that the sensory brain becomes hard-wired after the temporal window of maximal plasticity called critical period (6-7 years in humans). As a consequence, the ability of our sensory brain to react to injury, sensory loss and to recover from conditions established during development becomes limited in adulthood.
In my previous research I have shown that a particular form of neuroplasticity called homeostatic plasticity is relatively preserved beyond the critical period, opening new horizons on adult sensory plasticity. Building on these observations, in project HOPLA I will unravel the multifaceted nature of sensory neuroplasticity in adult humans, elucidate the underlying mechanisms and explore new forms of plasticity.
The project is articulated around four unresolved issues:
1- What is the relationship between Hebbian and homeostatic plasticity?
2- What is the role of excitation/inhibition balance in enhancing and consolidating homeostatic plasticity?
3- Is it possible to elicit new forms of visual and auditory homeostatic plasticity?
4- What is the interplay between neuroplasticity occurring between and within sensory modalities?
To address these questions, I will combine classic behavioural measurements of visual and auditory perception with state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques and virtual reality environments both in healthy and clinical populations (amblyopic and deaf adults). The proposed research is based on strong theoretical hypotheses and has outstanding applications for neuro-rehabilitation in adult humans.
Summary
Fine-tuning of our sensory systems, learning, memory and cognition rely on neuroplasticity, the capability of our brain to change in response to environmental pressures. Neuroplasticity is maximal during development, underlying the peak of our ability to learn in early childhood and also allowing us to adapt to the external world. As we age, the plastic potential of the brain decreases, especially for sensory cortices. The classical view is that the sensory brain becomes hard-wired after the temporal window of maximal plasticity called critical period (6-7 years in humans). As a consequence, the ability of our sensory brain to react to injury, sensory loss and to recover from conditions established during development becomes limited in adulthood.
In my previous research I have shown that a particular form of neuroplasticity called homeostatic plasticity is relatively preserved beyond the critical period, opening new horizons on adult sensory plasticity. Building on these observations, in project HOPLA I will unravel the multifaceted nature of sensory neuroplasticity in adult humans, elucidate the underlying mechanisms and explore new forms of plasticity.
The project is articulated around four unresolved issues:
1- What is the relationship between Hebbian and homeostatic plasticity?
2- What is the role of excitation/inhibition balance in enhancing and consolidating homeostatic plasticity?
3- Is it possible to elicit new forms of visual and auditory homeostatic plasticity?
4- What is the interplay between neuroplasticity occurring between and within sensory modalities?
To address these questions, I will combine classic behavioural measurements of visual and auditory perception with state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques and virtual reality environments both in healthy and clinical populations (amblyopic and deaf adults). The proposed research is based on strong theoretical hypotheses and has outstanding applications for neuro-rehabilitation in adult humans.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 698 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-05-01, End date: 2026-04-30
Project acronym IllusoryPain
Project Illusions in the thermo-nociceptive system
Researcher (PI) Francesca Fardo
Host Institution (HI) AARHUS UNIVERSITET
Country Denmark
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2020-STG
Summary What does it mean to experience an illusion of pain? The typical role of pain is to signal when the body is damaged. However, pain illusions in the absence of any risk of tissue damage are common in the normal population. For example, a mix of warm and cold stimuli can be perceived as burning hot, as in the case of the Thermal Grill Illusion. So far, research on thermosensation and pain has largely treated pain illusions as curious quirks of the thermo-nociceptive system, and underplayed the fact that these illusions fundamentally contradict core assumptions of mainstream theories of pain perception. In this project, I propose a new approach to advance our understanding of perceptual inference of pain in humans which challenges these assumptions. Specifically, I will use behavioural and neuroimaging experiments to identify the functional properties, clinical relevance and neural basis of both illusory and veridical pain. First, I will extend innovative behavioural, physiological and neuroimaging protocols to investigate the mechanisms underlying pain illusions. Next, I will investigate the clinical relevance of illusory pain, with the ultimate goal of providing novel tools that can offer a mechanistic approach to pain assessment. Finally, I will validate a comprehensive computational model of pain, which can explain both illusory and veridical thermo-nociceptive phenomena in a unified framework. Overall this project will harness pain illusions to uncover general principles of temperature and pain perception, and will validate novel computational techniques for characterising the neural encoding of thermosensation and pain. These outcomes will redefine our understanding of illusory pain and offer new insights into mechanisms of temperature and pain perception in humans.
Summary
What does it mean to experience an illusion of pain? The typical role of pain is to signal when the body is damaged. However, pain illusions in the absence of any risk of tissue damage are common in the normal population. For example, a mix of warm and cold stimuli can be perceived as burning hot, as in the case of the Thermal Grill Illusion. So far, research on thermosensation and pain has largely treated pain illusions as curious quirks of the thermo-nociceptive system, and underplayed the fact that these illusions fundamentally contradict core assumptions of mainstream theories of pain perception. In this project, I propose a new approach to advance our understanding of perceptual inference of pain in humans which challenges these assumptions. Specifically, I will use behavioural and neuroimaging experiments to identify the functional properties, clinical relevance and neural basis of both illusory and veridical pain. First, I will extend innovative behavioural, physiological and neuroimaging protocols to investigate the mechanisms underlying pain illusions. Next, I will investigate the clinical relevance of illusory pain, with the ultimate goal of providing novel tools that can offer a mechanistic approach to pain assessment. Finally, I will validate a comprehensive computational model of pain, which can explain both illusory and veridical thermo-nociceptive phenomena in a unified framework. Overall this project will harness pain illusions to uncover general principles of temperature and pain perception, and will validate novel computational techniques for characterising the neural encoding of thermosensation and pain. These outcomes will redefine our understanding of illusory pain and offer new insights into mechanisms of temperature and pain perception in humans.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 918 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-01-01, End date: 2025-12-31
Project acronym INFORL
Project Characterizing information integration in reinforcement learning: a neuro-computational investigation
Researcher (PI) Maeel LEBRETON
Host Institution (HI) ECOLE D'ECONOMIE DE PARIS
Country France
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2020-STG
Summary Reinforcement learning (RL) characterizes how we adaptively learn, by trial and errors, to select actions that maximize the occurrence of rewards, and minimize the occurrence of punishments. While the behavioural, computational and neurobiological features of learning from singular experienced outcomes have been extensively studied, the mechanisms by which RL could leverage multiple, concurrent information samples – including abstract information about prospective outcomes – have been largely overlooked.
As a consequence, little is known about how we prioritize, filter or value outcome information in RL, while these processes likely critically contribute to shaping learning behaviour.
This project proposes to address this gap, and hypothesizes that humans can learn from multiple concurrent information samples, but that computational limitations and affective biases curb information integration.
First, using a new experimental and computational framework, I will evidence and quantify these cognitive features. Using eye-tracking and complementary functional neuroimaging modalities (EEG, fMRI), I will build a neuro-computational model of information integration, by deciphering the interactions between attentional parieto-frontal network and the affective ventro-limbic networks during reinforcement learning.
Then, I propose to investigate the strategic modulation of information integration, by investigating the effects of information quantity and quality on learning strategies and on the neural correlates of learning variables.
Finally, I will assess several behavioural interventions to ameliorate information integration and improve learning performance.
By investigating an overlooked aspect of reinforcement learning –the integration of available information–, this project could not only help refine computational and neurobiological models of the learning process, but also shed new lights on maladaptive traits of human behaviour in social and clinical contexts.
Summary
Reinforcement learning (RL) characterizes how we adaptively learn, by trial and errors, to select actions that maximize the occurrence of rewards, and minimize the occurrence of punishments. While the behavioural, computational and neurobiological features of learning from singular experienced outcomes have been extensively studied, the mechanisms by which RL could leverage multiple, concurrent information samples – including abstract information about prospective outcomes – have been largely overlooked.
As a consequence, little is known about how we prioritize, filter or value outcome information in RL, while these processes likely critically contribute to shaping learning behaviour.
This project proposes to address this gap, and hypothesizes that humans can learn from multiple concurrent information samples, but that computational limitations and affective biases curb information integration.
First, using a new experimental and computational framework, I will evidence and quantify these cognitive features. Using eye-tracking and complementary functional neuroimaging modalities (EEG, fMRI), I will build a neuro-computational model of information integration, by deciphering the interactions between attentional parieto-frontal network and the affective ventro-limbic networks during reinforcement learning.
Then, I propose to investigate the strategic modulation of information integration, by investigating the effects of information quantity and quality on learning strategies and on the neural correlates of learning variables.
Finally, I will assess several behavioural interventions to ameliorate information integration and improve learning performance.
By investigating an overlooked aspect of reinforcement learning –the integration of available information–, this project could not only help refine computational and neurobiological models of the learning process, but also shed new lights on maladaptive traits of human behaviour in social and clinical contexts.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-09-01, End date: 2026-08-31
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 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
