Project acronym AGESPACE
Project SPATIAL NAVIGATION – A UNIQUE WINDOW INTO MECHANISMS OF COGNITIVE AGEING
Researcher (PI) Thomas Wolbers
Host Institution (HI) DEUTSCHES ZENTRUM FUR NEURODEGENERATIVE ERKRANKUNGEN EV
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2013-StG
Summary "By 2040, the European population aged over 60 will rise to 290 million, with those estimated to have dementia to 15.9 million. These dramatic demographic changes will pose huge challenges to health care systems, hence a detailed understanding of age-related cognitive and neurobiological changes is essential for helping elderly populations maintain independence. However, while existing research into cognitive ageing has carefully characterised developmental trajectories of functions such as memory and processing speed, one key cognitive ability that is particularly relevant to everyday functioning has received very little attention: In surveys, elderly people often report substantial declines in navigational abilities such as problems with finding one’s way in a novel environment. Such deficits severely restrict the mobility of elderly people and affect physical activity and social participation, but the underlying behavioural and neuronal mechanisms are poorly understood.
In this proposal, I will take a new approach to cognitive ageing that will bridge the gap between animal neurobiology and human cognitive neuroscience. With support from the ERC, I will create a team that will characterise the mechanisms mediating age-related changes in navigational processing in humans. The project will focus on three structures that perform key computations for spatial navigation, form a closely interconnected triadic network, and are particularly sensitive to the ageing process. Crucially, the team will employ an interdisciplinary methodological approach that combines mathematical modelling, brain imaging and innovative data analysis techniques with novel virtual environment technology, which allows for rigorous testing of predictions derived from animal findings. Finally, the proposal also incorporates a translational project aimed at improving spatial mnemonic functioning with a behavioural intervention, which provides a direct test of functional relevance and societal impact."
Summary
"By 2040, the European population aged over 60 will rise to 290 million, with those estimated to have dementia to 15.9 million. These dramatic demographic changes will pose huge challenges to health care systems, hence a detailed understanding of age-related cognitive and neurobiological changes is essential for helping elderly populations maintain independence. However, while existing research into cognitive ageing has carefully characterised developmental trajectories of functions such as memory and processing speed, one key cognitive ability that is particularly relevant to everyday functioning has received very little attention: In surveys, elderly people often report substantial declines in navigational abilities such as problems with finding one’s way in a novel environment. Such deficits severely restrict the mobility of elderly people and affect physical activity and social participation, but the underlying behavioural and neuronal mechanisms are poorly understood.
In this proposal, I will take a new approach to cognitive ageing that will bridge the gap between animal neurobiology and human cognitive neuroscience. With support from the ERC, I will create a team that will characterise the mechanisms mediating age-related changes in navigational processing in humans. The project will focus on three structures that perform key computations for spatial navigation, form a closely interconnected triadic network, and are particularly sensitive to the ageing process. Crucially, the team will employ an interdisciplinary methodological approach that combines mathematical modelling, brain imaging and innovative data analysis techniques with novel virtual environment technology, which allows for rigorous testing of predictions derived from animal findings. Finally, the proposal also incorporates a translational project aimed at improving spatial mnemonic functioning with a behavioural intervention, which provides a direct test of functional relevance and societal impact."
Max ERC Funding
1 318 990 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-01-01, End date: 2018-12-31
Project acronym ApeAttachment
Project Are social skills determined by early live experiences?
Researcher (PI) Catherine Delia Crockford
Host Institution (HI) MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2015-STG
Summary Social bonding success in life impacts on health, survival and fitness. It is proposed that early and later social experience as well as heritable factors determine social bonding abilities in adulthood, although the relative influence of each is unclear. In humans, the resulting uncertainty likely impedes psychological and psychiatric assessment and therapy. One problem hampering progress for human studies is that social bonding success is hard to objectively quantify, particularly in adults. I propose to directly address this problem by determining the key influences on social bonding abilities in chimpanzees, our closest living relative, where social bonding success can be objectively quantified, and is defined as number of affiliative relationships maintained over time with high rates of affiliation.
Objectives. This project will quantify the relative impact of early and later social experience as well as heritable factors on social hormone levels, social cognition and social bonding success in 270 wild and captive chimpanzees, using both cohort and longitudinal data. This will reveal the degree of plasticity in social cognition and bonding behaviour throughout life. Finally, it will evaluate the potential for using endogenous hormone levels as non-invasive biomarkers of social bonding success, as well as identifying social contexts that act as strong natural social hormone releasers.
Outcomes. This project will expose what makes some better at social bonding than others. Specifically, it will show the extent to which later social experience can compensate for early social experience or heritable factors in terms of adult social bonding success, the latter being a key factor in determining health and happiness in life. This project also offers the potential for using hormonal biomarkers in clincial settings, as objective assessment of changes in relationships over time, and in therapy by engaging in social behaviours that act as strong social hormone releasers.
Summary
Social bonding success in life impacts on health, survival and fitness. It is proposed that early and later social experience as well as heritable factors determine social bonding abilities in adulthood, although the relative influence of each is unclear. In humans, the resulting uncertainty likely impedes psychological and psychiatric assessment and therapy. One problem hampering progress for human studies is that social bonding success is hard to objectively quantify, particularly in adults. I propose to directly address this problem by determining the key influences on social bonding abilities in chimpanzees, our closest living relative, where social bonding success can be objectively quantified, and is defined as number of affiliative relationships maintained over time with high rates of affiliation.
Objectives. This project will quantify the relative impact of early and later social experience as well as heritable factors on social hormone levels, social cognition and social bonding success in 270 wild and captive chimpanzees, using both cohort and longitudinal data. This will reveal the degree of plasticity in social cognition and bonding behaviour throughout life. Finally, it will evaluate the potential for using endogenous hormone levels as non-invasive biomarkers of social bonding success, as well as identifying social contexts that act as strong natural social hormone releasers.
Outcomes. This project will expose what makes some better at social bonding than others. Specifically, it will show the extent to which later social experience can compensate for early social experience or heritable factors in terms of adult social bonding success, the latter being a key factor in determining health and happiness in life. This project also offers the potential for using hormonal biomarkers in clincial settings, as objective assessment of changes in relationships over time, and in therapy by engaging in social behaviours that act as strong social hormone releasers.
Max ERC Funding
1 495 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-04-01, End date: 2021-03-31
Project acronym BBRhythms
Project Brain and body rhythms: on the relationship between movement and percept
Researcher (PI) Barbara Haendel
Host Institution (HI) JULIUS-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAT WURZBURG
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2015-STG
Summary Exciting findings from animal electrophysiological research in the last years suggest that an increased rate of body movements results in an enhanced response of neurons within the visual system despite the absence of visual changes. It is unclear why such modulation occurs in areas which process visual input. In humans, little is known about the influence of body movements on sensory brain areas mainly due to the technical challenges of measuring brain responses during pronounced muscle activity. However, psychophysical studies in humans show that also percept and perceptual demands are connected to the rate of movements. These two lines of evidence suggest a general link between rhythmic body movements and perceptual processes.
The main aim of the proposed research is to decode the relationship between body movements and percept and to identify the underlying mechanism. To this end human non-invasive recordings from electro- and magnetoencephalography (EEG, MEG) as well as invasive human and animal multi-electrode recordings collected during movement execution will be analyzed. Directly relating perceptual processes and their underlying neuronal oscillations to rhythmic body movements offers an approach circumventing some of the methodological problems.
This research could uncover a new mechanism of how our system modulates perceptual processes through body movements. The proof of such a mechanism would constitute a ground-breaking step in understanding perception during natural behavior. We need to keep in mind that in the awake state our body is constantly in motion. However, up to now, the vast majority of studies which investigate sensory brain responses are conducted under strict movement suppression. Besides facilitating exciting new insights, this research can strengthen the assumption that the knowledge we have gathered about artificial situations generalizes to our natural behavior.
Summary
Exciting findings from animal electrophysiological research in the last years suggest that an increased rate of body movements results in an enhanced response of neurons within the visual system despite the absence of visual changes. It is unclear why such modulation occurs in areas which process visual input. In humans, little is known about the influence of body movements on sensory brain areas mainly due to the technical challenges of measuring brain responses during pronounced muscle activity. However, psychophysical studies in humans show that also percept and perceptual demands are connected to the rate of movements. These two lines of evidence suggest a general link between rhythmic body movements and perceptual processes.
The main aim of the proposed research is to decode the relationship between body movements and percept and to identify the underlying mechanism. To this end human non-invasive recordings from electro- and magnetoencephalography (EEG, MEG) as well as invasive human and animal multi-electrode recordings collected during movement execution will be analyzed. Directly relating perceptual processes and their underlying neuronal oscillations to rhythmic body movements offers an approach circumventing some of the methodological problems.
This research could uncover a new mechanism of how our system modulates perceptual processes through body movements. The proof of such a mechanism would constitute a ground-breaking step in understanding perception during natural behavior. We need to keep in mind that in the awake state our body is constantly in motion. However, up to now, the vast majority of studies which investigate sensory brain responses are conducted under strict movement suppression. Besides facilitating exciting new insights, this research can strengthen the assumption that the knowledge we have gathered about artificial situations generalizes to our natural behavior.
Max ERC Funding
1 422 907 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-07-01, End date: 2021-06-30
Project acronym BRAINSYNC
Project Brain-environment synchrony and the auditory perception problem
Researcher (PI) Molly HENRY
Host Institution (HI) MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Synchronization of brain rhythms to the rhythms of sounds is a foundational mechanism for auditory perception. However, we know very little about why brain–environment synchrony might fail, leading to auditory perception problems like impaired speech comprehension that negatively impact quality of life. The proposed research program fills this knowledge gap in three stages: 1) Predicting auditory perception, and individual differences thereof, from the fit between neural dynamics and environment; 2) Perturbing the relationship between brain and environment to experimentally test the limits of and protective factors for brain–environment synchronization; 3) Translating gained knowledge to understand age-related dysfunctions in brain–environment synchrony and auditory perception. Stage 1 uses behavioural and neural properties of neural oscillators – brain regions and networks that generate rhythmic neural activity – to predict individual differences in brain–environment synchronization. Stage 2 assesses when and why auditory perception fails, and how auditory perception might be insulated by good brain–environment fit and neural flexibility, by challenging the brain’s ability to adapt to auditory rhythms. Stage 2 has strong potential to provide insight into compensatory listening strategies that may be adopted when neural entrainment is effortful or impossible. Stage 3 places special emphasis on listening difficulties that develop with age, and tests the hypotheses that 1) speech comprehension difficulties stem from reduced neural entrainment in older age, and 2) reduced entrainment for older adults results from age-related changes to neural flexibility. Noninvasive brain stimulation will be used to temporarily remedy these deficits by improving brain–environment synchrony. The research program will account for much currently unexplained individual variance in auditory perception, and will inspire novel interventions to support auditory perception in advancing age.
Summary
Synchronization of brain rhythms to the rhythms of sounds is a foundational mechanism for auditory perception. However, we know very little about why brain–environment synchrony might fail, leading to auditory perception problems like impaired speech comprehension that negatively impact quality of life. The proposed research program fills this knowledge gap in three stages: 1) Predicting auditory perception, and individual differences thereof, from the fit between neural dynamics and environment; 2) Perturbing the relationship between brain and environment to experimentally test the limits of and protective factors for brain–environment synchronization; 3) Translating gained knowledge to understand age-related dysfunctions in brain–environment synchrony and auditory perception. Stage 1 uses behavioural and neural properties of neural oscillators – brain regions and networks that generate rhythmic neural activity – to predict individual differences in brain–environment synchronization. Stage 2 assesses when and why auditory perception fails, and how auditory perception might be insulated by good brain–environment fit and neural flexibility, by challenging the brain’s ability to adapt to auditory rhythms. Stage 2 has strong potential to provide insight into compensatory listening strategies that may be adopted when neural entrainment is effortful or impossible. Stage 3 places special emphasis on listening difficulties that develop with age, and tests the hypotheses that 1) speech comprehension difficulties stem from reduced neural entrainment in older age, and 2) reduced entrainment for older adults results from age-related changes to neural flexibility. Noninvasive brain stimulation will be used to temporarily remedy these deficits by improving brain–environment synchrony. The research program will account for much currently unexplained individual variance in auditory perception, and will inspire novel interventions to support auditory perception in advancing age.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-04-01, End date: 2024-03-31
Project acronym BRISC
Project Bounded Rationality in Sensorimotor Coordination
Researcher (PI) Daniel Alexander Braun
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAET ULM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2015-STG
Summary Despite their many successes and great computational power and speed, why are machines still so blatantly outperformed by humans in uncertain environments that require flexible sensorimotor behavior like playing football or navigating a disaster zone? Answering this question requires understanding the mathematical principles of biological sensorimotor control and learning. Over the recent years Bayes-optimal actor models have widely become the gold standard in the mathematical understanding of sensorimotor processing in well-controlled laboratory tasks. However, these models quickly become intractable for real-world problems because they ignore the computational effort required to search for the Bayes-optimum. What is therefore needed is a framework of sensorimotor processing that takes the limited information-processing capacity of bounded rational actors into account and that explains their robust real-world performance. It is the aim of BRISC to establish such a framework by drawing out theoretical predictions and gathering experimental evidence in human motor control, in particular to understand (i) how single bounded rational actors deviate from Bayes-optimal behavior in motor tasks, (ii) how multiple bounded rational actors organize themselves to solve motor tasks that no individual can solve by themselves and (iii) how this drives the emergence of hierarchical control structures that simultaneously process multiple degrees of abstraction at different time scales. Understanding how abstract concepts are formed autonomously from the sensorimotor stream based on resource allocation principles will establish an essential missing link between high-level symbolic and low-level perceptual processing. These advances will provide a decisive step towards a framework for robust and flexible sensorimotor processing, which is not only essential for understanding the fundamental principles of intelligent behavior, but it is also of potentially great technological value.
Summary
Despite their many successes and great computational power and speed, why are machines still so blatantly outperformed by humans in uncertain environments that require flexible sensorimotor behavior like playing football or navigating a disaster zone? Answering this question requires understanding the mathematical principles of biological sensorimotor control and learning. Over the recent years Bayes-optimal actor models have widely become the gold standard in the mathematical understanding of sensorimotor processing in well-controlled laboratory tasks. However, these models quickly become intractable for real-world problems because they ignore the computational effort required to search for the Bayes-optimum. What is therefore needed is a framework of sensorimotor processing that takes the limited information-processing capacity of bounded rational actors into account and that explains their robust real-world performance. It is the aim of BRISC to establish such a framework by drawing out theoretical predictions and gathering experimental evidence in human motor control, in particular to understand (i) how single bounded rational actors deviate from Bayes-optimal behavior in motor tasks, (ii) how multiple bounded rational actors organize themselves to solve motor tasks that no individual can solve by themselves and (iii) how this drives the emergence of hierarchical control structures that simultaneously process multiple degrees of abstraction at different time scales. Understanding how abstract concepts are formed autonomously from the sensorimotor stream based on resource allocation principles will establish an essential missing link between high-level symbolic and low-level perceptual processing. These advances will provide a decisive step towards a framework for robust and flexible sensorimotor processing, which is not only essential for understanding the fundamental principles of intelligent behavior, but it is also of potentially great technological value.
Max ERC Funding
1 434 250 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30
Project acronym CALC
Project Computer-Assisted Language Comparison: Reconciling Computational and Classical Approaches in Historical Linguistics
Researcher (PI) Johann-Mattis LIST
Host Institution (HI) MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2016-STG
Summary By comparing the languages of the world, we gain invaluable insights into human prehistory, predating the appearance of written records by thousands of years. The traditional methods for language comparison are based on manual data inspection. With more and more data available, they reach their practical limits. Computer applications, however, are not capable of replacing experts' experience and intuition. In a situation where computers cannot replace experts and experts do not have enough time to analyse the massive amounts of data, a new framework, neither completely computer-driven, nor ignorant of the help computers provide, becomes urgent. Such frameworks are well-established in biology and translation, where computational tools cannot provide the accuracy needed to arrive at convincing results, but do assist humans to digest large data sets.
This project establishes a computer-assisted framework for historical linguistics. We pursue an interdisciplinary approach that adapts methods from computer science and bioinformatics for the use in historical linguistics. While purely computational approaches are common today, the project focuses on the communication between classical and computational linguists, developing interfaces that allow historical linguists to produce their data in machine readable formats while at the same time presenting the results of computational analyses in a transparent and human-readable way.
As a litmus test which proves the suitability of the new framework, the project will create an etymological database of Sino-Tibetan languages. The abundance of language contact and the peculiarity of complex processes of language change in which sporadic patterns of morphological change mask regular patterns of sound change make the Sino-Tibetan language family an ideal test case for a new overarching framework that combines the best of two worlds: the experience of experts
and the consistency of computational models.
Summary
By comparing the languages of the world, we gain invaluable insights into human prehistory, predating the appearance of written records by thousands of years. The traditional methods for language comparison are based on manual data inspection. With more and more data available, they reach their practical limits. Computer applications, however, are not capable of replacing experts' experience and intuition. In a situation where computers cannot replace experts and experts do not have enough time to analyse the massive amounts of data, a new framework, neither completely computer-driven, nor ignorant of the help computers provide, becomes urgent. Such frameworks are well-established in biology and translation, where computational tools cannot provide the accuracy needed to arrive at convincing results, but do assist humans to digest large data sets.
This project establishes a computer-assisted framework for historical linguistics. We pursue an interdisciplinary approach that adapts methods from computer science and bioinformatics for the use in historical linguistics. While purely computational approaches are common today, the project focuses on the communication between classical and computational linguists, developing interfaces that allow historical linguists to produce their data in machine readable formats while at the same time presenting the results of computational analyses in a transparent and human-readable way.
As a litmus test which proves the suitability of the new framework, the project will create an etymological database of Sino-Tibetan languages. The abundance of language contact and the peculiarity of complex processes of language change in which sporadic patterns of morphological change mask regular patterns of sound change make the Sino-Tibetan language family an ideal test case for a new overarching framework that combines the best of two worlds: the experience of experts
and the consistency of computational models.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 438 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-04-01, End date: 2022-03-31
Project acronym CRACK
Project Cracking the neural code of human object vision
Researcher (PI) Radoslaw Martin CICHY
Host Institution (HI) FREIE UNIVERSITAET BERLIN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2018-STG
Summary At each blink of our eyes, our brain rapidly transforms the stream of photons hitting the retina into a conscious percept of the world as consisting of meaningful objects that guide our actions to ensure survival. Yet, in spite of intense research three interrelated, fundamental, long-standing and open questions about how neural dynamics mediate object recognition remain unanswered: How exactly do the core cortical regions active during vision represent objects? How and what do those regions communicate? How does the observed activity mediate adaptive behavior? The overall goal of the program CRACK is to crack the neural code of object vision by addressing those three fundamental questions. For this, CRACK will integrate in an unprecedented manner cutting-edge, non-invasive brain imaging methods, advanced multivariate analysis techniques and state-of-the-art computational modelling in an ambitious three-step interdisciplinary work program. Each step is marked by innovation that breaks new ground and opens new horizons at the next step. First, CRACK will unravel the unique representational format of each core cortical region using an unprecedented brain mapping approach that combines brain imaging with artificial deep neural networks (DNNs). Second, it will clarify the flow of information between visual regions that creates these representations with unseen spatiotemporal precision by resolving neural activity in both cortical layers and frequency channels using a combination of functional MRI (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG). Third, it will use advanced multivariate methods linking brain activity and behavior to reveal which aspects of the newly described neural dynamics drive human choice behavior. By breaking down current knowledge boundaries, CRACK will provide the empirical evidence for a new theory of the neural dynamics underlying human visual object recognition, and transform the way we think about and investigate sensory processing.
Summary
At each blink of our eyes, our brain rapidly transforms the stream of photons hitting the retina into a conscious percept of the world as consisting of meaningful objects that guide our actions to ensure survival. Yet, in spite of intense research three interrelated, fundamental, long-standing and open questions about how neural dynamics mediate object recognition remain unanswered: How exactly do the core cortical regions active during vision represent objects? How and what do those regions communicate? How does the observed activity mediate adaptive behavior? The overall goal of the program CRACK is to crack the neural code of object vision by addressing those three fundamental questions. For this, CRACK will integrate in an unprecedented manner cutting-edge, non-invasive brain imaging methods, advanced multivariate analysis techniques and state-of-the-art computational modelling in an ambitious three-step interdisciplinary work program. Each step is marked by innovation that breaks new ground and opens new horizons at the next step. First, CRACK will unravel the unique representational format of each core cortical region using an unprecedented brain mapping approach that combines brain imaging with artificial deep neural networks (DNNs). Second, it will clarify the flow of information between visual regions that creates these representations with unseen spatiotemporal precision by resolving neural activity in both cortical layers and frequency channels using a combination of functional MRI (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG). Third, it will use advanced multivariate methods linking brain activity and behavior to reveal which aspects of the newly described neural dynamics drive human choice behavior. By breaking down current knowledge boundaries, CRACK will provide the empirical evidence for a new theory of the neural dynamics underlying human visual object recognition, and transform the way we think about and investigate sensory processing.
Max ERC Funding
1 480 576 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-05-01, End date: 2024-04-30
Project acronym DirectThalamus
Project How the human thalamus guides navigation and memory: a common coding framework built on direct thalamic recordings
Researcher (PI) Tobias STAUDIGL
Host Institution (HI) LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2018-STG
Summary The thalamus is the major gateway for sensory input to the brain, and, as such, has long been thought of as a mere sensory relay station. But accumulating evidence suggests that it is crucially involved in higher cognitive functions like memory formation and navigation. However, methodological obstacles still impede full understanding of the specific role of thalamus in human cognition.
The core objective of DirectThalamus is to provide an advanced oscillatory model of subcortical processing as the neuronal basis of core cognitive functions. To this end, the project will address several key questions with the aim to identify and understand neuronal processing in the thalamus involved in human cognition: How does the human thalamus code and communicate information? And how does this contribute to spatial navigation and the formation and consolidation of memories?
Using my unique expertise in innovative methodologies, I will exploit the rare opportunity to record and modulate intracranial electrophysiological activity in the human anterior thalamus. Together with intracranial recordings from the human hippocampus and comparative fMRI data from healthy subjects, these data will be used to test and establish a common coding framework for memory and navigation, highlighting contextual information processing as fundamental thalamic function.
By directly recording and stimulating intracranial thalamic activity, DirectThalamus will provide novel and causal insight into thalamic mechanisms underlying core cognitive functions. The project will thereby push the boundaries of the state of the art in cognitive neuroscience towards a comprehensive understanding of cognition. Expanding the prevalent corticocentric focus on cognition to subcortical contributions will inspire new lines of research in fundamental and clinical neuroscience.
Summary
The thalamus is the major gateway for sensory input to the brain, and, as such, has long been thought of as a mere sensory relay station. But accumulating evidence suggests that it is crucially involved in higher cognitive functions like memory formation and navigation. However, methodological obstacles still impede full understanding of the specific role of thalamus in human cognition.
The core objective of DirectThalamus is to provide an advanced oscillatory model of subcortical processing as the neuronal basis of core cognitive functions. To this end, the project will address several key questions with the aim to identify and understand neuronal processing in the thalamus involved in human cognition: How does the human thalamus code and communicate information? And how does this contribute to spatial navigation and the formation and consolidation of memories?
Using my unique expertise in innovative methodologies, I will exploit the rare opportunity to record and modulate intracranial electrophysiological activity in the human anterior thalamus. Together with intracranial recordings from the human hippocampus and comparative fMRI data from healthy subjects, these data will be used to test and establish a common coding framework for memory and navigation, highlighting contextual information processing as fundamental thalamic function.
By directly recording and stimulating intracranial thalamic activity, DirectThalamus will provide novel and causal insight into thalamic mechanisms underlying core cognitive functions. The project will thereby push the boundaries of the state of the art in cognitive neuroscience towards a comprehensive understanding of cognition. Expanding the prevalent corticocentric focus on cognition to subcortical contributions will inspire new lines of research in fundamental and clinical neuroscience.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 914 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-07-01, End date: 2024-06-30
Project acronym FAHMRRR
Project Focus alternatives in the human mind: Retrieval, representation, and recall
Researcher (PI) Katharina Spalek
Host Institution (HI) HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITAET ZU BERLIN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2015-STG
Summary The sentences: “I have written a proposal for the ERC” and “It is for the ERC that I have written a proposal” mean the same, but they have a different focus structure. A focused element like “It is for the ERC” indicates that alternatives are relevant for the interpretation of the utterance. Hence, the sentence expresses, in addition to its literal content, that the proposal is not for the NSF or the German Research Foundation. The alternative set is a theoretical construct from formal semantics, but a number of researchers, myself included, have shown that it is also cognitively real.
I propose to further investigate representation, retrieval and recall of an alternative set. First, I will ask the novel question if the decision to focus a phrase activates alternatives in the speaker’s mind. I will explore this with behavioural measures and event-related brain potentials (ERPs). This question brings together two areas of speech production which are rarely considered side by side: conceptualisation and lexical access. Second, I will examine the neural representation of focus alternatives with neuroimaging. While there is convincing evidence for the cognitive reality of focus alternatives, we do not know how this is reflected in the brain. Finally, I will explore individual differences in processing focus information, using large-scale regression analyses. The aim is to understand which abilities enable a human language user to optimally use the focus information provided by the linguistic input.
The project’s innovative potential lies both in its questions and in the combination of methods: neuroimaging, ERPs, a range of behavioral measures, and individual differences approaches, which, in combination, will critically advance our understanding of the cognitive and neural basis of processing information structural cues. The findings will be of interest not only to linguists and cognitive scientists, but also to language teachers and people who use language as a tool.
Summary
The sentences: “I have written a proposal for the ERC” and “It is for the ERC that I have written a proposal” mean the same, but they have a different focus structure. A focused element like “It is for the ERC” indicates that alternatives are relevant for the interpretation of the utterance. Hence, the sentence expresses, in addition to its literal content, that the proposal is not for the NSF or the German Research Foundation. The alternative set is a theoretical construct from formal semantics, but a number of researchers, myself included, have shown that it is also cognitively real.
I propose to further investigate representation, retrieval and recall of an alternative set. First, I will ask the novel question if the decision to focus a phrase activates alternatives in the speaker’s mind. I will explore this with behavioural measures and event-related brain potentials (ERPs). This question brings together two areas of speech production which are rarely considered side by side: conceptualisation and lexical access. Second, I will examine the neural representation of focus alternatives with neuroimaging. While there is convincing evidence for the cognitive reality of focus alternatives, we do not know how this is reflected in the brain. Finally, I will explore individual differences in processing focus information, using large-scale regression analyses. The aim is to understand which abilities enable a human language user to optimally use the focus information provided by the linguistic input.
The project’s innovative potential lies both in its questions and in the combination of methods: neuroimaging, ERPs, a range of behavioral measures, and individual differences approaches, which, in combination, will critically advance our understanding of the cognitive and neural basis of processing information structural cues. The findings will be of interest not only to linguists and cognitive scientists, but also to language teachers and people who use language as a tool.
Max ERC Funding
1 154 439 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-06-01, End date: 2020-11-30
Project acronym HSSLU
Project Human Sociality and Systems of Language Use
Researcher (PI) Nicholas James Enfield
Host Institution (HI) MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2009-StG
Summary Informal conversation is the primary context for all central processes of language. Yet it is the least studied. The many advances of traditional linguistic typology the systematic comparison of the world s languages have been based on 'isolated sentences' as data. This project will meet the challenge of working with rich conversational data. This stands to permanently remedy our skewed linguistic understanding by pioneering a systematic approach to the comparison of *language use*, to complement the comparison of language structure. This not only forges a new field of comparative linguistics, it opens up new questions of language and mind. Within mind , we include the high-order social intelligence that defines being human: our human sociality . This project will use data from social interaction to show that language is a window onto the *social mind*. A team of 6 will work on 7 languages (English, and 2 languages of Asia, Africa, and S. America), toward 3 project objectives. Objective 1 is collection of corpora of video-recorded conversation in the field. Objective 2, drawing on these corpora, is a systematic description of three defined systems in each language: (1) *repair* (of problems in speaking and understanding), (2) *reference*, and (3) *requests* (using language to get others to do things). Each system provides a window onto core aspects of human sociality: The project will focus on the relation between informational imperatives (common knowledge and perspectives) and affiliational imperatives (matters of face and social manipulation). Objective 3, drawing on Objective 2, is a detailed coding and quantitative comparison of the 3 systems across the 7 languages. This systematic comparison of systems of language use will do two things: 1. set the agenda for a new tradition in linguistics a *typology of language use* and 2. bring new evidence to bear upon interdisciplinary questions of the nature and cultural variability of human sociality.
Summary
Informal conversation is the primary context for all central processes of language. Yet it is the least studied. The many advances of traditional linguistic typology the systematic comparison of the world s languages have been based on 'isolated sentences' as data. This project will meet the challenge of working with rich conversational data. This stands to permanently remedy our skewed linguistic understanding by pioneering a systematic approach to the comparison of *language use*, to complement the comparison of language structure. This not only forges a new field of comparative linguistics, it opens up new questions of language and mind. Within mind , we include the high-order social intelligence that defines being human: our human sociality . This project will use data from social interaction to show that language is a window onto the *social mind*. A team of 6 will work on 7 languages (English, and 2 languages of Asia, Africa, and S. America), toward 3 project objectives. Objective 1 is collection of corpora of video-recorded conversation in the field. Objective 2, drawing on these corpora, is a systematic description of three defined systems in each language: (1) *repair* (of problems in speaking and understanding), (2) *reference*, and (3) *requests* (using language to get others to do things). Each system provides a window onto core aspects of human sociality: The project will focus on the relation between informational imperatives (common knowledge and perspectives) and affiliational imperatives (matters of face and social manipulation). Objective 3, drawing on Objective 2, is a detailed coding and quantitative comparison of the 3 systems across the 7 languages. This systematic comparison of systems of language use will do two things: 1. set the agenda for a new tradition in linguistics a *typology of language use* and 2. bring new evidence to bear upon interdisciplinary questions of the nature and cultural variability of human sociality.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 800 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-01-01, End date: 2014-12-31
