ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

Serotonin (5-HT) is implicated in a wide spectrum of brain functions and disorders. However, its functions remain controversial and enigmatic. We suggest that past work on the 5-HT system have been significantly hampered by technical limitations in the selectivity and temporal resolution of the conventional pharmacological and electrophysiological methods that have been applied. We therefore propose to apply novel optogenetic methods that will allow us to overcome these limitations and thereby gain new insight into the biological functions of this important molecule. In preliminary studies, we have demonstrated that we can deliver exogenous proteins specifically to 5-HT neurons using viral vectors. Our objectives are to (1) record, (2) stimulate and (3) silence the activity of 5-HT neurons with high molecular selectivity and temporal precision by using genetically-encoded sensors, activators and inhibitors of neural function. These tools will allow us to monitor and control the 5-HT system in real-time in freely-behaving animals and thereby to establish causal links between information processing in 5-HT neurons and specific behaviors. In combination with quantitative behavioral assays, we will use this approach to define the role of 5-HT in sensory, motor and cognitive functions. The significance of the work is three-fold. First, we will establish a new arsenal of tools for probing the physiological and behavioral functions of 5-HT neurons. Second, we will make definitive tests of major hypotheses of 5-HT function. Third, we will have possible therapeutic applications. In this way, the proposed work has the potential for a major impact in research on the role of 5-HT in brain function and dysfunction.

2 318 636 €

Start date: 2010-07-01, End date: 2015-12-31

This project aims at a better understanding of the philosophical richness of ninth century thought using the unprecedented and highly innovative method of the synchronic approach. The hypothesis directing this synchronic approach is that studying together in parallel the four main philosophical traditions of the century – i.e. Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic – will bring results that the traditional enquiry limited to one tradition alone can never reach. This implies pioneering a new methodology to overcome the compartmentalization of research which prevails nowadays. Using this method is only possible because the four conditions of applicability – comparable intellectual environment, common text corpus, similar methodological perspective, commensurable problems – are fulfilled. The ninth century, a time of cultural renewal in the Carolingian, Byzantine and Abbasid empires, possesses the remarkable characteristic – which ensures commensurability – that the same texts, namely the writings of Aristotelian logic (mainly Porphyry’s Isagoge and Aristotle’s Categories) were read and commented upon in Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic alike. Logic is fundamental to philosophical enquiry. The contested question is the human capacity to rationalise, analyse and describe the sensible reality, to understand the ontological structure of the world, and to define the types of entities which exist. The use of this unprecedented synchronic approach will allow us a deeper understanding of the positions, a clear identification of the a priori postulates of the philosophical debates, and a critical evaluation of the arguments used. It provides a unique opportunity to compare the different traditions and highlight the heritage which is common, to stress the specificities of each tradition when tackling philosophical issues and to discover the doctrinal results triggered by their mutual interactions, be they constructive (scholarly exchanges) or polemic (religious controversies).

1 998 566 €

Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31

The brain evolves, develops, and operates in the context of animal movements. As a consequence, fundamental brain functions such as spatial perception and motor control critically depend on the precise knowledge of the ongoing body motion. An accurate internal estimate of self-movement is thought to emerge from sensorimotor integration; nonetheless, which circuits perform this internal estimation, and exactly how motor-sensory coordination is implemented within these circuits are basic questions that remain to be poorly understood. There is growing evidence suggesting that, during locomotion, motor-related and visual signals interact at early stages of visual processing. In mammals, however, it is not clear what the function of this interaction is. Recently, we have shown that a population of Drosophila optic-flow processing neurons —neurons that are sensitive to self-generated visual flow, receives convergent visual and walking-related signals to form a faithful representation of the fly’s walking movements. Leveraging from these results, and combining quantitative analysis of behavior with physiology, optogenetics, and modelling, we propose to investigate circuit mechanisms of self-movement estimation during walking. We will:1) use cell specific manipulations to identify what cells are necessary to generate the motor-related activity in the population of visual neurons, 2) record from the identified neurons and correlate their activity with specific locomotor parameters, and 3) perturb the activity of different cell-types within the identified circuits to test their role in the dynamics of the visual neurons, and on the fly’s walking behavior. These experiments will establish unprecedented causal relationships among neural activity, the formation of an internal representation, and locomotor control. The identified sensorimotor principles will establish a framework that can be tested in other scenarios or animal systems with implications both in health and disease.

1 500 000 €

Start date: 2017-11-01, End date: 2022-10-31

Europe sits uncomfortably on the idea that there are no political and cultural alternatives credible enough to respond to the current uneasiness or malaise caused by both a world that is more and more non-European and a Europe that increasingly questions what is European about itself. This project will develop a new grounded theoretical paradigm for contemporary Europe based on two key ideas: the understanding of the world by far exceeds the European understanding of the world; social, political and institutional transformation in Europe may benefit from innovations taking place in regions and countries with which Europe is increasingly interdependent. I will pursue this objective focusing on four main interconnected topics: democratizing democracy, intercultural constitutionalism, the other economy, human rights (right to health in particular). In a sense that the European challenges are unique but, in one way or another, are being experienced in different corners of the world. The novelty resides in bringing new ideas and experiences into the European conversation, show their relevance to our current uncertainties and aspirations and thereby contribute to face them with new intellectual and political resources. The usefulness and relevance of non-European conceptions and experiences un-thinking the conventional knowledge through two epistemological devices I have developed: the ecology of knowledges and intercultural translation. By resorting to them I will show that there are alternatives but they cannot be made credible and powerful if we go on relying on the modes of theoretical and political thinking that have dominated so far. In other words, the claim put forward by and worked through this project is that in Europe we don’t need alternatives but rather an alternative thinking of alternatives.

2 423 140 €

Start date: 2011-07-01, End date: 2016-12-31