Project acronym 19TH-CENTURY_EUCLID
Project Nineteenth-Century Euclid: Geometry and the Literary Imagination from Wordsworth to Wells
Researcher (PI) Alice Jenkins
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2007-StG
Summary This radically interdisciplinary project aims to bring a substantially new field of research – literature and mathematics studies – to prominence as a tool for investigating the culture of nineteenth-century Britain. It will result in three kinds of outcome: a monograph, two interdisciplinary and international colloquia, and a collection of essays. The project focuses on Euclidean geometry as a key element of nineteenth-century literary and scientific culture, showing that it was part of the shared knowledge flowing through elite and popular Romantic and Victorian writing, and figuring notably in the work of very many of the century’s best-known writers. Despite its traditional cultural prestige and educational centrality, geometry has been almost wholly neglected by literary history. This project shows how literature and mathematics studies can draw a new map of nineteenth-century British culture, revitalising our understanding of the Romantic and Victorian imagination through its writing about geometry.
Summary
This radically interdisciplinary project aims to bring a substantially new field of research – literature and mathematics studies – to prominence as a tool for investigating the culture of nineteenth-century Britain. It will result in three kinds of outcome: a monograph, two interdisciplinary and international colloquia, and a collection of essays. The project focuses on Euclidean geometry as a key element of nineteenth-century literary and scientific culture, showing that it was part of the shared knowledge flowing through elite and popular Romantic and Victorian writing, and figuring notably in the work of very many of the century’s best-known writers. Despite its traditional cultural prestige and educational centrality, geometry has been almost wholly neglected by literary history. This project shows how literature and mathematics studies can draw a new map of nineteenth-century British culture, revitalising our understanding of the Romantic and Victorian imagination through its writing about geometry.
Max ERC Funding
323 118 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2011-10-31
Project acronym ARCHOFCON
Project The Architecture of Consciousness
Researcher (PI) Timothy John Bayne
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary The nature of consciousness is one of the great unsolved mysteries of science. Although the global research effort dedicated to explaining how consciousness arises from neural and cognitive activity is now more than two decades old, as yet there is no widely accepted theory of consciousness. One reason for why no adequate theory of consciousness has yet been found is that there is a lack of clarity about what exactly a theory of consciousness needs to explain. What is needed is thus a model of the general features of consciousness — a model of the ‘architecture’ of consciousness — that will systematize the structural differences between conscious states, processes and creatures on the one hand and unconscious states, processes and creatures on the other. The aim of this project is to remove one of the central impediments to the progress of the science of consciousness by constructing such a model.
A great many of the data required for this task already exist, but these data concern different aspects of consciousness and are distributed across many disciplines. As a result, there have been few attempts to develop a truly comprehensive model of the architecture of consciousness. This project will overcome the limitations of previous work by drawing on research in philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, and cognitive neuroscience to develop a model of the architecture of consciousness that is structured around five of its core features: its subjectivity, its temporality, its unity, its selectivity, and its dimensionality (that is, the relationship between the levels of consciousness and the contents of consciousness). By providing a comprehensive characterization of what a theory of consciousness needs to explain, this project will provide a crucial piece of the puzzle of consciousness, enabling future generations of researchers to bridge the gap between raw data on the one hand and a full-blown theory of consciousness on the other
Summary
The nature of consciousness is one of the great unsolved mysteries of science. Although the global research effort dedicated to explaining how consciousness arises from neural and cognitive activity is now more than two decades old, as yet there is no widely accepted theory of consciousness. One reason for why no adequate theory of consciousness has yet been found is that there is a lack of clarity about what exactly a theory of consciousness needs to explain. What is needed is thus a model of the general features of consciousness — a model of the ‘architecture’ of consciousness — that will systematize the structural differences between conscious states, processes and creatures on the one hand and unconscious states, processes and creatures on the other. The aim of this project is to remove one of the central impediments to the progress of the science of consciousness by constructing such a model.
A great many of the data required for this task already exist, but these data concern different aspects of consciousness and are distributed across many disciplines. As a result, there have been few attempts to develop a truly comprehensive model of the architecture of consciousness. This project will overcome the limitations of previous work by drawing on research in philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, and cognitive neuroscience to develop a model of the architecture of consciousness that is structured around five of its core features: its subjectivity, its temporality, its unity, its selectivity, and its dimensionality (that is, the relationship between the levels of consciousness and the contents of consciousness). By providing a comprehensive characterization of what a theory of consciousness needs to explain, this project will provide a crucial piece of the puzzle of consciousness, enabling future generations of researchers to bridge the gap between raw data on the one hand and a full-blown theory of consciousness on the other
Max ERC Funding
1 477 483 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-03-01, End date: 2018-02-28
Project acronym BODILY SELF
Project Embodied Minds and Mentalised Bodies
Researcher (PI) Aikaterini (Katerina) Fotopoulou
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary How does our acting, sensing and feeling body shape our mind? The mechanisms by which bodily signals are integrated and re-represented in the brain, as well as the relation between these processes and body awareness remain unknown. To this date, neuropsychological disorders of body awareness represent an indispensible window of insight into phenomenally rich states of body unawareness. Unfortunately, only few experimental studies have been conducted in these disorders. The BODILY SELF will aim to apply methods from cognitive neuroscience to experimental and neuroimaging studies in healthy volunteers, as well as in patients with neuropsychological disorders of body awareness. A first subproject will assess which combination of deficits in sensorimotor afferent and efferent signals leads to unawareness. The second subproject will attempt to use experimental, psychophysical interventions to treat unawareness and measure the corresponding, dynamic changes in the brain. The third subproject will assess how some bodily signals and their integration is influenced by social mechanisms. The planned studies surpass the existing state-of-the-art in the relevant fields in five ground-breaking ways, ultimately allowing us to (1) acquire an unprecedented ‘on-line’ experimental ‘handle’ over dynamic changes in body awareness; (2) restore awareness and improve health outcomes (3) understand the brain’s potential for reorganisation and plasticity in relation to higher-order processes such as awareness; (4) understand how our own body experience is modulated by our interactions and relations with others; (5) address in a genuinely interdisciplinary manner some of the oldest questions in psychology, philosophy and medicine; how embodiment influences the mind, how others influence the self and how mind–body processes affect healing.
Summary
How does our acting, sensing and feeling body shape our mind? The mechanisms by which bodily signals are integrated and re-represented in the brain, as well as the relation between these processes and body awareness remain unknown. To this date, neuropsychological disorders of body awareness represent an indispensible window of insight into phenomenally rich states of body unawareness. Unfortunately, only few experimental studies have been conducted in these disorders. The BODILY SELF will aim to apply methods from cognitive neuroscience to experimental and neuroimaging studies in healthy volunteers, as well as in patients with neuropsychological disorders of body awareness. A first subproject will assess which combination of deficits in sensorimotor afferent and efferent signals leads to unawareness. The second subproject will attempt to use experimental, psychophysical interventions to treat unawareness and measure the corresponding, dynamic changes in the brain. The third subproject will assess how some bodily signals and their integration is influenced by social mechanisms. The planned studies surpass the existing state-of-the-art in the relevant fields in five ground-breaking ways, ultimately allowing us to (1) acquire an unprecedented ‘on-line’ experimental ‘handle’ over dynamic changes in body awareness; (2) restore awareness and improve health outcomes (3) understand the brain’s potential for reorganisation and plasticity in relation to higher-order processes such as awareness; (4) understand how our own body experience is modulated by our interactions and relations with others; (5) address in a genuinely interdisciplinary manner some of the oldest questions in psychology, philosophy and medicine; how embodiment influences the mind, how others influence the self and how mind–body processes affect healing.
Max ERC Funding
1 453 284 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-04-01, End date: 2018-09-30
Project acronym EARLYPOWERONTOLOGIES
Project Causal Structuralist Ontologies in Antiquity: Powers as the basic building block of the worlds of the ancients
Researcher (PI) Anna Marmodoro
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary The project aims to bring about a paradigm shift in our understanding of how the ancients conceived of the universe and its contents over a period of 9 centuries, 600 BC to 300 AD. The driving research hypothesis is that the sole elementary building blocks of nearly all ancient ontologies are powers, from which all there is in the universe is built. Powers are relational properties which are directed towards an end (e.g. the power to heat); thus a world of powers is structured in a web of causal relations. What is revolutionary about such a world is that there is only structure in it; hence, causal structuralist ontologies underlie object-metaphysics or process-metaphysics, and worlds of being and becoming, supplying structures from which objects and processes are derived. Yet such ontologies have never been investigated about ancient thought.
The project’s topic is new: ancient causal structuralism; the speciality is novel too, requiring targeted training of a team of post-doc researchers which will be provided by the applicant and collaborators. The innovativeness of the methodology consists in training ancient philosophy researchers to discern and identify formal aspects of ontologies at the very roots of human rationality – discerning how the ancients built everything out of power structures.
The paradigm shift will generate new knowledge and understanding about the ancient accounts of the world; provide a heuristic vantage point for redrafting the map of the intellectual influences between ancient thinkers; stimulate fruitful debate; and inspire new insights into ancient thought that are literally unthinkable at present. Cognate disciplines that will be affected by the paradigm shift are such as: history of physics; of mathematics; of theology; ancient anthropology.
Summary
The project aims to bring about a paradigm shift in our understanding of how the ancients conceived of the universe and its contents over a period of 9 centuries, 600 BC to 300 AD. The driving research hypothesis is that the sole elementary building blocks of nearly all ancient ontologies are powers, from which all there is in the universe is built. Powers are relational properties which are directed towards an end (e.g. the power to heat); thus a world of powers is structured in a web of causal relations. What is revolutionary about such a world is that there is only structure in it; hence, causal structuralist ontologies underlie object-metaphysics or process-metaphysics, and worlds of being and becoming, supplying structures from which objects and processes are derived. Yet such ontologies have never been investigated about ancient thought.
The project’s topic is new: ancient causal structuralism; the speciality is novel too, requiring targeted training of a team of post-doc researchers which will be provided by the applicant and collaborators. The innovativeness of the methodology consists in training ancient philosophy researchers to discern and identify formal aspects of ontologies at the very roots of human rationality – discerning how the ancients built everything out of power structures.
The paradigm shift will generate new knowledge and understanding about the ancient accounts of the world; provide a heuristic vantage point for redrafting the map of the intellectual influences between ancient thinkers; stimulate fruitful debate; and inspire new insights into ancient thought that are literally unthinkable at present. Cognate disciplines that will be affected by the paradigm shift are such as: history of physics; of mathematics; of theology; ancient anthropology.
Max ERC Funding
1 228 581 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2016-03-31
Project acronym EUT
Project Epistemic Utility Theory: Foundations and Applications
Researcher (PI) Richard Pettigrew
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary "This project aims to develop a new and extremely promising approach that has recently been introduced in epistemology, where it is used to provide rigorous justifications of epistemic norms based on mathematical theorems. I will call it epistemic utility theory. The central claim of this approach is that epistemic norms can be justified using the apparatus and techniques of decision theory, which is normally used to justify norms of action. On this approach, we treat the possible epistemic states of an agent as if they were epistemic actions between which that agent must choose; and we use so-called epistemic utility functions to measure the epistemic virtues that a particular epistemic state enjoys relative to a possible state of the world. We then appeal to the general norms of decision theory, together with facts about the epistemic utility functions, in order to deduce epistemic norms. We thereby provide, often for the first time, rigorous justifications of epistemic norms that appeal to purely epistemic considerations, not pragmatic ones.
The approach has enjoyed some significant successes so far, providing justifications for the following putative epistemic norms: Probabilism and its variants; Conditionalization; the Principal Principleand norms governing epistemic disagreement. Nonetheless, there remains a great deal of work still to do: the existing arguments often make strong assumptions, so it is hoped that we can improve them significantly by deriving the same results from weaker premises; the foundations for the whole project have yet to be considered in depth, and there are important philosophical issues that must be addressed before its results have philosophical weight; furthermore, there is a vast array of epistemic norms for which no justification has yet been attempted in epistemic utility theory. This project will strengthen epistemic utility theory considerably by carrying out work in each of these directions."
Summary
"This project aims to develop a new and extremely promising approach that has recently been introduced in epistemology, where it is used to provide rigorous justifications of epistemic norms based on mathematical theorems. I will call it epistemic utility theory. The central claim of this approach is that epistemic norms can be justified using the apparatus and techniques of decision theory, which is normally used to justify norms of action. On this approach, we treat the possible epistemic states of an agent as if they were epistemic actions between which that agent must choose; and we use so-called epistemic utility functions to measure the epistemic virtues that a particular epistemic state enjoys relative to a possible state of the world. We then appeal to the general norms of decision theory, together with facts about the epistemic utility functions, in order to deduce epistemic norms. We thereby provide, often for the first time, rigorous justifications of epistemic norms that appeal to purely epistemic considerations, not pragmatic ones.
The approach has enjoyed some significant successes so far, providing justifications for the following putative epistemic norms: Probabilism and its variants; Conditionalization; the Principal Principleand norms governing epistemic disagreement. Nonetheless, there remains a great deal of work still to do: the existing arguments often make strong assumptions, so it is hoped that we can improve them significantly by deriving the same results from weaker premises; the foundations for the whole project have yet to be considered in depth, and there are important philosophical issues that must be addressed before its results have philosophical weight; furthermore, there is a vast array of epistemic norms for which no justification has yet been attempted in epistemic utility theory. This project will strengthen epistemic utility theory considerably by carrying out work in each of these directions."
Max ERC Funding
972 672 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym INTERACT
Project Understanding Mechanisms of Human Social Interaction using Interactive Avatars
Researcher (PI) Antonia Felicity De Courcy Hamilton
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary Human social interaction depends on non-verbal unconscious behaviour as much as on verbal signals. Mimicry (unconscious copying of actions) is a good example of a social behaviour which is caused by and has consequences for our evaluation of others. However, studying mimicry with traditional methods is hard because of the trade-off between good experimental control and realistic social interaction. INTERACT will (1) establish a new approach to the science of mimicry, bringing together methods from social psychology, cognitive neuroscience and computer science, and (2) use this approach to understand the information processing mechanisms underlying mimicry of hand actions. First, we will develop interactive avatars which can mimic a participant’s hand actions or be mimicked by the participant in the context of a simple drum rhythm task. Using computer-generated avatars allows us to precisely control and measure movement timing and structure during mimicry, and to record how participants interact with avatars with different socially-relevant features (age / attractiveness or even aliens). Thus, the INTERACT system will enable high-resolution, well-controlled studies of how people detect and control mimicry. Second, we will use the interactive avatars to examine mimicry in unprecedented detail, studying how the timing and structure of an action and form of the avatar impact on the control and detection of mimicry in typical adults. Building on this, we will define the brain mechanisms of mimicry and why mimicry might go wrong in adults with autism spectrum condition. The results will test current hypotheses of mimicry and will reveal the information processing mechanisms underlying human mimicry and its relationship to other social processes. Completion of the project will benefit research and practice in social neuroscience, developmental and educational psychology, computer science and robotics, and all researchers interested in human social behaviour.
Summary
Human social interaction depends on non-verbal unconscious behaviour as much as on verbal signals. Mimicry (unconscious copying of actions) is a good example of a social behaviour which is caused by and has consequences for our evaluation of others. However, studying mimicry with traditional methods is hard because of the trade-off between good experimental control and realistic social interaction. INTERACT will (1) establish a new approach to the science of mimicry, bringing together methods from social psychology, cognitive neuroscience and computer science, and (2) use this approach to understand the information processing mechanisms underlying mimicry of hand actions. First, we will develop interactive avatars which can mimic a participant’s hand actions or be mimicked by the participant in the context of a simple drum rhythm task. Using computer-generated avatars allows us to precisely control and measure movement timing and structure during mimicry, and to record how participants interact with avatars with different socially-relevant features (age / attractiveness or even aliens). Thus, the INTERACT system will enable high-resolution, well-controlled studies of how people detect and control mimicry. Second, we will use the interactive avatars to examine mimicry in unprecedented detail, studying how the timing and structure of an action and form of the avatar impact on the control and detection of mimicry in typical adults. Building on this, we will define the brain mechanisms of mimicry and why mimicry might go wrong in adults with autism spectrum condition. The results will test current hypotheses of mimicry and will reveal the information processing mechanisms underlying human mimicry and its relationship to other social processes. Completion of the project will benefit research and practice in social neuroscience, developmental and educational psychology, computer science and robotics, and all researchers interested in human social behaviour.
Max ERC Funding
1 383 371 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-01-01, End date: 2018-12-31
Project acronym MULTISIGN
Project Multilingual Behaviours In Sign Language Users
Researcher (PI) Ulrike Andrea Hildegard Zeshan
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL LANCASHIRE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary This project examines a range of complex multilingual behaviours in sign language users and pursues three thematically related studies: a) Cross-signing : The development of improvised communication (ad hoc pidgins) between users of different sign languages in language contact situations; b) Sign-speaking : The simultaneous production of sign and speech, where the different structures of both languages are kept largely intact; and c) Sign-switching : Code-switching between sign languages in multilingual sign language users. None of these multilingual behaviours has ever been systematically investigated.
The three studies use both lab-based experimental methodologies and discourse data from natural communicative situations. Subjects are drawn from a group of multilingual, mostly deaf, sign language users from various countries around the world. This project is situated at the crossroads between the domains of sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, typological, and diachronic approaches to language. Together, the three focused studies break new ground and lay the foundation to a previously uncovered field of research that can be called sign multilingualism studies . This field arises when existing concepts of bi- and multilingualism are brought to bear on sign languages. Of particular interest are phenomena that are peculiar to situations involving sign languages, such as the rapid emergence of improvised inter-languages in cross-signing , or the simultaneous combination of conflicting syntactic structures in sign-speaking .
In addition to the theme of sign multilingualism, the three sub-projects are also united by a particular interest in the meta-linguistic skills that the subjects use in both the experimental and the natural discourse settings. Some of these previously undocumented high-level skills take us right to the limits of linguistic abilities and have wider implications for our understanding of the human language faculty.
Summary
This project examines a range of complex multilingual behaviours in sign language users and pursues three thematically related studies: a) Cross-signing : The development of improvised communication (ad hoc pidgins) between users of different sign languages in language contact situations; b) Sign-speaking : The simultaneous production of sign and speech, where the different structures of both languages are kept largely intact; and c) Sign-switching : Code-switching between sign languages in multilingual sign language users. None of these multilingual behaviours has ever been systematically investigated.
The three studies use both lab-based experimental methodologies and discourse data from natural communicative situations. Subjects are drawn from a group of multilingual, mostly deaf, sign language users from various countries around the world. This project is situated at the crossroads between the domains of sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, typological, and diachronic approaches to language. Together, the three focused studies break new ground and lay the foundation to a previously uncovered field of research that can be called sign multilingualism studies . This field arises when existing concepts of bi- and multilingualism are brought to bear on sign languages. Of particular interest are phenomena that are peculiar to situations involving sign languages, such as the rapid emergence of improvised inter-languages in cross-signing , or the simultaneous combination of conflicting syntactic structures in sign-speaking .
In addition to the theme of sign multilingualism, the three sub-projects are also united by a particular interest in the meta-linguistic skills that the subjects use in both the experimental and the natural discourse settings. Some of these previously undocumented high-level skills take us right to the limits of linguistic abilities and have wider implications for our understanding of the human language faculty.
Max ERC Funding
1 169 936 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-03-01, End date: 2016-08-31
Project acronym NatRep
Project The nature of representation
Researcher (PI) John Robert Gareth Williams
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary This project aims to transform our understanding of mental and linguistic representation, its nature and significance for explanatory projects inside and outside philosophy. It seeks to show that the contemporary trend towards “deflationary” and non-explanatory treatments of representation is misguided, and that a naturalistic treatment of representation is available. By bringing together contemporary work in metaphysics with the lessons of the naturalizing projects of the 80s, I can make a breakthrough in the philosophical account of the mind in nature.
I will shows that the key to the correct understanding of the representational relation is to develop the correct conception of the media of representation---the metaphysics of words, in the case of language; and the metaphysics of thought, in the case of mental representation. This topic is neglected, or studied only in abstraction from the metaphysics of representation. But I show that the true value of the groundbreaking approaches developed in the 80s lay in providing a satisfactory individuation of syntax---which provides a basis for resolving outstanding puzzles for interpretationist theories of semantics. This allows a synthesis of the two leading traditions in the foundations of representation. I develop the unified theory in unprecedented detail, use it to pinpoint what goes wrong in recent trends in the field, and examine its interactions with cutting edge problems in philosophy.
The project will open up new approaches to the philosophy of representation, shed new light on the relation between language and thought, and develop a systematic and unified account of the nature, explanatory role, and epistemology of representation.
Summary
This project aims to transform our understanding of mental and linguistic representation, its nature and significance for explanatory projects inside and outside philosophy. It seeks to show that the contemporary trend towards “deflationary” and non-explanatory treatments of representation is misguided, and that a naturalistic treatment of representation is available. By bringing together contemporary work in metaphysics with the lessons of the naturalizing projects of the 80s, I can make a breakthrough in the philosophical account of the mind in nature.
I will shows that the key to the correct understanding of the representational relation is to develop the correct conception of the media of representation---the metaphysics of words, in the case of language; and the metaphysics of thought, in the case of mental representation. This topic is neglected, or studied only in abstraction from the metaphysics of representation. But I show that the true value of the groundbreaking approaches developed in the 80s lay in providing a satisfactory individuation of syntax---which provides a basis for resolving outstanding puzzles for interpretationist theories of semantics. This allows a synthesis of the two leading traditions in the foundations of representation. I develop the unified theory in unprecedented detail, use it to pinpoint what goes wrong in recent trends in the field, and examine its interactions with cutting edge problems in philosophy.
The project will open up new approaches to the philosophy of representation, shed new light on the relation between language and thought, and develop a systematic and unified account of the nature, explanatory role, and epistemology of representation.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 099 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-11-01, End date: 2017-10-31
Project acronym PLASTICSELF
Project The plasticity of the self: experimenting with self-identity in the face of change
Researcher (PI) Emmanouil Tsakiris
Host Institution (HI) ROYAL HOLLOWAY AND BEDFORD NEW COLLEGE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary We normally entertain a fairly continuous and stable sense of personal identity, as we acknowledge that we are the same person, independently of what happens to us. The question of how our sense of self is maintained or changed across time is a key topic in psychology. Our self must possess sufficient plasticity, that is, adaptive processes of re-organization, to ensure assimilation of changes and a sense of continuity over time. To study the plasticity of the self, we will investigate how the experience of a changing body updates or alters our sense of self, in two parallel projects.
First, we will study what is currently considered to be the most radical change in one’s body, the case of face-transplantation. In face-transplantation, the acquisition of a new face is a medical fact, while the experience of a new identity is an unexplored psychological outcome. We will investigate the plasticity and continuity of the self caused by face-transplantation by testing self-identification in individuals before and after the operation, using experimental psychology and functional neuroimgaing methods. Second, we ask how our own body-image affects the way we perceive other people. We will address this second question by investigating how changes in body-representation, caused by experimental manipulations of bodily illusions, can consequently affect social cognition processes, using experimental and social psychology methods.The question of the plasticity of the self is timely, because the modern self, due to societal, technological and medical advances, seems to be exposed to new, often radical, possibilities of change. The proposed project aims at understanding the basic mechanisms behind the plasticity of the self, by integrating research methods from experimental and social psychology, cognitive neurosciences, and medicine in wide-ranging and innovative ways.”
Summary
We normally entertain a fairly continuous and stable sense of personal identity, as we acknowledge that we are the same person, independently of what happens to us. The question of how our sense of self is maintained or changed across time is a key topic in psychology. Our self must possess sufficient plasticity, that is, adaptive processes of re-organization, to ensure assimilation of changes and a sense of continuity over time. To study the plasticity of the self, we will investigate how the experience of a changing body updates or alters our sense of self, in two parallel projects.
First, we will study what is currently considered to be the most radical change in one’s body, the case of face-transplantation. In face-transplantation, the acquisition of a new face is a medical fact, while the experience of a new identity is an unexplored psychological outcome. We will investigate the plasticity and continuity of the self caused by face-transplantation by testing self-identification in individuals before and after the operation, using experimental psychology and functional neuroimgaing methods. Second, we ask how our own body-image affects the way we perceive other people. We will address this second question by investigating how changes in body-representation, caused by experimental manipulations of bodily illusions, can consequently affect social cognition processes, using experimental and social psychology methods.The question of the plasticity of the self is timely, because the modern self, due to societal, technological and medical advances, seems to be exposed to new, often radical, possibilities of change. The proposed project aims at understanding the basic mechanisms behind the plasticity of the self, by integrating research methods from experimental and social psychology, cognitive neurosciences, and medicine in wide-ranging and innovative ways.”
Max ERC Funding
1 444 460 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-02-01, End date: 2016-07-31
