Project acronym ChronHib
Project Chronologicon Hibernicum – A Probabilistic Chronological Framework for Dating Early Irish Language Developments and Literature
Researcher (PI) David Stifter
Host Institution (HI) NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND MAYNOOTH
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary Early Medieval Irish literature (7th–10th centuries) is vast in extent and rich in genres, but owing to its mostly anonymous transmission, for most texts the precise time and circumstances of composition are unknown. Unless where texts contain historical references, the only clues for a rough chronological positioning of the texts are to be found in their linguistic peculiarities. Phonology, morphology, syntax and the lexicon of the Irish language changed considerably from Early Old Irish (7th c.) into Middle Irish (c. 10th–12th centuries). However, only the relative sequence of changes is well understood; for most sound changes very few narrow dates have been proposed so far.
It is the aim of Chronologicon Hibernicum to find a common solution for both problems: through the linguistic profiling of externally dated texts (esp. annalistic writing and sources with a clear historical anchorage) and through serialising the emerging linguistic and chronological data, progress will be made in assigning dates to the linguistic changes. Groundbreakingly, this will be done by using statistical methods for the seriation of the data, and for estimating dates using Bayesian inference.
The resultant information will then be used to find new dates for hitherto undated texts. On this basis, a much tighter chronological framework for the developments of the Early Medieval Irish language will be created. In a further step it will be possible to arrive at a better chronological description of medieval Irish literature as a whole, which will have repercussions on the study of the history and cultural and intellectual environment of medieval Ireland and on its connections with the wider world.
The data collected and analysed in this project will form the database Chronologicon Hibernicum which will serve as the authoritative guideline and reference point for the linguistic dating of Irish texts. In the future, the methodology will be transferable to other languages.
Summary
Early Medieval Irish literature (7th–10th centuries) is vast in extent and rich in genres, but owing to its mostly anonymous transmission, for most texts the precise time and circumstances of composition are unknown. Unless where texts contain historical references, the only clues for a rough chronological positioning of the texts are to be found in their linguistic peculiarities. Phonology, morphology, syntax and the lexicon of the Irish language changed considerably from Early Old Irish (7th c.) into Middle Irish (c. 10th–12th centuries). However, only the relative sequence of changes is well understood; for most sound changes very few narrow dates have been proposed so far.
It is the aim of Chronologicon Hibernicum to find a common solution for both problems: through the linguistic profiling of externally dated texts (esp. annalistic writing and sources with a clear historical anchorage) and through serialising the emerging linguistic and chronological data, progress will be made in assigning dates to the linguistic changes. Groundbreakingly, this will be done by using statistical methods for the seriation of the data, and for estimating dates using Bayesian inference.
The resultant information will then be used to find new dates for hitherto undated texts. On this basis, a much tighter chronological framework for the developments of the Early Medieval Irish language will be created. In a further step it will be possible to arrive at a better chronological description of medieval Irish literature as a whole, which will have repercussions on the study of the history and cultural and intellectual environment of medieval Ireland and on its connections with the wider world.
The data collected and analysed in this project will form the database Chronologicon Hibernicum which will serve as the authoritative guideline and reference point for the linguistic dating of Irish texts. In the future, the methodology will be transferable to other languages.
Max ERC Funding
1 804 230 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31
Project acronym CiliaMechanoBio
Project Primary Cilium-Mediated Mesenchymal Stem Cell Mechanobiology in Bone
Researcher (PI) David Hoey
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
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE8, ERC-2013-StG
Summary Every 30 seconds a person suffers an osteoporosis-related bone fracture in the EU, resulting in significant morbidity, mortality, and health-care costs estimated at €36billion annually. Current therapeutics target bone resorbing osteoclasts, but these are associated with severe side effects. Osteoporosis arises when mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) fail to produce sufficient numbers of bone forming osteoblasts. A key regulator of MSC behaviour is physical loading, yet the mechanisms by which MSCs sense and respond to changes in their mechanical environment are virtually unknown. Primary cilia are nearly ubiquitous ‘antennae-like’ cellular organelles that have very recently emerged as extracellular mechano/chemo-sensors and thus, are strong candidates to play a role in regulating MSC responses in bone. Therefore, the objective of this research program is to determine the role of the primary cilium and associated molecular components in the osteogenic differentiation and recruitment of human MSCs in loading-induced bone adaptation. This will be achieved through ground-breaking in vitro and in vivo techniques developed by the applicant. The knowledge generated in this proposal will represent a profound advance in our understanding of stem cell mechanobiology. In particular, the identification of the cilium and associated molecules as central to stem cell behaviour will lead to the direct manipulation of MSCs via novel cilia-targeted therapeutics that mimic the regenerative influence of loading at a molecular level. These novel therapeutics would therefore target bone formation, providing an alternative path to treatment, resulting in an improved supply of bone forming cells, preventing osteoporosis. Furthermore, these novel therapeutics will be incorporated into biomaterials, generating bioactive osteoinductive scaffolds. These advances will not only improve quality of life for the patient but will significantly reduce the financial burden of bone loss diseases in the EU.
Summary
Every 30 seconds a person suffers an osteoporosis-related bone fracture in the EU, resulting in significant morbidity, mortality, and health-care costs estimated at €36billion annually. Current therapeutics target bone resorbing osteoclasts, but these are associated with severe side effects. Osteoporosis arises when mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) fail to produce sufficient numbers of bone forming osteoblasts. A key regulator of MSC behaviour is physical loading, yet the mechanisms by which MSCs sense and respond to changes in their mechanical environment are virtually unknown. Primary cilia are nearly ubiquitous ‘antennae-like’ cellular organelles that have very recently emerged as extracellular mechano/chemo-sensors and thus, are strong candidates to play a role in regulating MSC responses in bone. Therefore, the objective of this research program is to determine the role of the primary cilium and associated molecular components in the osteogenic differentiation and recruitment of human MSCs in loading-induced bone adaptation. This will be achieved through ground-breaking in vitro and in vivo techniques developed by the applicant. The knowledge generated in this proposal will represent a profound advance in our understanding of stem cell mechanobiology. In particular, the identification of the cilium and associated molecules as central to stem cell behaviour will lead to the direct manipulation of MSCs via novel cilia-targeted therapeutics that mimic the regenerative influence of loading at a molecular level. These novel therapeutics would therefore target bone formation, providing an alternative path to treatment, resulting in an improved supply of bone forming cells, preventing osteoporosis. Furthermore, these novel therapeutics will be incorporated into biomaterials, generating bioactive osteoinductive scaffolds. These advances will not only improve quality of life for the patient but will significantly reduce the financial burden of bone loss diseases in the EU.
Max ERC Funding
1 455 068 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-11-01, End date: 2018-10-31
Project acronym CoAct
Project Communication in Action: Towards a model of Contextualized Action and Language Processing
Researcher (PI) Judith HOLLER
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2017-COG
Summary Language is fundamental to human sociality. While the last century has given us many fundamental insights into how we use and understand it, core issues that we face when doing so within its natural environment—face-to-face conversation—remain untackled. When we speak we also send signals with our head, eyes, face, hands, torso, etc. How do we orchestrate and integrate all this information into meaningful messages? CoAct will lead to a new model with in situ language processing at its core, the Contextualized Action and Language (CoALa) processing model. The defining characteristic of in situ language is its multimodal nature. Moreover, the essence of language use is social action; that is, we use language to do things—we question, offer, decline etc. These social actions are embedded in conversational structure where one speaking turn follows another at a remarkable speed, with millisecond gaps between them. Conversation thus confronts us with a significant psycholinguistic challenge. While one could expect that the many co-speech bodily signals exacerbate this challenge, CoAct proposes that they actually play a key role in dealing with it. It tests this in three subprojects that combine methods from a variety of disciplines but focus on the social actions performed by questions and responses as a uniting theme: (1) ProdAct uses conversational corpora to investigate the multimodal architecture of social actions with the assumption that they differ in their ‘visual signatures’, (2) CompAct tests whether these bodily signatures contribute to social action comprehension, and if they do so early and rapidly, (3) IntAct investigates whether bodily signals play a facilitating role also when faced with the complex task of comprehending while planning a next social action. Thus, CoAct aims to advance current psycholinguistic theory by developing a new model of language processing based on an integrative framework uniting aspects from psychology , philosophy and sociology.
Summary
Language is fundamental to human sociality. While the last century has given us many fundamental insights into how we use and understand it, core issues that we face when doing so within its natural environment—face-to-face conversation—remain untackled. When we speak we also send signals with our head, eyes, face, hands, torso, etc. How do we orchestrate and integrate all this information into meaningful messages? CoAct will lead to a new model with in situ language processing at its core, the Contextualized Action and Language (CoALa) processing model. The defining characteristic of in situ language is its multimodal nature. Moreover, the essence of language use is social action; that is, we use language to do things—we question, offer, decline etc. These social actions are embedded in conversational structure where one speaking turn follows another at a remarkable speed, with millisecond gaps between them. Conversation thus confronts us with a significant psycholinguistic challenge. While one could expect that the many co-speech bodily signals exacerbate this challenge, CoAct proposes that they actually play a key role in dealing with it. It tests this in three subprojects that combine methods from a variety of disciplines but focus on the social actions performed by questions and responses as a uniting theme: (1) ProdAct uses conversational corpora to investigate the multimodal architecture of social actions with the assumption that they differ in their ‘visual signatures’, (2) CompAct tests whether these bodily signatures contribute to social action comprehension, and if they do so early and rapidly, (3) IntAct investigates whether bodily signals play a facilitating role also when faced with the complex task of comprehending while planning a next social action. Thus, CoAct aims to advance current psycholinguistic theory by developing a new model of language processing based on an integrative framework uniting aspects from psychology , philosophy and sociology.
Max ERC Funding
2 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31
Project acronym COLLREGEN
Project Collagen scaffolds for bone regeneration: applied biomaterials, bioreactor and stem cell technology
Researcher (PI) Fergal Joseph O'brien
Host Institution (HI) ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS IN IRELAND
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE8, ERC-2009-StG
Summary Regenerative medicine aims to regenerate damaged tissues by developing functional cell, tissue, and organ substitutes to repair, replace or enhance biological function in damaged tissues. The focus of this research programme is to develop bone graft substitute biomaterials and laboratory-engineered bone tissue for implantation in damaged sites. At a simplistic level, biological tissues consist of cells, signalling mechanisms and extracellular matrix. Regenerative medicine/tissue engineering technologies are based on this biological triad and involve the successful interaction between three components: the scaffold that holds the cells together to create the tissues physical form, the cells that create the tissue, and the biological signalling mechanisms (such as growth factors or bioreactors) that direct the cells to express the desired tissue phenotype. The research proposed in this project includes specific projects in all three areas. The programme will be centred on the collagen-based biomaterials developed in the applicant s laboratory and will incorporate cutting edge stem cell technologies, growth factor delivery, gene therapy and bioreactor technology which will translate to in vivo tissue repair. This translational research programme will be divided into four specific themes: (i) development of novel osteoinductive and angiogenic smart scaffolds for bone tissue regeneration, (ii) scaffold and stem cell therapies for bone tissue regeneration, (iii) bone tissue engineering using a flow perfusion bioreactor and (iv) in vivo bone repair using engineered bone and smart scaffolds.
Summary
Regenerative medicine aims to regenerate damaged tissues by developing functional cell, tissue, and organ substitutes to repair, replace or enhance biological function in damaged tissues. The focus of this research programme is to develop bone graft substitute biomaterials and laboratory-engineered bone tissue for implantation in damaged sites. At a simplistic level, biological tissues consist of cells, signalling mechanisms and extracellular matrix. Regenerative medicine/tissue engineering technologies are based on this biological triad and involve the successful interaction between three components: the scaffold that holds the cells together to create the tissues physical form, the cells that create the tissue, and the biological signalling mechanisms (such as growth factors or bioreactors) that direct the cells to express the desired tissue phenotype. The research proposed in this project includes specific projects in all three areas. The programme will be centred on the collagen-based biomaterials developed in the applicant s laboratory and will incorporate cutting edge stem cell technologies, growth factor delivery, gene therapy and bioreactor technology which will translate to in vivo tissue repair. This translational research programme will be divided into four specific themes: (i) development of novel osteoinductive and angiogenic smart scaffolds for bone tissue regeneration, (ii) scaffold and stem cell therapies for bone tissue regeneration, (iii) bone tissue engineering using a flow perfusion bioreactor and (iv) in vivo bone repair using engineered bone and smart scaffolds.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 530 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-11-01, End date: 2015-09-30
Project acronym COLUMNARCODECRACKING
Project Cracking the columnar-level code in the visual hierarchy: Ultra high-field functional MRI, neuro-cognitive modelling and high-resolution brain-computer interfaces
Researcher (PI) Rainer Goebel
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT MAASTRICHT
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2010-AdG_20100407
Summary "Recent developments of high-field functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have advanced the level of functional detail to sub-millimetre spatial resolution. This is of critical importance because in the mammalian cortex, small functional cortical patches appear to constitute fundamental units of brain function. These functional units are often organized as ""cortical columns"" that contain clusters of neurons with similar functional preferences. The present project will investigate what ""features"" are coded by functional “columnar-level” units in the visual cortex, how represented entities can be decoded from distributed activity patterns, and how modelled intra- and inter-areal connections between feature representations enable neuro-cognitive computations. The research of this project strives towards a new level of insight in the functional organization of the human brain: Instead of describing observed fMRI activity at the level of specialized brain areas, the focus will be shifted towards the content coded within brain regions. The project investigates columnar-level coding in three cross-fertilising sub-projects. In the first sub-project, sophisticated experimental designs, ultra high-field fMRI and advanced data analyses will be combined to unravel columnar-level feature representations and the entities represented by distributed patterns at different levels of the visual hierarchy. In the second sub-project, a large-scale neural network model will be developed with the major goal to integrate measured columnar-level representations in a new theory of invariant object recognition and visual attention. In the third sub-project, high-resolution Brain Computer Interfaces (hr-BCIs) will be created that are based on information extracted from columnar-level representations. The hr-BCIs will implement highly content-specific neurofeedback tools for therapeutic treatment, and advanced communication devices for patients with severe motor impairments."
Summary
"Recent developments of high-field functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have advanced the level of functional detail to sub-millimetre spatial resolution. This is of critical importance because in the mammalian cortex, small functional cortical patches appear to constitute fundamental units of brain function. These functional units are often organized as ""cortical columns"" that contain clusters of neurons with similar functional preferences. The present project will investigate what ""features"" are coded by functional “columnar-level” units in the visual cortex, how represented entities can be decoded from distributed activity patterns, and how modelled intra- and inter-areal connections between feature representations enable neuro-cognitive computations. The research of this project strives towards a new level of insight in the functional organization of the human brain: Instead of describing observed fMRI activity at the level of specialized brain areas, the focus will be shifted towards the content coded within brain regions. The project investigates columnar-level coding in three cross-fertilising sub-projects. In the first sub-project, sophisticated experimental designs, ultra high-field fMRI and advanced data analyses will be combined to unravel columnar-level feature representations and the entities represented by distributed patterns at different levels of the visual hierarchy. In the second sub-project, a large-scale neural network model will be developed with the major goal to integrate measured columnar-level representations in a new theory of invariant object recognition and visual attention. In the third sub-project, high-resolution Brain Computer Interfaces (hr-BCIs) will be created that are based on information extracted from columnar-level representations. The hr-BCIs will implement highly content-specific neurofeedback tools for therapeutic treatment, and advanced communication devices for patients with severe motor impairments."
Max ERC Funding
2 473 381 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-05-01, End date: 2016-04-30
Project acronym COMPUTED
Project Computational User Interface Design
Researcher (PI) Antti Olavi Oulasvirta
Host Institution (HI) AALTO KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE6, ERC-2014-STG
Summary PROBLEM: Despite extensive research on human-computer interaction (HCI), no method exists that guarantees the optimal or even a provably good user interface (UI) design. The prevailing approach relies on heuristics and iteration, which can be costly and even ineffective, because UI design often involves combinatorially hard problems with immense design spaces, multiple objectives and constraints, and complex user behavior.
OBJECTIVES: COMPUTED establishes the foundations for optimizing UI designs. A design can be automatically optimized to given objectives and constraints by using combinatorial optimization methods that deploy predictive models of user behavior as objective functions. Although previous work has shown some improvements to usability, the scope has been restricted to keyboards and widgets. COMPUTED researches methods that can vastly expand the scope of optimizable problems. First, algorithmic support is developed for acquiring objective functions that cover the main human factors in a given HCI task. Second, formal analysis of decision problems in UI design allows combating a broader range of design tasks with efficient and appropriate optimization methods. Third, a novel interactive UI optimization paradigm for UI designers promotes fast convergence to good results even in the face of uncertainty and incomplete knowledge.
IMPACT: Combinatorial UI optimization offers a strong complement to the prevailing design approaches. Because the structured search process has a high chance of finding good solutions, optimization could improve the quality of interfaces used in everyday life. Optimization can also increase cost-efficiency, because reference to optimality can eliminate fruitless iteration. Moreover, because no preknowledge of UI design is required, even novices will be able to design great UIs. Even in “messy,” less well-defined problems, it may support designers by allowing them to delegate the solving of well-known sub-problems.
Summary
PROBLEM: Despite extensive research on human-computer interaction (HCI), no method exists that guarantees the optimal or even a provably good user interface (UI) design. The prevailing approach relies on heuristics and iteration, which can be costly and even ineffective, because UI design often involves combinatorially hard problems with immense design spaces, multiple objectives and constraints, and complex user behavior.
OBJECTIVES: COMPUTED establishes the foundations for optimizing UI designs. A design can be automatically optimized to given objectives and constraints by using combinatorial optimization methods that deploy predictive models of user behavior as objective functions. Although previous work has shown some improvements to usability, the scope has been restricted to keyboards and widgets. COMPUTED researches methods that can vastly expand the scope of optimizable problems. First, algorithmic support is developed for acquiring objective functions that cover the main human factors in a given HCI task. Second, formal analysis of decision problems in UI design allows combating a broader range of design tasks with efficient and appropriate optimization methods. Third, a novel interactive UI optimization paradigm for UI designers promotes fast convergence to good results even in the face of uncertainty and incomplete knowledge.
IMPACT: Combinatorial UI optimization offers a strong complement to the prevailing design approaches. Because the structured search process has a high chance of finding good solutions, optimization could improve the quality of interfaces used in everyday life. Optimization can also increase cost-efficiency, because reference to optimality can eliminate fruitless iteration. Moreover, because no preknowledge of UI design is required, even novices will be able to design great UIs. Even in “messy,” less well-defined problems, it may support designers by allowing them to delegate the solving of well-known sub-problems.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 790 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-04-01, End date: 2020-03-31
Project acronym CONSCIOUSNESS
Project Towards a neural and cognitive architecture of consciousness
Researcher (PI) Simon VAN GAAL
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2016-STG
Summary For decades the cognitive neuroscience community has expended significant effort identifying system-level neural correlates of human consciousness, broad neural signatures that distinguish conscious from unconscious processes at the level of whole brain regions. Meanwhile, within the field of neurobiology, rapid progress has been made in understanding the neurotransmitter systems underlying basic sensory processes (e.g. in mice, monkeys). This research has, however, been performed in relative isolation from studies of human consciousness, and clear opportunities to link the two levels of description remain largely unexplored. Here I will establish this link by combining state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques with pharmacological interventions.
First, I will validate and refine existing theories of consciousness by isolating system-level neural correlates of consciousness that are invariant across experimental tasks and manipulations. Second, I will test the hypothesis that NMDA receptors play a crucial role in recurrent processing, the dynamic information exchange between brain regions, thought to give rise to consciousness. I will also test the hypothesis that rapid fluctuations in spontaneous network activity (modulating arousal levels), which are controlled by noradrenaline and acetylcholine neuromodulatory systems, determine the likelihood of sensory evoked recurrent processing, and hence consciousness, to occur. Third, I will test the hypothesis that recurrent processing provides the possibility for prolonged and flexible information processing, which could represent a potential function of consciousness.
In summary, the proposed research has the potential to gain fundamental insights in the neural causes, rather than simply correlates, of human consciousness, as has been the focus of most previous work. In so doing, the work will advance scientific understanding of the long-debated functional significance of consciousness for human cognition and behavior.
Summary
For decades the cognitive neuroscience community has expended significant effort identifying system-level neural correlates of human consciousness, broad neural signatures that distinguish conscious from unconscious processes at the level of whole brain regions. Meanwhile, within the field of neurobiology, rapid progress has been made in understanding the neurotransmitter systems underlying basic sensory processes (e.g. in mice, monkeys). This research has, however, been performed in relative isolation from studies of human consciousness, and clear opportunities to link the two levels of description remain largely unexplored. Here I will establish this link by combining state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques with pharmacological interventions.
First, I will validate and refine existing theories of consciousness by isolating system-level neural correlates of consciousness that are invariant across experimental tasks and manipulations. Second, I will test the hypothesis that NMDA receptors play a crucial role in recurrent processing, the dynamic information exchange between brain regions, thought to give rise to consciousness. I will also test the hypothesis that rapid fluctuations in spontaneous network activity (modulating arousal levels), which are controlled by noradrenaline and acetylcholine neuromodulatory systems, determine the likelihood of sensory evoked recurrent processing, and hence consciousness, to occur. Third, I will test the hypothesis that recurrent processing provides the possibility for prolonged and flexible information processing, which could represent a potential function of consciousness.
In summary, the proposed research has the potential to gain fundamental insights in the neural causes, rather than simply correlates, of human consciousness, as has been the focus of most previous work. In so doing, the work will advance scientific understanding of the long-debated functional significance of consciousness for human cognition and behavior.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 766 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-05-01, End date: 2022-04-30
Project acronym CONTEXTVISION
Project Visual perception in Context
Researcher (PI) Floris Pieter De lange
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2015-STG
Summary Everything occurs in a context. We see a car in the context of a street scene and a stove in the context of a kitchen. Context greatly helps the processing of individual objects. Surprisingly however, context hardly plays a role in most models of visual perception, which treat perception as a largely bottom-up categorization process.
In this research proposal, I will examine how context changes the cortical computations that give rise to visual perception, focusing on contextual modulations in space and time. Moreover, I will translate this research to a clinical condition that is marked by aberrant context modulations in perception.
Firstly, I will examine the influence of spatial context from the surround on cortical processing of individual elements. I aim to uncover the neural mechanisms responsible for the contextual facilitation of features and objects. I hypothesize that spatial context constrains sensory input by changing sensory representations at earlier stages in line with expectations at higher-order stages of perceptual analysis.
Secondly, I will examine the influence of temporal context from past history. I hypothesize that temporal contexts trigger cortical waves of neural ‘preplay’ activity, setting up time-varying templates of expected incoming visual input.
Thirdly, I will test the clinical significance of this framework to understand perceptual atypicalities in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). I will empirically test the hypothesis that ASD is marked by deficient processing of contextual information, in both the spatial and temporal domain.
This integrative approach has the potential to significantly advance theoretical models of perception, based on underlying neurobiology, and underline the importance of context for understanding perception. Moreover, the knowledge gleaned can have significant societal and clinical impact.
Summary
Everything occurs in a context. We see a car in the context of a street scene and a stove in the context of a kitchen. Context greatly helps the processing of individual objects. Surprisingly however, context hardly plays a role in most models of visual perception, which treat perception as a largely bottom-up categorization process.
In this research proposal, I will examine how context changes the cortical computations that give rise to visual perception, focusing on contextual modulations in space and time. Moreover, I will translate this research to a clinical condition that is marked by aberrant context modulations in perception.
Firstly, I will examine the influence of spatial context from the surround on cortical processing of individual elements. I aim to uncover the neural mechanisms responsible for the contextual facilitation of features and objects. I hypothesize that spatial context constrains sensory input by changing sensory representations at earlier stages in line with expectations at higher-order stages of perceptual analysis.
Secondly, I will examine the influence of temporal context from past history. I hypothesize that temporal contexts trigger cortical waves of neural ‘preplay’ activity, setting up time-varying templates of expected incoming visual input.
Thirdly, I will test the clinical significance of this framework to understand perceptual atypicalities in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). I will empirically test the hypothesis that ASD is marked by deficient processing of contextual information, in both the spatial and temporal domain.
This integrative approach has the potential to significantly advance theoretical models of perception, based on underlying neurobiology, and underline the importance of context for understanding perception. Moreover, the knowledge gleaned can have significant societal and clinical impact.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 421 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-04-01, End date: 2021-03-31
Project acronym COOPERATION
Project Releasing Prisoners Of The Paradigm: Understanding How Cooperation Varies Across Contexts In The Lab And Field
Researcher (PI) Daniel Patrik Balliet
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING VU
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2014-STG
Summary Cooperation is essential for mitigating conflict between individual and collective interests in relationships and groups, such as providing public goods and conserving resources. Most research testing psychological and economic theory of cooperation has applied a highly specific lab method (e.g., the prisoner’s dilemma) that unnecessarily constrains the applicability of research findings. The discrepancies between cooperation observed in the lab and field can be due to variation in interdependence. Two limitations of lab studies to generalizing findings to the field are that (1) lab studies contain interdependence that differs from reality and (2) in the field people lack knowledge about their objective interdependence with others – and must infer their interdependence. I propose two inter-related research programs that test hypotheses derived from Functional Interdependence Theory on how objective and perceived interdependence affect cooperation. Project 1 applies meta-analysis to test hypotheses about how variation in objective interdependence across lab studies moderates the effectiveness of strategies to promote cooperation. Because Project 2 involves a pioneering effort to catalogue and analyze the 60 year history of research on cooperation, I will apply these efforts to develop an international, multidisciplinary institution and open access database for cataloguing studies in a way that facilitates scientific progress. Project 2 (a) develops a measure of perceived interdependence, (b) observes the interdependence people encounter in their daily lives, (c) tests two models of how people think about interdependence, and (d) innovates and applies a method to test hypotheses about factors that influence accuracy and bias in perceptions of interdependence. To maximize the ecological validity of research findings, I study cooperation in different samples (students, romantic couples, and employees) with the use of multiple methods (survey, experimental, and field).
Summary
Cooperation is essential for mitigating conflict between individual and collective interests in relationships and groups, such as providing public goods and conserving resources. Most research testing psychological and economic theory of cooperation has applied a highly specific lab method (e.g., the prisoner’s dilemma) that unnecessarily constrains the applicability of research findings. The discrepancies between cooperation observed in the lab and field can be due to variation in interdependence. Two limitations of lab studies to generalizing findings to the field are that (1) lab studies contain interdependence that differs from reality and (2) in the field people lack knowledge about their objective interdependence with others – and must infer their interdependence. I propose two inter-related research programs that test hypotheses derived from Functional Interdependence Theory on how objective and perceived interdependence affect cooperation. Project 1 applies meta-analysis to test hypotheses about how variation in objective interdependence across lab studies moderates the effectiveness of strategies to promote cooperation. Because Project 2 involves a pioneering effort to catalogue and analyze the 60 year history of research on cooperation, I will apply these efforts to develop an international, multidisciplinary institution and open access database for cataloguing studies in a way that facilitates scientific progress. Project 2 (a) develops a measure of perceived interdependence, (b) observes the interdependence people encounter in their daily lives, (c) tests two models of how people think about interdependence, and (d) innovates and applies a method to test hypotheses about factors that influence accuracy and bias in perceptions of interdependence. To maximize the ecological validity of research findings, I study cooperation in different samples (students, romantic couples, and employees) with the use of multiple methods (survey, experimental, and field).
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-08-01, End date: 2020-07-31
Project acronym CoPAN
Project From Mimicry to Trust: A Tinbergian Approach
Researcher (PI) Mariska KRET
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Many daily decisions are made through quick evaluations of another’s trustworthiness, especially when they involve strangers. Individuals rely on a partner’s tractable characteristics, including expressions of emotion. These are readily mimicked even down to the physiological level. I here propose to investigate which forms of mimicry are empathic and inform decisions of trust and distrust. The mimicry-empathy linkage has come under discussion with the publication of counter-examples in biology and failures of replication in psychology, making the question of what mimicry entails even more important. The key role emotional expressions play in our daily life positions this revived debate around mimicry at the forefront of emotion science. Scientific advancement in this field, however, demands a completely new theoretical and methodological approach. Therefore, I will place mimicry within the Tinbergian framework. Fundamentally, this means that I will incorporate biological and psychological approaches to the study of mimicry and during dyadic interactions, investigate different forms of mimicry simultaneously, e.g. facial mimicry, contagious blushing, pupil mimicry, and their 1) Function: what they are good for. Using economic games, I will study which mimicry forms are related to empathy and inform social decisions; 2) Mechanism: how they operate on the neurophysiological level; 3) Development: how mimicry develops over the lifespan and which mimicry forms are phylogenetically continuous and shared with the bonobo, our closest living relative and link to our last common ancestor. For the first time, humans and bonobos will be directly compared on the basis of their mimicry and trust. This comparison can revolutionize the way humans perceive themselves when it comes to prosocial behaviour.
Summary
Many daily decisions are made through quick evaluations of another’s trustworthiness, especially when they involve strangers. Individuals rely on a partner’s tractable characteristics, including expressions of emotion. These are readily mimicked even down to the physiological level. I here propose to investigate which forms of mimicry are empathic and inform decisions of trust and distrust. The mimicry-empathy linkage has come under discussion with the publication of counter-examples in biology and failures of replication in psychology, making the question of what mimicry entails even more important. The key role emotional expressions play in our daily life positions this revived debate around mimicry at the forefront of emotion science. Scientific advancement in this field, however, demands a completely new theoretical and methodological approach. Therefore, I will place mimicry within the Tinbergian framework. Fundamentally, this means that I will incorporate biological and psychological approaches to the study of mimicry and during dyadic interactions, investigate different forms of mimicry simultaneously, e.g. facial mimicry, contagious blushing, pupil mimicry, and their 1) Function: what they are good for. Using economic games, I will study which mimicry forms are related to empathy and inform social decisions; 2) Mechanism: how they operate on the neurophysiological level; 3) Development: how mimicry develops over the lifespan and which mimicry forms are phylogenetically continuous and shared with the bonobo, our closest living relative and link to our last common ancestor. For the first time, humans and bonobos will be directly compared on the basis of their mimicry and trust. This comparison can revolutionize the way humans perceive themselves when it comes to prosocial behaviour.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-06-01, End date: 2024-05-31
