Project acronym MarsFirstWater
Project The physicochemical nature of water on early Mars
Researcher (PI) Alberto Gonzalez Fairen
Host Institution (HI) AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DEINVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
Country Spain
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE9, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Concepts of large bodies of glacial ice and liquid standing water, a robust hydrological cycle, and a rich Martian history of climate change are part of the current consensus model for early Mars. However, questions still poorly constrained include: a precise understanding of the inventory of water during the first billion years of Mars history and its early evolution on both global and local scales; whether liquid or solid H2O dominated, for what duration of time and where the water resided; what were the host-rock weathering rates and patterns and the physicochemical parameters defining such interactions; what specific landforms and mineralogies were generated during those periods; and what implications all these processes had on the possible inception of life on Mars. These fundamental questions represent large uncertainties and knowledge gaps. Therefore, a quantitative understanding of the basic characteristics of water on early Mars is very much needed and is the focus of this proposal.
This application outlines a plan for my research in the next five years, and explains how I propose to fully characterize the aqueous environments of early Mars through a quantitative and truly interdisciplinary investigation. Spacecraft mission-derived datasets will be consistently used to test hypotheses through paleogeomorphological reconstructions, geochemical modeling, mineralogical studies, and astrobiological investigations. The derived results will produce hard constraints on the physical evolution, chemical alteration and habitability of surface and near-surface aqueous environments on early Mars. The planned investigations will benefit from the combination of working with first-hand data from ongoing Mars missions and with the state-of-the-art laboratory tools at the host institution. The final expected result will be a complete understanding of the physicochemical nature of water on early Mars, also opening new paths for the astrobiological exploration of the planet.
Summary
Concepts of large bodies of glacial ice and liquid standing water, a robust hydrological cycle, and a rich Martian history of climate change are part of the current consensus model for early Mars. However, questions still poorly constrained include: a precise understanding of the inventory of water during the first billion years of Mars history and its early evolution on both global and local scales; whether liquid or solid H2O dominated, for what duration of time and where the water resided; what were the host-rock weathering rates and patterns and the physicochemical parameters defining such interactions; what specific landforms and mineralogies were generated during those periods; and what implications all these processes had on the possible inception of life on Mars. These fundamental questions represent large uncertainties and knowledge gaps. Therefore, a quantitative understanding of the basic characteristics of water on early Mars is very much needed and is the focus of this proposal.
This application outlines a plan for my research in the next five years, and explains how I propose to fully characterize the aqueous environments of early Mars through a quantitative and truly interdisciplinary investigation. Spacecraft mission-derived datasets will be consistently used to test hypotheses through paleogeomorphological reconstructions, geochemical modeling, mineralogical studies, and astrobiological investigations. The derived results will produce hard constraints on the physical evolution, chemical alteration and habitability of surface and near-surface aqueous environments on early Mars. The planned investigations will benefit from the combination of working with first-hand data from ongoing Mars missions and with the state-of-the-art laboratory tools at the host institution. The final expected result will be a complete understanding of the physicochemical nature of water on early Mars, also opening new paths for the astrobiological exploration of the planet.
Max ERC Funding
1 998 368 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-06-01, End date: 2024-05-31
Project acronym ReadCalibration
Project Phonemic representations in speech perception and production: Recalibration by readingacquisition
Researcher (PI) Clara, Dominique, Sylvie Martin
Host Institution (HI) BCBL BASQUE CENTER ON COGNITION BRAIN AND LANGUAGE
Country Spain
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2018-COG
Summary The main goal of this project is to demonstrate that reading acquisition (RA) drastically reshapes our phonemic inventory, and to investigate the time-course and fine-grained properties of this recalibration. The main innovative and ground-breaking aspect of this project is the merging of two research fields, (1) reading acquisition and (2) phonemic recalibration, together with a deep and extensive exploration of the (3) perception-production link, which results in a new research line that pushes the boundaries of our understanding of the complex interactions between auditory and visual language perception and production.
We will demonstrate that phonemic representations (PRs) become more stable (less dispersed) during the process of learning to read, and that this recalibration varies according to the grapheme-phoneme conversion rules of the reading system. We will explore such recalibration by means of the first cross-linguistic longitudinal study examining the position and dispersion of PRs, both in perception and production of phonemes and words. Secondly, we will explore how recalibration develops when RA is impaired as is the case in dyslexic children –informing the research field on (4) dyslexia– and when pre-reading PRs are unstable as is the case in deaf children with cochlear implants –informing the research field on (5) deafness. Finally, the research will also be extended to PR recalibration during RA in a second language –informing the research on (6) bilingualism.
This proposal provides the first systematic investigation of phonemic recalibration during literacy acquisition, and will provide important insight for pragmatic research and theoretical accounts of language perception and production and phonemic recalibration. This project will also have major implications for the clinical field (theories and remediation of dyslexia and deafness) and for social policies and education (bilingualism, spoken and written language teaching).
Summary
The main goal of this project is to demonstrate that reading acquisition (RA) drastically reshapes our phonemic inventory, and to investigate the time-course and fine-grained properties of this recalibration. The main innovative and ground-breaking aspect of this project is the merging of two research fields, (1) reading acquisition and (2) phonemic recalibration, together with a deep and extensive exploration of the (3) perception-production link, which results in a new research line that pushes the boundaries of our understanding of the complex interactions between auditory and visual language perception and production.
We will demonstrate that phonemic representations (PRs) become more stable (less dispersed) during the process of learning to read, and that this recalibration varies according to the grapheme-phoneme conversion rules of the reading system. We will explore such recalibration by means of the first cross-linguistic longitudinal study examining the position and dispersion of PRs, both in perception and production of phonemes and words. Secondly, we will explore how recalibration develops when RA is impaired as is the case in dyslexic children –informing the research field on (4) dyslexia– and when pre-reading PRs are unstable as is the case in deaf children with cochlear implants –informing the research field on (5) deafness. Finally, the research will also be extended to PR recalibration during RA in a second language –informing the research on (6) bilingualism.
This proposal provides the first systematic investigation of phonemic recalibration during literacy acquisition, and will provide important insight for pragmatic research and theoretical accounts of language perception and production and phonemic recalibration. This project will also have major implications for the clinical field (theories and remediation of dyslexia and deafness) and for social policies and education (bilingualism, spoken and written language teaching).
Max ERC Funding
1 875 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-10-01, End date: 2024-09-30
Project acronym RememberEx
Project Human Subcortical-Cortical Circuit Dynamics for Remembering the Exceptional
Researcher (PI) Bryan STRANGE
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE MADRID
Country Spain
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS5, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Our memory system is optimised for remembering the exceptional over the mundane. We remember better those events that violate predictions generated by the prevailing context, particularly because of surprise or emotional impact. Understanding how we form and retrieve long-term memories for important or salient events is critical for combating the rapidly growing incidence of pathologies associated with memory dysfunction with huge socio-econonomic burden. Human lesion and non-invasive functional imaging data, motivated by findings from animal models, have identified subcortical structures that are critical for upregulating hippocampal function during salient event memory. However, mechanistic understanding of these processes in humans remains scarce, and requires better experimental approaches such as direct intracranial recordings from, and focal electrical stimulation of, these subcortical structures.
This project will characterise human subcortico-cortical neuronal circuit dynamics associated with enhanced episodic memory for salient stimuli by studying direct recordings from human hippocampus, amygdala, nucleus accumbens, ventral midbrain and cortex. Within this framework, I will elucidate the electrophysiological mechanisms underlying amygdala-hippocampal-cortical coupling that lead to better memory for emotional stimuli, extend the hippocampal role in detecting unpredicted stimuli to define its role in orchestrating cortical dynamics in unpredictable contexts, and discover the neuronal response profile of the human mesolimbic dopamine system during salient stimulus encoding. The predicted results, based on my own preliminary data, will offer several conceptual breakthroughs, particularly regarding hippocampal function and the role of dopaminergic ventral midbrain in memory. The knowledge gained from this project is a fundamental requirement for designing therapeutic interventions for patients with memory deficits and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
Summary
Our memory system is optimised for remembering the exceptional over the mundane. We remember better those events that violate predictions generated by the prevailing context, particularly because of surprise or emotional impact. Understanding how we form and retrieve long-term memories for important or salient events is critical for combating the rapidly growing incidence of pathologies associated with memory dysfunction with huge socio-econonomic burden. Human lesion and non-invasive functional imaging data, motivated by findings from animal models, have identified subcortical structures that are critical for upregulating hippocampal function during salient event memory. However, mechanistic understanding of these processes in humans remains scarce, and requires better experimental approaches such as direct intracranial recordings from, and focal electrical stimulation of, these subcortical structures.
This project will characterise human subcortico-cortical neuronal circuit dynamics associated with enhanced episodic memory for salient stimuli by studying direct recordings from human hippocampus, amygdala, nucleus accumbens, ventral midbrain and cortex. Within this framework, I will elucidate the electrophysiological mechanisms underlying amygdala-hippocampal-cortical coupling that lead to better memory for emotional stimuli, extend the hippocampal role in detecting unpredicted stimuli to define its role in orchestrating cortical dynamics in unpredictable contexts, and discover the neuronal response profile of the human mesolimbic dopamine system during salient stimulus encoding. The predicted results, based on my own preliminary data, will offer several conceptual breakthroughs, particularly regarding hippocampal function and the role of dopaminergic ventral midbrain in memory. The knowledge gained from this project is a fundamental requirement for designing therapeutic interventions for patients with memory deficits and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
Max ERC Funding
2 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-05-01, End date: 2024-04-30
