Objective
"Imagine what might be possible if you can turn fear on and off. In exploring the contribution of bodily arousal to emotions, we uncovered a specific mechanism whereby the brain’s processing of threatening / fear stimuli is ‘gated’ by the occurrence of heartbeats: Fear stimuli presented when the heart has just made a beat are processed more effectively than at other times, modulating their emotional impact. We term this effect the Cardiac Control of Fear in Brain (CCFIB). Specifically, I wish to refine, develop and exploit CCFIB as; 1) a clinical screening tool for drugs and patients; 2) as the basis of an intervention to accelerate unlearning of fear, e.g. for treatment of anxiety disorders; 3) as a means to optimise and enrich human-machine interactions, in anticipation of the rapid development of virtual or augmented reality (VR/AR) as a therapeutic tool, and to open possibilities for improving machine operation. This ground-breaking project will have impact in many areas, notably in the clinical management of anxiety disorders, which affect 69.1 million European Union citizens at an annual cost of €74.4 billion, and in the educational, recreational and occupational realms of human-machine interaction. The proposal 1) will refine knowledge about the neurochemistry and stimulus-specificity of CCFIB for implementation as a clinical screening tool, using pharmacological and neuroimaging methods. 2) Test in clinical anxiety patients the power of CCFIB to predict symptom profile and response to psychological and pharmacological treatment. 3) Optimize CCFIB to augment psychological and behavioural treatments and validate this in phobic individuals. 4) Instantiate CCFIB in VR/AR settings to enhance engagement with virtual environments, develop VR/AR as a ‘training platform’ in clinical and recreational contexts and to demonstrate how reactions to rapid threats fluctuate with cardiac cycle, motivating corresponding changes in sensitivity of user interfaces (e.g. brakes)."
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine psychiatry anxiety disorders
- natural sciences computer and information sciences software software applications simulation software
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
ERC-2012-ADG_20120411
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Host institution
BN1 9RH Brighton
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.