Project description
Identifying the delta of language to prevent psychosis
In 3 % of the world’s population, mental equilibrium can give way to dynamic changes leading to psychotic episodes. Accurately predicting these episodes would be a significant advancement in public health, given that psychosis is preventable. The ERC-funded DELTA-LANG project aims to investigate a previously unexamined hypothesis: whether meaning conveyed in spontaneous speech, when converted into digital quantitative features and analysed using natural language processing (NLP) tools, can serve as a predictive indicator of transitions from remission to psychotic relapse. The project integrates insights from linguistics, neuroimaging, psychiatry, and e-health to identify language metrics associated with symptom variability and the neural signatures of psychosis. It seeks to test these metrics as predictors of relapse.
Objective
Mental life fluctuates, changing from moment to moment as the incessant and turbulent flow of thought rages. In 3% of the world’s population, the fragile equilibrium that we all hope to maintain gives way to dynamical changes resulting in psychotic episodes, which after remission tend to recur over time. A capacity to predict them at a clinically relevant temporal resolution, similar to our capacity to forecast a thunderstorm, would be a major advance in public health, with the important difference that, unlike thunderstorms, psychosis can be prevented. We test a previously untested and untestable hypothesis: that meaning encoded in spontaneous speech, translated into digitalized quantitative features, computationally analyzed with natural language processing (NLP) tools, can serve as a key personalized and interpretable predictor of phase transitions from remission to psychotic relapse. Addressing this hypothesis requires conceptual and methodological breakthroughs in our understanding of language and what signals its variability can carry for a pathophysiological process. We pursue these with a synergetic combination of linguistic, neuroimaging, psychiatric, and e-health insights. Using a hypothesis-driven approach we will (i) define generalizable language metrics relating to symptom variability cross-sectionally; (ii) identify individually-specific neural signatures of psychosis and remission related to changes in these linguistic metrics, using a dense-sampling approach; (iii) test the metrics retrospectively as predictors of relapse in an independent longitudinal cohort; and (iv) take the paradigm from the lab to the patient’s home in a prospective clinical study testing whether we can predict state change before it is catastrophic, at the temporal resolutions clinically required. DELTA-LANG (ΔLANG) thereby identifies the delta of language – a linguistic change that enables the prediction of clinically significant change, before it occurs.
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: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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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.
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.
HORIZON-ERC-SYG - HORIZON ERC Synergy Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-SyG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
9713 GZ Groningen
Netherlands
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