Project description
How the brain distinguishes reality from imagination
The brain transforms sensory input into a vivid experience of reality and can also generate experiences through imagination. Research indicates that both imagining and perceiving activate similar brain patterns, raising questions about how the brain differentiates between what is real and what is imagined. In this context, the ERC-funded MonitoringReality project aims to test the hypothesis that the brain distinguishes between reality and imagination through a perceptual monitoring process. By using a novel psychophysical paradigm, the project will investigate how sensory processing and cognitive control influence reality judgments and how different signals are integrated to form these judgments. The findings will enhance our understanding of fundamental cognitive processes and provide new insights into reality-monitoring disorders, such as psychosis.
Objective
Our brain is able to turn external signals coming into our senses into a vivid and coherent experience of reality. At the same time, our brain is also able to generate sensory experience in the absence of external signals via imagination. Contrary to our intuition, our experience of reality is not an objective reflection of the external world, since the brain has no direct access to that. Instead, what we perceive as reality is an inference that the brain makes about its own activity, which is both externally driven (by sensory input) and internally driven (by imagination). Recent research has shown that imagining something leads to similar patterns of brain activity as perceiving that same thing in reality. This raises the question; how does the brain determine whether activity represents reality or imagination?
I hypothesize that to distinguish imagination and reality, the brain relies on a perceptual reality monitoring process where higher-order brain regions infer perceptual reality when sensory signals are strong enough and there is low cognitive control. I propose to test this idea by answering three complementary questions: (a) how does sensory processing influence reality judgements? (b) how does cognitive control influence reality judgements? and (c) how are different signals integrated and evaluated to form reality judgements?
To answer these questions, I will use a novel psychophysical paradigm to experimentally induce confusions between imagery and perception in healthy participants. I will precisely characterize neural processes during these confusions by combining state-of-the-art techniques (high-field fMRI, MEG and tRNS), with advanced computational methods (multivariate decoding and Bayesian modelling). The results of this project will increase our fundamental understanding of core cognitive processes such as perception and memory and will provide a novel perspective on disorders of reality monitoring such as psychosis.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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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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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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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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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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WC1E 6BT LONDON
United Kingdom
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