Objective
Our capacity for self-awareness is often considered a defining feature of human consciousness and in adulthood allows us to imagine how others see us, recollect our past and contemplate our future. Our work has shown that in infancy, the emergence of a self-representation profoundly changes developing cognition. Yet, there are currently no mechanistic accounts of how it could develop, and empirical investigation within contemporary developmental science is surprisingly absent. In the current proposal, I put forward the first mechanistic account of the development of a self-representation, drawing upon recent data from cognitive neuroscience. This new account articulates a biological foundation that captures the idea that it is in detecting oneself as the target of another person’s attention that a concept of self emerges. I propose a pathway through which caregiver communicative cues towards infants – particularly direct gaze – give rise to a belonging to the body feeling state via their modulating effect on the heartbeat and its afferent cortical representation. Motivated by a bias to seek the targets of others’ gaze, a concept of self emerges from filling a placeholder target with this feeling state. This theory will be tested in 4 interlinked projects. Project 1 examines the longitudinal relationship between early interoception and a conceptual self-representation; Project 2 tests the novel hypothesis that direct gaze alerts infants to their interoceptive signals and Project 3 builds on this to test the claim that early in life, infants encode direct gaze as 'about me' which then fosters the inclusion of new self-related events in a reinforcing loop. Project 4 adds a crucial cross-cultural comparison capitalizing on natural variability in caregiving to test the model described in this proposal. This project seeks to fill a crucial gap in our understanding of development, essential for any theory that seeks to fully explain human consciousness.
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)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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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 - HORIZON ERC Grants
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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.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-ADG
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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.
1165 KOBENHAVN
Denmark
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.