Project description
Tuning into the brain’s dialogue decoder
Human conversation is fast, complex, and full of visual and vocal signals. No matter how complex, our brains can keep up. While studies have hinted that we use both language and visual cues to predict what others will say, most research has relied on isolated, simplified stimuli. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the BrainDial project will use real recorded conversations and cutting-edge brain imaging (MEG) to study how our brains process natural audiovisual dialogue in real time. By combining language models, body-motion tracking, and neural modelling, the project seeks to uncover how we anticipate words before they’re spoken – offering a clearer view of how the brain makes sense of everyday speech.
Objective
Language comprehension naturally occurs in face-to-face dialogues. During dialogue interactions, language unfolds rapidly, yet comprehension remains possible because listeners anticipate what speakers will say next. Studies using short sentences and isolated visual cues (e.g. lip movements, hand gestures) suggest that these predictions rely on both linguistic content and the speaker’s visual behavior. However, little is known about how the brain processes multiple co-occurring audiovisual cues during natural dialogue, the primary context for language use. Moreover, while dialogues are rich in pragmatic and prosodic audiovisual cues that support comprehension, their influence on word-level predictions remains unclear. The complexity of dialogues has traditionally made it challenging to study their neural basis, but recent methodological advances now allow for the naturalistic investigation of continuous speech processing. For the firts time, BrainDial (Brain Dynamics of Audiovisual Dialogue) will apply these advances in an ecologically valid audiovisual dialogue setting. We will record natural dialogues and analyze their acoustic, linguistic, and visual cues. These annotated recordings will be used in a magnetoencephalography (MEG) study to reveal the fine-grained temporal dynamics and corticoanatomical details of how the brain generates linguisitc audiovisual predictions in real time. By integrating multimodal dialogue corpus annotations, computational linguisitc metrics derived from large-language models (LLMs), body-motion tracking, MEG, and neural computational modelling, BrainDial aims to provide groundbreaking insights into the neural mechanisms of dialogue comprehension.
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Keywords
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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)
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.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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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-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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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) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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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.
80539 MUNCHEN
Germany
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