Project description
Understanding the relationship between language and the brain
Words have a profound impact, with the link between language and the brain explored in religious, philosophical, and scientific contexts. Psychology and neuroscience are currently investigating how verbal suggestions influence neuroplasticity and healing. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the NEUROWORD project will examine the impact of eloquent speech on the human body, focusing on the historical shift of consciousness from the soul to the brain. It will explore the relationship between language and the brain across disciplines, including rhetoric, musicology, and neurophysiology, and investigate its influence on the brain. The research aims to clarify the connection between eloquence and neuroscience to improve scientific communication.
Objective
The power of words is not a metaphor. The word-and-brain entwinement, part of the mind-and-body relationship, has long been the focus of religious, philosophical, and scientific debates, e.g. on the nature of prayer and meditation. Modern-day psychology and neuroscience are also fascinated by how verbal suggestion affects neuroplasticity and healing. NEUROWORD will present an interdisciplinary and comprehensive historical study of reflections on the impact of eloquent speech on the human body. In the early modern critical scientific context, when the seat of consciousness was transferred from the soul to the brain, I will examine the full spectrum of views on the relationship between the word and the brain across the disciplines concerned with experiences of soul, mind, and body: rhetoric, musicology, preaching, theological anthropology, philosophy, medical psychology, logopedics, and neurophysiology. I will examine not how rhetoric was used in scientific discourse but how it was deemed able to affect the brain. The psycho- and neurophysiology of persuasion can be best explored through the lens of rhetoric, as it was less prone to the mind-body dualism professed by much of the natural philosophy. These matters have not been studied, but by filling this gap, we can gain valuable insights into the entangled history of conceptualization of the mind-and-body relationship. This project is critical at a time when our mediated environments make rhetoric ambiguous with respect to truth and ethics, which demands a historical perspective on the neuroscience of eloquence for an educated approach to scientific communication. At the Warburg Institute, a leading centre for the history of rhetoric and part of the University of London with its range of prominent neuroscience programs, I will be a member of a stimulating interdisciplinary community and will do ground-breaking research in the history of scientific communication.
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.
- humanities history and archaeology history
- humanities languages and literature literature studies literary genres essays
- social sciences psychology
- humanities arts musicology
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion philosophy
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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.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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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.
WC1E 7HU London
United Kingdom
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