Project description
How the brain listens with its eyes
Human language is more than sound. We read lips, track gestures, and blend what we hear with what we see. Yet most models of how the brain processes language still focus on speech alone. The ERC-funded HANDWAVE project aims to uncover how the brain weaves together auditory cues and visual cues, including speech, lip movements, and hand gestures. Using advanced neuroscience methods, the project will identify the brain’s oscillatory rhythms that allow these signals to be integrated and flexibly weighted. By revealing how different timescales of brain activity work together, HANDWAVE aims to reshape theories of language processing and support new clinical tools and technologies for diagnosing and treating communication disorders.
Objective
HANDWAVE will develop a novel framework for understanding the neurobiology of multimodal language, by uncovering the multi-timescale oscillatory mechanisms that enable the flexible integration and weighting of auditory signals, such as speech, and visual signals, such as visual speech and hand gestures. Understanding how the brain integrates and weights these signals is crucial for understanding how natural language is processed in the brain. This knowledge is vital for diagnosing and treating language-related disorders, and for developing effective diagnostic tools and rehabilitation strategies.
Two key gaps remain unaddressed. First, historical models on the neurobiology of language have predominantly focused on unimodal speech signals, overlooking the inherently multimodal nature of language. Second, it is unknown how the complex temporal relations between auditory and visual signals allow them to be integrated into one coherent percept.
HANDWAVE addresses these gaps by testing the central hypothesis that the brain’s flexible coordination of multi-timescale oscillations enables the integration and weighting of auditory and visual signals through (interactions between) phase modulations, power modulations, and functional connectivity. Work package (WP) 1 will uncover the oscillatory mechanisms underlying the integration of speech and visual signals, and whether and how this gives rise to emergent multimodal representations in the brain. WP2 will examine the oscillatory mechanisms underlying the flexible weighting of auditory and visual signals. WP3 will provide causal evidence for the role of oscillatory mechanisms in supporting integration and weighting.
By uncovering the multi-timescale oscillatory mechanisms underlying these processes, HANDWAVE has the potential to redefine theoretical models of the neurobiology of language. Its findings will inspire clinical interventions and communication technologies that better capture the multimodal nature of language.
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)
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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-ERC - HORIZON ERC 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-2025-STG
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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.
6525 XZ Nijmegen
Netherlands
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