Project description
How memory and prediction impact current experiences
Past experiences and future expectations influence our perceptions. The Bayesian brain hypothesis suggests we use memories to predict the world, involving the neocortex and hippocampus. While these prediction networks are important for memory, they can also disrupt it. Understanding how the brain differentiates between memory and prediction is key to their interactions. The ERC-funded MemPred project aims to investigate the neural mechanisms that differentiate memory and prediction across brain networks. It will examine how task context influences these processes and develop a unified neurobehavioural model of their interaction, uncovering how memory and prediction impact current experiences. The findings are expected to provide a new framework for understanding the relationship between memory and prediction.
Objective
Processing the present (perception) is shaped by past experiences (memory) and current expectations of future events (prediction). The Bayesian brain hypothesis formalizes this idea, positing that living agents maintain a model of the world, built upon memories and entailing predictions of likely causes of sensations. Prediction is mediated by multiple brain regions such as sensory neocortex and the hippocampus, and my research has pinpointed several neural mechanisms of prediction across task contexts. Brain networks mediating prediction are also crucial for memory, suggesting they are closely related. However, emerging evidence indicates that predictive processing may disrupt memory encoding, raising the unresolved question: How does the brain differentiate between mnemonic and predictive processing? Understanding this distinction will not only clarify how memories inform predictions but also why they sometimes interfere.
To address this, MemPred will pursue three interconnected objectives: (1) dissecting the neural mechanisms that distinguish memory and prediction across brain networks, circuits and functions; (2) investigating how task context modulates memory/prediction signaling; and (3) deriving a unified neurobehavioral model of how memory and prediction interact to shape neural activity and behavior. By combining cutting-edge techniques in electrophysiology and neuroimaging with novel developments in computational modeling, MemPred will offer fundamentally new insights into the dissociable effects of memory and prediction on processing the present.
This research will not only advance cognitive neuroscience by elucidating the neural underpinnings of memory and prediction but will also lead to methodological breakthroughs in generative models for behavioral and neural data. MemPred's findings will extend to fields such as artificial learning and computational psychiatry, offering a novel framework for understanding the interplay between memory and prediction.
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.
- natural sciences biological sciences neurobiology
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine psychiatry
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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
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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-COG
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6200 MD Maastricht
Netherlands
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