Project description
Understanding attentional rhythms
The human brain is constantly bombarded with vast amounts of sensory information from the environment, which it cannot process all at once. Attention filters select the information needed for specific actions. This process operates rhythmically, cycling between moments of heightened and diminished perception. The ERC-funded SAMPLING project aims to explore the neural mechanisms behind this. It will combine computational modelling with extensive behavioural and neurophysiological data to predict perceptual outcomes across senses and attention systems. An open-access framework will allow researchers worldwide to test and refine the theory. Ultimately, SAMPLING seeks to transform our understanding of attention, improving performance and offering insights for treating attentional disorders.
Objective
For every action, we see, hear, touch, smell and taste our surroundings. Our senses constantly receive a seemingly unmanageable flow of sensory signals. Attention is the mental function that selects relevant sensory information and ameliorate their processing by the brain to efficiently guide our actions.
The recent years witnessed a paradigm shift in the field of attention research. Opposite to our impression that one can deploy attention continuously over short time periods, attention in fact processes perceptual information rhythmically. This rhythmic attentional sampling leads to phases of improved perceptual performance alternating with phases of diminished performance.
So far, the vast majority of work focused on the description of these rhythmic behaviors and their brain correlates. We now need to go beyond mere description. We need to understand the mechanisms, meaning the neural operations, underlying rhythmic attentional sampling. My project SAMPLING will fill this knowledge gap.
I will provide a computational theory of rhythmic attentional sampling functions to mechanistically explain rhythms in perceptual performance across different sensory modalities and attention systems. My theory will predict precisely and quantitatively various perceptual outcomes. My team and I will record an unprecedented range of behavioral and neurophysiological empirical data to test and either reject or refine the theory. A framework for open collaboration including open-source toolboxes and a comprehensive open-access database will allow the research community to challenge and improve the theory. It will also provide clear and tested experimental and analytic recommendations for future research endeavors.
My project will develop and test a novel theory of attention that captures and explains rhythmic sampling, enabling a new era of basic and applied research and development that will optimize performance of healthy individuals and treat disorders of attention.
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.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
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.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
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-2025-COG
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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.
75006 PARIS
France
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.