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Quantitative Motor Control for Decision Making

Objective

The overall goal of this project is to provide a theoretical context encompassing motivation, motor control theory and motor decision-making. How does the brain relate incentive motivation to motor behaviour? How are these principles altered under Parkinson’s disease (PD)? The fact that three of PD’s major motor symptoms: bradykinesia, akinesia and hypokinesia are consistent with a lesser than normal motor invigoration, emphasizes the relationship between motivation and movement, strongly suggesting that PD may be reviewed as a disorder of motivation. This project is concerned with the two major quandaries impending to systematically test this hypothesis: the absence of a normative context relating motivation to motor control theory and the lack of an independent scale of incentive motivation. Therefore, we propose a novel unifying model called Quantitative Motor Control for Decision-Making (QTMODEM) to characterize motor processes as a function of incentive motivation for different kinds of movements. In other words, the QTMODEM intends to formalise the relationship between the selection of motor parameters and an independent metric of motivation derived from electro-encephalography. We will first quantify this relationship with a series of psychophysics experiments with healthy participants by varying two factors: the nature of their movements and the participants’ level of incentive motivation. Second, we will perform experiments with PD patients to gain a quantitative insight into their dysfunctional relationship between motivation and movement statistics. Third, we will build the QTMODEM based on the dynamics of a trade-off between motivation and motor costs, and optimal feedback control theory. Unlike previous models, we predict that the incorporation of motivation into the QTMODEM, will provide the proper normative context for the characterization of the dynamics between motivation and the selection of motor parameters, both under normal and PD conditions.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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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.

MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2014

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Coordinator

UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA
Net EU contribution

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.

€ 158 121,60
Address
PLACA DE LA MERCE, 10-12
08002 Barcelona
Spain

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Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

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.

€ 158 121,60
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