Descripción del proyecto
Relación entre el metabolismo, el procesamiento cortical y la percepción
El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos PUPILTRAITS tiene como objetivo mejorar nuestra comprensión sobre la percepción visual mediante la aplicación de un método innovador para que las ciencias de la visión estudien la forma en que la visión se ve afectada por el estado fisiológico y los rasgos de personalidad. Se dilucidará el procesamiento visual empleando métodos clásicos y nuevos, como las respuestas de la pupila, resonancias magnéticas de campo ultraalto de la corteza visual y la psicofísica. El objetivo es obtener conocimientos sobre la relación entre el metabolismo, el procesamiento cortical y la percepción. El proyecto podría modificar significativamente la comprensión de trastornos del desarrollo, como los trastornos del espectro autista. Además, puede mejorar el diagnóstico a través de la evaluación objetiva de estilos de percepción y fomentar métodos terapéuticos innovadores, que cambiarán la percepción y el comportamiento a través de la fisiología general: cómo comemos y hacemos ejercicio.
Objetivo
Vision is probably the best understood system of the human brain: studying vision has taught us much about the human mind and its complex processes. We know in detail the fundamental steps leading to visual perception, but we do not know why normally sighted people differ in how they perceive: why some “see the forest before the trees”, while others have a fragmented perceptual experience focused on local features. PUPILTRAITS aims to fill this gap by taking an innovative approach to vision science, to understand how vision is affected by physiological state and personality traits.
I will measure visual processing with both classic and new methods (that I helped develop), including pupil responses, ultra-high field Magnetic Resonance of human visual cortex, and psychophysics. Based on solid pilot data, I predict that differences in behavioral and cortical properties co-vary with personality traits, providing new reliable biomarkers of the local context-independent perception associated with autistics traits, even in young children (using pupillometry). These tools will also reveal changes of perception within individuals: during a safe and simple physiological intervention (ketosis, a metabolic state that can be naturally induced by fasting and intense physical activity), to show that early visual processing can be altered by acting on metabolism, and that this consequently affects holistic/local perceptual styles.
My aim is to provide new knowledge on the relationship between metabolism, cortical processing and perception. This has the potential for a strong societal impact: it can change our understanding of pervasive developmental disorders, like Autistic Spectrum Disorders, characterized by a different way of processing incoming information; it can aid their diagnosis through objective evaluation of perceptual styles, and encourage innovative therapeutic approaches aimed at changing perception and behavior by acting on general physiology: how we eat and exercise
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitución de acogida
56126 Pisa
Italia