Descripción del proyecto
¿Qué sucede en la mente de los bebés?
Nadie puede predecir el futuro. Sin embargo, según la influyente hipótesis del cerebro bayesiano, nuestro cerebro asigna constantemente probabilidades a las hipótesis que mejor explican los datos sensoriales. En este contexto, el equipo del proyecto BabyBayes, financiado con fondos europeos, estudiará si el cerebro infantil propaga activamente las predicciones sobre los próximos acontecimientos. En concreto, en el proyecto se comprobará la validez de la hipótesis del cerebro bayesiano cuando los procesos de aprendizaje son los que más moldean el cerebro. Se analizará la caja negra del cerebro infantil, teniendo en cuenta que las capacidades cognitivas de los seres humanos están profundamente arraigadas en la primera infancia. Los hallazgos arrojarán luz sobre los procesos de desarrollo y, en última instancia, servirán para el diagnóstico del desarrollo atípico.
Objetivo
Infants come into the world equipped with amazingly powerful learning competences. The past decades have witnessed an ever-growing series of discoveries about young infants’ early cognitive achievements, illustrating these fast and unique adaptive abilities. However, the brain bases of learning mechanisms in the developing brain remain poorly understood. Meanwhile, in the past decade, the Bayesian brain has been put forward as a promising computational model accounting learning processes in the mature adult brain. In the present project, I propose to bring the two communities together and inspect the validity of the influential Bayesian brain hypothesis when learning processes are most crucially shaping the brain. Two assumptions derived from the Bayesian theory will challenged with studies conducted in young infants, using non-invasive behavioral and brain imaging techniques. In a first study, I will inspect whether the infant brain actively propagates predictions about upcoming events, as hypothesized in the Bayesian framework. In a second study, I propose an integrated application of computational modeling, neural recordings and behavioral measurements to test a second assumption of the Bayesian brain which postulates that the brain continuously tracks and adjusts to the progressive discovery of regular patterns in the input. I will establish an international research network and rely on two hosts with distinct expertise to provide me with new skills. By bridging multiple levels of description, this research program will open up translational perspectives for the understanding of developmental processes and ultimately for the diagnosis of atypical development.
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinador
75230 Paris
Francia