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TRAVELING WAVES: Defining the mechanisms allowing attention to occur in space and in time

Project description

Characterizing the mechanism linking brain oscillations and attention performance

Brain oscillations appear to modulate attention periodically over time but what about space? To date, the combined functional role of the temporal and spatial dimensions of brain oscillations is still not fully understood. The EU-funded WAVES project plans to study the mechanisms that link brain oscillations and attention in humans, testing the hypothesis that oscillations travel across the cortex and affect attention performance in space and time. The project will employ multimodal functional neuroimaging methods that include both invasive and non-invasive recordings in humans. By bridging the gap between the spatial and temporal dynamics underlying multisensory experiences, the project's work could lead to significant progress in the fields of cognitive psychology and neuroscience.

Objective

Brain oscillations have always fascinated both scientists as well as the general public, but their functional role remains ill defined. My research contributed to addressing this issue, and demonstrated that oscillations modulate attentional performance periodically in time. Oscillations create periodic windows of excitability, with more or less favorable periods recurring at particular phases of the oscillations. However, attention emerges from systems not only operating in time, but also in space. Previous research has emphasized the temporal aspect of brain oscillations’ behavior. Contemporary investigators rarely consider both temporal and spatial dimensions in their search for the mechanisms linking oscillations and attention. This is the challenge I propose to take on. I will address this essential question: How does the spatio-temporal organization of brain oscillations impact attention? I hypothesize that oscillations propagate over the cortical surface, so-called oscillatory Traveling Waves, allowing attentional facilitation to emerge both in space and time. I propose to test this original hypothesis using a model-based multimodal functional neuroimaging approach including non-invasive and invasive recordings in humans. Interventional approaches will additionally be used to evaluate the degree of causality in the relation between traveling waves and attention. This project could lead to major progress in cognitive psychology and neuroscience by bridging the gap between spatial and temporal dynamics underlying multi-sensory experience. An important methodological development is also expected. The model-based multimodal functional neuroimaging approach that I will develop and evaluate on a large set of data will provide a new methodological guide for the study of brain activity.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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ERC-STG - Starting Grant

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2019-STG

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Host institution

UNIVERSITE PARIS CITE
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.

€ 1 480 940,00
Address
85 BD SAINT GERMAIN
75006 PARIS
France

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Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
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.

€ 1 480 940,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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