Project description
Unraveling fish brains with in vivo optical imaging and advanced mathematical modelling
Understanding the behaviour of organisms like ourselves that integrate environmental cues and neural stimuli with cognitive processing is a very complex task. Harnessing the power of simple-model organisms such as the zebrafish together with the power of computational analytical methods could enable the characterisation of complex brain-body-environment interactions in living organisms. Zebrafish share many major organs and tissues with humans, and larval zebrafish are optically transparent, facilitating the in vivo imaging of calcium dynamics during nervous system activation. The EU-funded DIMENSIVE project is recording the neural activity of behaving zebrafish and using the data to develop generative models of large-scale behaviour. The advanced statistical models will allow scientists to create new data instances, providing important insight into how behaviour arises from the dynamical interaction of an organism’s nervous system, body and environment.
Objective
A major challenge in cognitive neuroscience is to understand how behaviour arises from the dynamical interaction of an organism’s nervous system, its body, and its environment. Understanding embodied neural activity involves the resolution of various conceptual, technical and methodological issues in explaining how living organisms self-organize at many levels (from neural bio-chemistry to behaviour and learning). Currently, two important obstacles hinder this endeavour: the difficulties in recording neural activity in behaving animals, and the lack of mathematical tools to characterize the complex brain-body-environment interactions in living organisms. In this project we will address current limits by implementing an interdisciplinary combination of novel animal behaviour neuroimaging setups and large-scale statistical methods, with the goal of recording and modelling whole-brain activity of locomoting vertebrates. We will study fictively swimming larval zebrafish during active behaviour in a pioneering experimental setup, recording neural activity utilizing light-sheet microscopy for calcium imaging in different virtual reality scenarios involving sensorimotor manipulations. In this setup, we will collect data from the distributed neural circuits that integrate sensory signals from the environment (exafferent input) and their own movements (reafferent input), as well as plastic processes of habituation to new sensorimotor contingencies. From this data, we will infer large-scale generative models (i.e. models capable of yielding synthetic data resembling the studied phenomena) of embodied neural circuits by complementing dynamical models and techniques from statistical mechanics with innovative information theoretic and Bayesian inference methods and approximations for very large systems in non-equilibrium and non-stationary conditions.
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.
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.
- natural sciences biological sciences neurobiology cognitive neuroscience
- natural sciences mathematics applied mathematics statistics and probability bayesian statistics
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence generative artificial intelligence
- natural sciences physical sciences classical mechanics statistical mechanics
- natural sciences biological sciences biological behavioural sciences ethology
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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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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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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.
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.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
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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.
BN1 9RH Brighton
United Kingdom
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.