Descrizione del progetto
Alla ricerca del tempismo nel cervello
Il tempo è senza dubbio la dimensione principale della nostra vita. Un tempismo corretto è fondamentale per realizzare gli obiettivi delle nostre azioni quotidiane, anche quelle semplici come parlare o stringere la mano. Gli uomini non possiedono alcun organo particolare per il rilevamento del tempo. Impariamo a valutarlo attraverso le nostre interazioni con l’ambiente. Tuttavia, ancora non sappiamo come viene elaborata la percezione del tempo nel nostro cervello. Il progetto Time in Action, finanziato dall’UE, condurrà nuove ricerche sulla percezione del tempo come abilità acquisita imparando comportamenti orientati agli obiettivi. Lo studio completo basato su esperimenti in combinazione con la misurazione dell’attività cerebrale mediante elettroencefalografia ha lo scopo di spiegare come l’apprendimento delle azioni dirette agli obiettivi si collega alla percezione del tempo e consentirà un quadro dei processi neuronali correlati.
Obiettivo
Timing permeates our daily experience. We extract temporal regularities to predict events, such as traffic light behaviour. We narrow down cause-effect relationships based on temporal proximity of events. Everyday behaviours, such as shaking hands or speaking, are possible because of accurate timing. Despite its importance, timing is an elusive concept. We lack a sensing organ for time (in the same way as we have eyes for detecting light), and there are no brain areas uniquely involved in its processing (in the same way as we have visual cortices for vision). Given these constraints, how does time perception arise in the brain? Converging evidence suggests a central role of action in enabling time perception. Developmental studies suggest that timing is ‘acquired’ as children learn to interact with the environment. Brain research indeed shows a considerable action/timing overlap, as timing computations are embedded in action control brain function. Indeed, at its core, successful behaviour is all about timing: accurate timing is what separates successful actions such as shifting gears, from unsuccessful ones such as bumping into a car in front of us. Thus, timing might emerge from our ability of learning goal-directed behaviour. We propose that the key to the time perception puzzle lies in formalizing this statement, by directly evaluating time perception in the context of goal-directed action learning. We will causally establish how learning of goal-directed action features shapes our perception and neural processing of time. This will be carried out across experiments requiring adults to simultaneously learn goal-directed actions and estimate the duration of visual stimuli, while recording electroencephalographic (EEG) measures of brain activity. This project will spearhead a new cross-disciplinary approach merging timing and motor learning paradigms, with a significant impact on the way we think about and methodologically approach the study of time.
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(si apre in una nuova finestra) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
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MSCA-IF -Coordinatore
34136 Trieste
Italia