Perception for recognition and action

Objective

To understand the brain processes that lead to behavior will be one of the greatest scientific challenges of the new millennium. The aim of the present research proposal is to examine the basic mechanisms of visual perception for the purposes of scene recognition and action planning. We propose to address this aim along three complementary themes of research. First, we shall study the perceptual attributes for recognition by looking at luminance and chromatic cues for scenes, the attention to diagnostic information, and the binding problem of the different visual attributes. Second, we shall focus on the perceptual attributes for action by studying the visual segmentation problem, which three- dimensional cues are being used for action, and the underlying cerebral pathways for these visuo-motor tasks. Finally, we shall study the interaction between recognition and action by focusing on the imitation of human movement, the eye movements used during scene exploration, and the high-level representations for the planning of actions. These three research themes will involve three more specific research projects and each research project will correspond to two or three experiments. Each research project will be investigated with a variety of experimental paradigms borrowed from psychology, motor control and brain imaging. For instance, the perception of motion transparency will be addressed both from a psychophysical point of view to determine the efficiency of human observers in this task, but also with the help of fMRI studies to reveal the brain structures involved in this task. Our ultimate goal is to increase our understanding of the perception for recognition and action through active collaboration and shared expertise of eight leading laboratories in Europe in these fields. We therefore anticipate major scientific breakthroughs from this unique joint effort.

Fields of science

• social sciences › psychology

Programme(s)

• FP5-HUMAN POTENTIAL - Programme for research, technological development and demonstration on "Improving the human research potential and the socio-economic knowledge base" (1998-2002)

Topic(s)

Data not available

Call for proposal

Data not available

Funding Scheme

NET - Research network contracts

Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW

Address

Hillhead Street 58
G12 8QQ Glasgow
United Kingdom

Participants (7)

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE

France

Address

Chemin Joseph Aiguier 31
13402 Marseille

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE

France

Address

Route De Narbonne 133
31062 Toulouse

ERASMUS UNIVERSITEIT ROTTERDAM

Netherlands

Address

50,dr. Molewaterplein 50
3015 GE Rotterdam

KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN

Belgium

Address

Tiensestraat 102
3000 Louvain / Leuven

MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN E.V.

Germany

Address

Spemannstrasse 38
72076 Tuebingen

ROYAL HOLLOWAY AND BEDFORD NEW COLLEGE

United Kingdom

Address

Egham Hill
TW20 0EX Egham,surrey

UNIVERSITE PAUL SABATIER DE TOULOUSE III

France

Address

Route De Narbonne 133
31062 Toulouse