Project description
Decoding the brain’s sense of movement
Proprioception, the sense of the position and movement of body parts, which is generally ignored in neuroscience and rehabilitation, is important in coordinating actions. Without proper understanding of how the brain constructs proprioceptive information, it remains a challenge to develop therapies. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the ProprioMaps project investigates the neural mechanisms and plasticity of proprioception. It uses advanced brain imaging in humans, together with neuron recordings in monkeys, to assess how body maps reconfigure in healthy subjects and in patients with conditions including hemiplegia or amputation. The project further investigates whether vision can take over for proprioceptive input, with the promise of sensory substitution technologies that will facilitate prosthetic control and motor rehabilitation.
Objective
Proprioception is a hidden sensory modality and, despite its strong role in motor control, it has been almost neglected. The ProprioMaps project has the overall goal of clarifying the neural mechanisms of proprioception, and its plasticity, to develop a proof of concept for motor rehabilitation. It will avail of the unique opportunity of comparing results in humans (fMRI and fNIRS) with neuron activity recorded in monkeys, providing an extensive understanding of the phenomenon. I will pursue this ambitious goal through three interleaved objectives (Obj). (Obj1) I will adopt fMRI topographic methods to define proprioceptive/motor maps (henceforth called body maps) in the brain of four different populations: healthy, hemiplegic (outgoing and ingoing phases), low vision (secondment), and amputees (placement) people. The involvement of these populations will provide important knowledge concerning body map plasticity. Then, using a visual proprioceptive disparity task and computational approaches (Obj2), I will investigate how these body maps integrate visuo-proprioceptive input during a hand reaching task (fMRI and fNIRS) and during walking (fNIRS). Finally (Obj3), I will decode neurons activity of monkeys performing reaching and grasping tasks with and without visual input, to understand the possibility of predicting the type of action and sensory modality used to perform it. Overall, results will tell us whether vision is able to act as a sensory substitution for proprioception and will elucidate the neural correlates of this mechanism. This sensory substitution concept will be developed in an application that will add proprioceptive information to myoelectric prostheses. In summary, the ProprioMaps project will provide an extensive study of the proprioceptive network and its processes. Furthermore, it will lead to a proof of concept of a sensory substitution application for motor rehabilitation that will be further exploited to develop a sensory substitution device.
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.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine physiotherapy
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology implants
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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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
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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.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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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.
40126 Bologna
Italy
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.