Project description
Anticipating the future to guide movement
Animals do not simply react to their environment, they also constantly predict what will happen next, using past experience to guide rapid and flexible decisions. Understanding how the brain forms and updates these predictions during natural behaviour remains a fundamental challenge in neuroscience. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the PRISM project will develop a novel behavioural task where mice pursue a moving target governed by probabilistic rules, enabling rigorous study of expectation and prediction. Using high-density electrophysiology and optogenetic tools in freely moving animals, researchers will investigate how the superior colliculus – a key midbrain hub for sensorimotor integration – represents and updates internal predictions. This study will shed new light on the neural basis of adaptive decision-making.
Objective
To survive, animals must do more than react to immediate sensory input; they must predict what is likely to happen next. This ability to integrate past experience with current information is essential for fast and adaptive decision-making. Yet how the brain forms, updates, and uses such expectations during natural behavior remains poorly understood, particularly in naturalistic settings where sensory cues are ambiguous, and decisions must be made rapidly and flexibly.
In this project, I will develop a novel behavioral task in which mice pursue a physical target moving according to probabilistic rules, bridging the gap between classical conditioning paradigms and naturalistic goal-directed behavior. By changing these rules, I will examine how mice form internal models of their environment and adapt to new patterns. I will test whether animals show predictive behaviours that reflect prior expectations, especially when sensory input becomes uncertain. Their behaviour will be interpreted within a Bayesian inference framework, allowing rigorous comparison to an ideal observer model.
At the neural level, I will focus on the superior colliculus, a midbrain hub involved in integrating sensory information to guide movement. Using high-density electrophysiology in freely moving animals, I will investigate how prior expectations are represented and updated in real time. I will complement this with targeted manipulations of inputs to the superior colliculus using optogenetic and chemogenetic tools to test how these circuits contribute to forming and updating internal models.
While I already have strong expertise in behavioural tracking and neuronal recordings, this project will provide me with essential training in Bayesian modelling and causal circuit perturbation, key tools for next-generation systems neuroscience. Hosted at a world-renowned institute, this fellowship will deepen my interdisciplinary skillset and support my transition toward an independent research career.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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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.
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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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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-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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3400 Klosterneuburg
Austria
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