Objective "Recent developments of high-field functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have advanced the level of functional detail to sub-millimetre spatial resolution. This is of critical importance because in the mammalian cortex, small functional cortical patches appear to constitute fundamental units of brain function. These functional units are often organized as ""cortical columns"" that contain clusters of neurons with similar functional preferences. The present project will investigate what ""features"" are coded by functional “columnar-level” units in the visual cortex, how represented entities can be decoded from distributed activity patterns, and how modelled intra- and inter-areal connections between feature representations enable neuro-cognitive computations. The research of this project strives towards a new level of insight in the functional organization of the human brain: Instead of describing observed fMRI activity at the level of specialized brain areas, the focus will be shifted towards the content coded within brain regions. The project investigates columnar-level coding in three cross-fertilising sub-projects. In the first sub-project, sophisticated experimental designs, ultra high-field fMRI and advanced data analyses will be combined to unravel columnar-level feature representations and the entities represented by distributed patterns at different levels of the visual hierarchy. In the second sub-project, a large-scale neural network model will be developed with the major goal to integrate measured columnar-level representations in a new theory of invariant object recognition and visual attention. In the third sub-project, high-resolution Brain Computer Interfaces (hr-BCIs) will be created that are based on information extracted from columnar-level representations. The hr-BCIs will implement highly content-specific neurofeedback tools for therapeutic treatment, and advanced communication devices for patients with severe motor impairments." Fields of science natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdata scienceengineering and technologymedical engineeringdiagnostic imagingmagnetic resonance imagingnatural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencecomputational intelligence Programme(s) FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) ERC-AG-SH4 - ERC Advanced Grant - The Human Mind and its complexity Call for proposal ERC-2010-AdG_20100407 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-AG - ERC Advanced Grant Host institution UNIVERSITEIT MAASTRICHT EU contribution € 2 473 381,00 Address MINDERBROEDERSBERG 4 6200 MD Maastricht Netherlands See on map Region Zuid-Nederland Limburg (NL) Zuid-Limburg Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Liane Ligtenberg (Ms.) Principal investigator Rainer Goebel (Prof.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Beneficiaries (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all UNIVERSITEIT MAASTRICHT Netherlands EU contribution € 2 473 381,00 Address MINDERBROEDERSBERG 4 6200 MD Maastricht See on map Region Zuid-Nederland Limburg (NL) Zuid-Limburg Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Liane Ligtenberg (Ms.) Principal investigator Rainer Goebel (Prof.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data
