Space, Time and Number In the Brain

Objective

The primary aim of this project is to establish in Pisa a European Centre of Excellence dedicated to frontier, interdisciplinary research of human perception. The research will focus primarily on the human visual system (and its development), but will also investigate key issues of cross-sensory integration. The Institute of Neuroscience has been a leading centre of visual research since its inception in the 1970s, when the multidisciplinary approach of Lamberto Maffei (physiologist) and Adriana Fiorentini (psychophysicist) made seminal and highly influential contributions to many aspects of human and animal vision. In recent years, the focus of the institute has veered towards developmental neurobiology. This project aims to reestablish a cognitive visual neuroscience section within the institute, dedicated to multidisciplinary research into human perception, using modern, non-invasive experimental techniques, such as psychophysics, evoked potentials, neuro-imaging and neuro-computation. The PI has been highly active in cognitive visual neuroscience for thirty years, publishing 150 publications on diverse aspects of perception, including motion perception, colour, space, and vision during saccadics. The planned research builds on these themes, aiming at achieving a firmer understanding of perceptual processes. New topics will also be tackled, such as cross-modal integration between the senses, the perception of event duration and the sense of number estimation, or numerosity. The research will be multi-disciplinary, using psychophysical, neuro-computational and neuro-imaging techniques. Particularly exciting will be the application of state-of-the-art high-field imaging to these important research questions. The establishment of this centre would be fundamental for Italian and European neuroscience in providing a laboratory of critical mass to focus the existing expertise, and to train young scientists within a long-standing tradition of excellence.

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: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

• engineering and technology materials engineering colors
• natural sciences biological sciences neurobiology computational neuroscience

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

• cross-modal numerosity
• perception
• perception vision cross-modal numerosity
• vision

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• 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)

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.

• ERC-AG-SH4 - ERC Advanced Grant - The Human Mind and its complexity

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

ERC-2008-AdG
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

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.

ERC-AG - ERC Advanced Grant

Host institution

Beneficiaries (3)