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Project acronym CanCoop
Project Understanding the Proximate Mechanisms of Canine Cooperation
Researcher (PI) Friederike Range
Host Institution (HI) VETERINAERMEDIZINISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN
Summary Although it is clear that human collaborative skills are exceptional, elucidating similarities and differences of proximate processes underlying cooperative interactions between non-primate and primate taxa may have important implications for our understanding of cooperation in humans and non human-animals via a profound knowledge of 1) socio-cognitive skills as adaptations to specific environments and/or 2) the evolutionary background and origin of our own skills. The closely related wolves and dogs constitute the ideal non-primate model to implement this approach, since cooperation is at the core of their social organization and they are adapted to very different environments. I propose a series of experiments with wolves (N = 20) and identically raised and kept dogs (N= 20) that will focus on cognitive processes closely linked to the emotional system such as empathy, inequity aversion and delayed gratification that are thought to be involved in triggering and maintaining primate cooperation. In Part 1 of the project, we will investigate whether and to what extent these processes are present in canines, while in Part 2 we will elucidate how they influence partner choice in cooperative interactions. Using social network theory, we will integrate knowledge about animals' emotional tendencies and cognitive abilities to model canine cooperation. This is an important step towards unifying theoretical and empirical approaches in animal behaviour. CanCoop incorporates innovative methods and a novel approach that has the potential to elucidate the interactions between proximate and ultimate processes in regard to cooperation. The nature of CanCoop guarantees public and media attention needed for proper societal dissemination of the results, which will be relevant for animal behaviour, social sciences, wildlife and zoo management.
Although it is clear that human collaborative skills are exceptional, elucidating similarities and differences of proximate processes underlying cooperative interactions between non-primate and primate taxa may have important implications for our understanding of cooperation in humans and non human-animals via a profound knowledge of 1) socio-cognitive skills as adaptations to specific environments and/or 2) the evolutionary background and origin of our own skills. The closely related wolves and dogs constitute the ideal non-primate model to implement this approach, since cooperation is at the core of their social organization and they are adapted to very different environments. I propose a series of experiments with wolves (N = 20) and identically raised and kept dogs (N= 20) that will focus on cognitive processes closely linked to the emotional system such as empathy, inequity aversion and delayed gratification that are thought to be involved in triggering and maintaining primate cooperation. In Part 1 of the project, we will investigate whether and to what extent these processes are present in canines, while in Part 2 we will elucidate how they influence partner choice in cooperative interactions. Using social network theory, we will integrate knowledge about animals' emotional tendencies and cognitive abilities to model canine cooperation. This is an important step towards unifying theoretical and empirical approaches in animal behaviour. CanCoop incorporates innovative methods and a novel approach that has the potential to elucidate the interactions between proximate and ultimate processes in regard to cooperation. The nature of CanCoop guarantees public and media attention needed for proper societal dissemination of the results, which will be relevant for animal behaviour, social sciences, wildlife and zoo management.
Project acronym LIFEMODE
Project Possible Life: The Philosophical Significance of Extending Biology
Researcher (PI) Tarja Knuuttila
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Possible Life: The Philosophical Significance of Extending Biology Due to the latest technological advances in genetic engineering and space technology, scientists have developed strategies to engineer novel biological systems in laboratories, and to study through space telescopes the signs of possible life from other planets and solar systems. These newly discovered biological possibilities may turn out to be epoch-making. Apart from challenging our notion of life, they also have fundamental philosophical implications. The very question motivating the project is: How is biology being extended beyond the actual evolved life on Earth – and what is the philosophical significance of the turn to possible life? This question is studied through a two-pronged approach that puts scientific practice into a dialogue with philosophy of science and naturalistic metaphysics. First, the project examines the emerging fields of synthetic biology and astrobiology. The key themes studied include unnatural biochemical bases and organizational principles of life, synthetic life, evolutionary possibilities and constraints, and the habitability of exoplanets. Empirical studies in six leading laboratories in Europe and the US are used to inform the study of these themes. Second, the research on possible life is employed as a resource for the development of philosophical theory. The three philosophical subprojects examine (i) modelling and simulating the possible, (ii) multiple realizability of biological kinds, and (iii) contingency and necessity in biology. The project will advance our understanding of the modal dimension of science by addressing a paramount case – life. The project draws together and develops diverse strands in theorizing of the possible within philosophy of science and metaphysics. Through an unconventional combination of philosophical and empirical analysis the project seeks to facilitate the application of metaphysical concepts to cutting-edge scientific research.
Possible Life: The Philosophical Significance of Extending Biology Due to the latest technological advances in genetic engineering and space technology, scientists have developed strategies to engineer novel biological systems in laboratories, and to study through space telescopes the signs of possible life from other planets and solar systems. These newly discovered biological possibilities may turn out to be epoch-making. Apart from challenging our notion of life, they also have fundamental philosophical implications. The very question motivating the project is: How is biology being extended beyond the actual evolved life on Earth – and what is the philosophical significance of the turn to possible life? This question is studied through a two-pronged approach that puts scientific practice into a dialogue with philosophy of science and naturalistic metaphysics. First, the project examines the emerging fields of synthetic biology and astrobiology. The key themes studied include unnatural biochemical bases and organizational principles of life, synthetic life, evolutionary possibilities and constraints, and the habitability of exoplanets. Empirical studies in six leading laboratories in Europe and the US are used to inform the study of these themes. Second, the research on possible life is employed as a resource for the development of philosophical theory. The three philosophical subprojects examine (i) modelling and simulating the possible, (ii) multiple realizability of biological kinds, and (iii) contingency and necessity in biology. The project will advance our understanding of the modal dimension of science by addressing a paramount case – life. The project draws together and develops diverse strands in theorizing of the possible within philosophy of science and metaphysics. Through an unconventional combination of philosophical and empirical analysis the project seeks to facilitate the application of metaphysical concepts to cutting-edge scientific research.
Project acronym NewEat
Project Transdiagnostic views on eating disorders and obesity and new approaches for treatment
Researcher (PI) Jens Blechert
Host Institution (HI) PARIS-LODRON-UNIVERSITAT SALZBURG
Summary Eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa (AN), Bulimia Nervosa (BN), Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and overweight/obesity are highly prevalent in the EU and worldwide. They cause tremendous suffering, elevate suicide rates, and account for multiple organic effects that increase all-cause mortality. Etiological and maintenance factors are not well understood and transdiagnostic theoretical models across eating and weight disorders are largely missing. The present project aims to develop an integrated theoretical framework by studying psychological factors that contribute to non-homeostatic eating across the full spectrum of eating-related disorders. It is proposed that high levels on psychological traits such as restraint eating (i.e., chronic dieting behaviour), emotional eating (i.e., eating in response to negative emotional events rather than hunger), craving/food addiction (i.e., intense and chronic urge to consume palatable foods), impulsivity (i.e., inadequate food consumption planning and low self-control), and low self-esteem influence neural systems that balance appetitive (mostly bottom-up) with regulatory (mostly top-down) processes. This model is tested in the four patient groups and healthy controls utilizing an integrated set of assessment methods, involving psychometric testing, smartphone based ambulatory assessment, and neurocognitive laboratory measurement. Derived from this model, novel behavioural interventions such as smartphone based stimulus control and cognitive inhibition training will be developed. Results will have implications for theoretical models of eating and weight disorders as well as for neuroaffective models of appetite regulation. Smartphone technology might usefully complement current interventions in supporting an effective transfer to daily life and help alleviate the burden for patients with eating-related mental and physical diseases.
Eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa (AN), Bulimia Nervosa (BN), Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and overweight/obesity are highly prevalent in the EU and worldwide. They cause tremendous suffering, elevate suicide rates, and account for multiple organic effects that increase all-cause mortality. Etiological and maintenance factors are not well understood and transdiagnostic theoretical models across eating and weight disorders are largely missing. The present project aims to develop an integrated theoretical framework by studying psychological factors that contribute to non-homeostatic eating across the full spectrum of eating-related disorders. It is proposed that high levels on psychological traits such as restraint eating (i.e., chronic dieting behaviour), emotional eating (i.e., eating in response to negative emotional events rather than hunger), craving/food addiction (i.e., intense and chronic urge to consume palatable foods), impulsivity (i.e., inadequate food consumption planning and low self-control), and low self-esteem influence neural systems that balance appetitive (mostly bottom-up) with regulatory (mostly top-down) processes. This model is tested in the four patient groups and healthy controls utilizing an integrated set of assessment methods, involving psychometric testing, smartphone based ambulatory assessment, and neurocognitive laboratory measurement. Derived from this model, novel behavioural interventions such as smartphone based stimulus control and cognitive inhibition training will be developed. Results will have implications for theoretical models of eating and weight disorders as well as for neuroaffective models of appetite regulation. Smartphone technology might usefully complement current interventions in supporting an effective transfer to daily life and help alleviate the burden for patients with eating-related mental and physical diseases.
Project acronym NS-MORALITY
Project Distortions of Normativity: The NS-System and Morality
Researcher (PI) Herlinde Pauer-Studer
Summary The Nazi system was not amoralism in the classical textbook sense but a specific, though contorted normative order. The basic argument was that political emergency conditions made it necessary to replace the unstable liberal-democratic framework of the Weimar Republic by a &apos;new source of law : the authority and political will of the Führer. The claim to correctly interpret the Führer s will and intentions became the new foundation of legitimate political action . Consequently emergency decrees, political initiatives, and party agitation replaced the rule of law. The Nazis worked, however, with a highly moralized conception of social reality, based on perverted notions of duty, honor, loyalty, fidelity, and sincerity. The Nazi regime provided people with justifications of policies and measures that for many followers amounted to a &apos;meaningful story . They managed to set a normative framework within which even fulfilling killing orders &apos;made sense . A perverted model of practical reasoning was propagated by the highest authorities according to which immediate reactions of resistance and revulsion counted as &apos;natural temptations&apos; which had to be overcome. The aim of the project is to: - provide a detailed account of the normative order of the Nazi system and the transformations of the key political and legal institutions that it brought about; - analyze in detail the distorted notions of duty, obedience, and decency and the corresponding self-conceptions the Nazi regime encouraged; - explore the implications of our findings for the following broader questions: * How should we assess conceptions of normativity under non-ideal conditions? * What is the relationship between legality and legitimacy under non-ideal conditions? * What exactly are the standards for acting morally under non-ideal conditions?
The Nazi system was not amoralism in the classical textbook sense but a specific, though contorted normative order. The basic argument was that political emergency conditions made it necessary to replace the unstable liberal-democratic framework of the Weimar Republic by a &apos;new source of law : the authority and political will of the Führer. The claim to correctly interpret the Führer s will and intentions became the new foundation of legitimate political action . Consequently emergency decrees, political initiatives, and party agitation replaced the rule of law. The Nazis worked, however, with a highly moralized conception of social reality, based on perverted notions of duty, honor, loyalty, fidelity, and sincerity. The Nazi regime provided people with justifications of policies and measures that for many followers amounted to a &apos;meaningful story . They managed to set a normative framework within which even fulfilling killing orders &apos;made sense . A perverted model of practical reasoning was propagated by the highest authorities according to which immediate reactions of resistance and revulsion counted as &apos;natural temptations&apos; which had to be overcome. The aim of the project is to: - provide a detailed account of the normative order of the Nazi system and the transformations of the key political and legal institutions that it brought about; - analyze in detail the distorted notions of duty, obedience, and decency and the corresponding self-conceptions the Nazi regime encouraged; - explore the implications of our findings for the following broader questions: * How should we assess conceptions of normativity under non-ideal conditions? * What is the relationship between legality and legitimacy under non-ideal conditions? * What exactly are the standards for acting morally under non-ideal conditions?
Project acronym RELATIVISM
Project "The Emergence of Relativism -- Historical, Philosophical and Sociological Perspectives"
Researcher (PI) Martin Paul Heinrich Kusch
Summary "Although philosophers as well as scientists are frequently involved in debates over the threat or promise of relativism, there has been little detailed historical, philosophical or sociological work on its emergence and early development. This project addresses this lacuna in a fundamentally new way: it investigates the history of relativism in the German-speaking world (and to some degree, beyond) in the 19th and early 20th century across several disciplines--philosophy, physiology, psychology, history, linguistics, theology, law, linguistics, anthropology, sociology--using integrated historical, sociological and philosophical methods. The main objectives of this project are thus to: (1) retrace the intellectual history of the emergence of important forms of relativism (and the counterpart versions of anti-relativism) in 19th and early-20th-century German-speaking philosophy and science; (2) explain some key junctures of this intellectual history in sociological terms; and (3) critically evaluate the central arguments for and against relativism as they evolved in the period under investigation, and as they have been developed further in more recent discussions. Accordingly, the overall project has three main perspectives: Intellectual History of Philosophy and the Sciences, Sociology of Knowledge, and Philosophy. Methodologically, the project will be innovative in building on the tensions between these three perspectives. E.g. philosophical studies on causal explanation will be used to sharpen sociological or historical analyses. And these analyses will in turn suggest new forms of philosophical reflection on the determinants of intellectual content. The results of this project are bound to benefit all of the mentioned disciplines in which debates over relativism loom large. Some of the results will be of significance also to wider social debates over, say, multiculturalism or pluralism (themes beyond the immediate focus of the project)."
"Although philosophers as well as scientists are frequently involved in debates over the threat or promise of relativism, there has been little detailed historical, philosophical or sociological work on its emergence and early development. This project addresses this lacuna in a fundamentally new way: it investigates the history of relativism in the German-speaking world (and to some degree, beyond) in the 19th and early 20th century across several disciplines--philosophy, physiology, psychology, history, linguistics, theology, law, linguistics, anthropology, sociology--using integrated historical, sociological and philosophical methods. The main objectives of this project are thus to: (1) retrace the intellectual history of the emergence of important forms of relativism (and the counterpart versions of anti-relativism) in 19th and early-20th-century German-speaking philosophy and science; (2) explain some key junctures of this intellectual history in sociological terms; and (3) critically evaluate the central arguments for and against relativism as they evolved in the period under investigation, and as they have been developed further in more recent discussions. Accordingly, the overall project has three main perspectives: Intellectual History of Philosophy and the Sciences, Sociology of Knowledge, and Philosophy. Methodologically, the project will be innovative in building on the tensions between these three perspectives. E.g. philosophical studies on causal explanation will be used to sharpen sociological or historical analyses. And these analyses will in turn suggest new forms of philosophical reflection on the determinants of intellectual content. The results of this project are bound to benefit all of the mentioned disciplines in which debates over relativism loom large. Some of the results will be of significance also to wider social debates over, say, multiculturalism or pluralism (themes beyond the immediate focus of the project)."
Project acronym SOMACCA
Project The Syntax of the Mind: A Comparative Computational Approach
Researcher (PI) William Tecumseh Sherman Fitch
Summary "Does a shared computational basis underlie human artistic and linguistic accomplishments? Why do humans create and enjoy orderly patterns in music and visual arts? Are the mechanisms involved uniquely human or shared with other species? This project explores the cognitive underpinnings of language, music & visual art in humans, directly comparing them with the pattern perception abilities of other animals. The proposal is grounded in a rigorous, mathematically-based theoretical framework (""formal language theory""), developed by computer scientists and theoretical linguists, which is extended here to include rule-governed patterns in the musical and visual domains. The types of patterns recognizable by different species will be tested using innovative empirical testing methods (based on ""artificial grammar learning"") applicable to both humans and animals. An important additional innovation of this research is the proposed use of repetitive visual patterns (akin to quilts, tilings and other ""decorative"" arts) and isomorphic musical and speech stimuli, all generated using the same ""grammars"" (abstract rule systems). The addition of the visual dimension allows experimental manipulation of the short-term memory resources involved in pattern perception in a way impossible with acoustic stimuli. The animal species tested include nonhuman primates and birds, and have been chosen to allow evaluation of the effects of relative brain size on pattern perception and cognition in general. The doubly comparative approach adopted here will allow us to evaluate the degree to which general-purpose cognitive abilities, cutting across domains, differentiate human minds from those of other animals, or are shared. Either way, the results of this research will have wide-reaching implications for both the behavioural sciences and humanities."
"Does a shared computational basis underlie human artistic and linguistic accomplishments? Why do humans create and enjoy orderly patterns in music and visual arts? Are the mechanisms involved uniquely human or shared with other species? This project explores the cognitive underpinnings of language, music & visual art in humans, directly comparing them with the pattern perception abilities of other animals. The proposal is grounded in a rigorous, mathematically-based theoretical framework (""formal language theory""), developed by computer scientists and theoretical linguists, which is extended here to include rule-governed patterns in the musical and visual domains. The types of patterns recognizable by different species will be tested using innovative empirical testing methods (based on ""artificial grammar learning"") applicable to both humans and animals. An important additional innovation of this research is the proposed use of repetitive visual patterns (akin to quilts, tilings and other ""decorative"" arts) and isomorphic musical and speech stimuli, all generated using the same ""grammars"" (abstract rule systems). The addition of the visual dimension allows experimental manipulation of the short-term memory resources involved in pattern perception in a way impossible with acoustic stimuli. The animal species tested include nonhuman primates and birds, and have been chosen to allow evaluation of the effects of relative brain size on pattern perception and cognition in general. The doubly comparative approach adopted here will allow us to evaluate the degree to which general-purpose cognitive abilities, cutting across domains, differentiate human minds from those of other animals, or are shared. Either way, the results of this research will have wide-reaching implications for both the behavioural sciences and humanities."
Project acronym WIN2CON
Project Brain-State Dependent Perception: Finding the Windows to Consciousness
Researcher (PI) Nathan Weisz
Summary "The neurophysiological mechanisms of conscious perception are a major unsolved scientific riddle. Since linking brain activity and qualia is currently difficult, the common strategy in neuroscience is first to identify the ""Neural Correlates of Consciousness"" (NCC). A major insight is that consciously versus not consciously perceived stimuli differ not so much on an early sensory level, but mainly in that only consciously perceived stimuli involve a network of frontoparietal regions recurrently connected to sensory cortex. Yet, the studies adhere to the mainstream approach in cognitive neuroscience that relevant brain activity starts with stimulus onset, degrading ongoing fluctuations as irrelevant noise. The present proposal follows an alternative strategy by regarding the history of neuronal activity preceding the stimulus as in integral part of the NCC, i.e. as a window for consciousness. Central to this novel framework, is the extent to which relevant sensory regions are functionally connected to the frontoparietal system prior to stimulus arrival, constituting brain-states that open or close the ""window"" for specific contents. Different strategies will be pursued using advanced time-sensitive electrophysiological methods: 1) Offline experiments will be conducted focussing on the functional connectivity state prior to stimulus onset. 2) A novel online approach will be pursued in which relevant features / signals derived from 1) will be used to control perception experiments in realtime. 3) Cortical stimulation (via TMS) will be applied to selectively modulate ongoing states of functional coupling and to test their effects on conscious perception. While 1) would establish the prestimulus functional network state as important part of the NCC, 2) and 3) would go beyond the correlative level, testing for their causal implication. Overall, including the prestimulus state into the NCC constitutes a paradigm shift in the neuroscience of consciousness."
"The neurophysiological mechanisms of conscious perception are a major unsolved scientific riddle. Since linking brain activity and qualia is currently difficult, the common strategy in neuroscience is first to identify the ""Neural Correlates of Consciousness"" (NCC). A major insight is that consciously versus not consciously perceived stimuli differ not so much on an early sensory level, but mainly in that only consciously perceived stimuli involve a network of frontoparietal regions recurrently connected to sensory cortex. Yet, the studies adhere to the mainstream approach in cognitive neuroscience that relevant brain activity starts with stimulus onset, degrading ongoing fluctuations as irrelevant noise. The present proposal follows an alternative strategy by regarding the history of neuronal activity preceding the stimulus as in integral part of the NCC, i.e. as a window for consciousness. Central to this novel framework, is the extent to which relevant sensory regions are functionally connected to the frontoparietal system prior to stimulus arrival, constituting brain-states that open or close the ""window"" for specific contents. Different strategies will be pursued using advanced time-sensitive electrophysiological methods: 1) Offline experiments will be conducted focussing on the functional connectivity state prior to stimulus onset. 2) A novel online approach will be pursued in which relevant features / signals derived from 1) will be used to control perception experiments in realtime. 3) Cortical stimulation (via TMS) will be applied to selectively modulate ongoing states of functional coupling and to test their effects on conscious perception. While 1) would establish the prestimulus functional network state as important part of the NCC, 2) and 3) would go beyond the correlative level, testing for their causal implication. Overall, including the prestimulus state into the NCC constitutes a paradigm shift in the neuroscience of consciousness."