Coordination Funds

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In contrast to traditional approaches to perception,"Active Perception" implies that perceptual processing does not simply lead to action, but is itself influenced by action-related processing - in a continuous exchange with the environment, involving adaptation to the statistical regularities in the environment ("priors"). In the past two decades, there have been several new developments in the conceptualization of perception (to which we have contributed significantly): (i) causal influence of action on perception, (ii) predictive coding, (iii) "situatedness" of the agent, and (iv) "utility" of an action (alternative) given the state of the external world. The thrust of the proposed, multidisciplinary DFG research unit "Active Perception" (RU-AP) is to integrate these developments, which have hitherto been treated largely separately, into a coherent, unifying framework. Particular strands of work to be pursued within this framework encompass the whole perception-cognition-action loop, in particular: predictive, memory-based effects in visual processing (e.g., dimension weighting, contextual cueing, intentional binding; dynamic allocation of attention, and anticipatory receptive-field re-mapping, prior to saccadic eye movements and manual (e.g., grasping) actions; multi-modal perception and action; and the mathematical modelling of predictive perceptual processing. The N=11 individual projects are "truly" interdisciplinary by design, with contributions from Experimental P., Biological P., Developmental P., Neuro-P., Neurology, Neuropsychiatry, and Mathematics, and use a variety of neuroscience techniques, besides behavioral approaches: EEG, fMRI, TMS, neuropsychological assessment - thus fostering an integration of the neuroscientic and cognitive perspectives in research on "Active Perception". The planned research also includes foci on developmental (normal vs. pathological aging) of the functions under consideration, with areas of application in advanced diagnostics in neurology / psychiatry as well as technical applications (e.g., BCI, social robotics).