Deadline: October 31, 2012
Summary:
Scope and Specific Requirements
Applications submitted in response to this FOA are expected to propose projects that will further our understanding of how multisensory input influences basic perceptual and behavioral processes. Successful applications will examine two or more senses (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, non-pain somatosensory, vestibular). This FOA encourages innovative studies that examine the influence of interactions among multisensory inputs on perception and behavior, or identify individual and lifespan differences in and moderators of multisensory perception and basic behavioral outcomes. The initiative encourages the use of diverse methodologies, including experimental psychophysics, “real world” settings, immersive virtual technology, and animal models.
This initiative will target projects that examine how causal interplay among the senses influences integrated perceptual behavior, rather than projects that aim to understand neural circuits and activity within the human brain itself (which are targeted in existing investments such as the Human Connectome Project within the Neuroscience Blueprint). Basic behavioral multisensory science projects will be considered if the primary questions and outcomes of the research emphasize perception or behavior. Projects will be deemed non-responsive if the primary thrusts of the questions and outcomes are limited to neural circuits or neural mechanisms that underlie behavioral responses to sensory input. Neurobiological approaches may be included if they will augment our knowledge of multisensory influences on perceptual or behavioral outcomes.
Applications for research focused on the perception of pain or applied research are outside the scope of this FOA and will be deemed non-responsive. Pain-related research is targeted in existing investments such as the NIH Pain Consortium and the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research Grand Challenge on Pain. As defined by NIH, applied research in the behavioral and social sciences is designed to predict or influence health outcomes, risks, or protective factors. It is also concerned with the impact of illness or risk for illness on behavioral or social functioning. Applied research on multisensory processing as it relates to specific diseases, health conditions, intervention, or treatment outcomes will be deemed non-responsive.
Applications submitted under this mechanism should break new ground or extend previous discoveries toward new directions or applications. These studies may involve considerable scientific risk but may lead to a breakthrough in a particular area, or to the development of novel techniques, methodologies, models, or applications that could have a major impact on basic behavioral and/or social sciences research. By using the R21 mechanism, the NIH seeks to foster the introduction of novel scientific ideas, model systems, tools, targets, and technologies that have the potential to substantially advance bBSSR.
Specific Areas of Research Interest
Below are examples of projects that would examine how multisensory input influences perception and behavior. This list is not meant to be exhaustive, but only to provide examples of appropriate topics. For feedback on specific topics, please consult the program staff listed in the program announcement.
- In what ways are perceptions affected by multisensory input? What is the role of cognitive and/or affective processing in multisensory integration (i.e., bottom-up/top-down processing)?
- How do affective experiences or other psychological and volitional states modify the ways in which multisensory input are integrated with cognitive expectations to produce perceptions?
- What is the role of multiple sensory system integration in dynamic activities such as navigation (where multi-sensory and sensorimotor processing change sensory input, and vice versa) or social interactions/communication (where sensorimotor feedback loops affect the perceptions of the sender and receiver in a communication encounter)?
- Can individual differences of normal multisensory integration be identified? Are there physical features (in sensory organs), biomarkers (genetic or non-genetic), or brain features (e.g., structural differences/ activation patterns) that underlie these variations?
- Are there developmental differences in multisensory mechanisms and influence on perception and behavior across the lifespan?
Because this FOA targets basic behavioral and social science research approaches to understanding the influence of multisensory integration on perception and behavior, examples of research projects that will NOT be considered responsive to the FOA include, but are not limited to:
- Research examining only one sensory modality
- Research on pain
- Research with the primary or singular objective of identifying neural circuits or neural mechanisms that underlie behavioral responses to sensory input.
- Studies with a primary focus on prospective or descriptive epidemiology (e.g., observational studies with no focus on understanding underlying mechanistic processes).
- Descriptive research documenting individual or group differences without investigating the mechanisms and processes explaining these differences
- Clinical interventions or treatment studies, effectiveness trial, or implementation/ dissemination of interventions
- Research designed to predict or influence health outcomes, risks, or protective factors
- Research concerned with the impact of illness or risk for illness on behavioral or social functioning
