April 20, 2006

Kavli Institute at UCSD Announces Innovative Research Awards

By Inga Kiderra

Investigations into the persistence of mistaken political beliefs, the surprising cognitive inflexibility of children and whether sleep requires a brain are among nine projects selected by The Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind at the University of California , San Diego , for its Innovative Research Awards.

Designed to launch projects “focused on ideas that bridge different levels of organization of brain and mind” – a discipline-crossing area of study which cannot always effectively compete for conventional sources of funding – the Innovative Research Awards program is in its second year of operation.

The 2006 grants total $285,655 and average about $30,000 each. The projects were selected from among 40 applications. Scholars from UCSD, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Scripps Research Institute and the Neurosciences Institute are eligible to submit proposals.

The Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind was inaugurated in November 2004, following its establishment with a $7.5 million gift from physicist Fred Kavli and the Kavli Foundation. KIBM's mission is to support research that furthers our understanding of the origins, evolution and mechanisms of human cognition, from the brain's physical and biochemical machinery to the experiences and behaviors called the mind.

The nine selected projects and their principal investigators are:

• Neural correlates of social referencing in children with autism – Leslie Carver, Psychology, UCSD
• Developing adaptive minds: Neural and behavioral dynamics of cognitive flexibility in childhood – Gedeon Deak, Cognitive Science and Center for Research in Language , UCSD
• A new look at the workings of the visual system: from retinal output to dyslexia – Rita Ceponiene, Center for Research in Language, UCSD
• Lesion-symptom mapping and pragmatic language comprehension – Seanna Coulson, Center for Research in Language, UCSD
• Does sleep require a brain? – Ralph Greenspan, Neurosciences Institute
• Overcoming overlearning – Matthew D. McCubbins, Political Science, UCSD
• Is the thalamus the gatekeeper of sensory awareness? – Pamela Reinagel, Neurobiology, UCSD
• Neural substrates of socio-emotional processing: from evolution and development to pathology – Katerina Semendeferi, Anthropology, UCSD
• The cross-race effect: Testing the configural processing superiority hypothesis – Frank Haist, Psychiatry, UCSD

To learn about the projects in greater detail: http://kibm.ucsd.edu.

Media Contacts: Inga Kiderra, (858) 822-0661