Projet MASKED (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Staff Exchanges
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Motor Health and Semiotic Function in the Kinesthetic Expressivity of Neurodegenerative Disease (MASKED) is a transdisciplinary applied research project grounded in cutting-edge biosemiotics. The aim is to address Parkinson’s Disease, its symptomatic hypomimia (“facial masking”), and the ever-increasing technological demand for early-indicating detection techniques. Through interdisciplinary, international, and intersectoral secondments, researchers will train in world-leading measurement techniques, including the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and the Neuropsychological Gesture Coding System (NEUROGES); world-leading measurement technologies, including iMotions’s Affectiva and Noldus’s FaceReader; and advanced computational statistics analysis, including Zipf’s and Menzerath-Altmann’s Laws. In this novel advancement of an applied semiotics that harnesses objective, quantitative methods, MASKED will apply the statistical analysis of empirical laws to scientific measurements of nonverbal behavior. To generate statistical models and interpret semiotic meanings, the project considers the medico-scientific ethics and multi-perspectival values behind the hypomimic sign and its signification across environmental contexts and lived experiences. Both correlational methods and conceptual models play equally critical roles. The objective of MASKED is to develop innovative solutions for noninvasive symptom assessment based on quantifiable differences between healthy and Parkinsonian faces, one face to another, and one face to itself over time. These solutions will have not only long-term applicability across diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic disease stages, but also wide-reaching utility across provider, caregiver, and patient treatment stakeholders. The hope with the MASKED project is to improve patient-health outcomes and mitigate socio-economic burdens among families, communities, and societies affected by PD and related chronic, progressive illnesses.

Mots clés : facial behavior, automated facial behavior analysis, neurodegenerative disease, early indicating diagnostic techniques, non invasive symptom assessment, empirical laws, hypomimia, facial expressivity, 

Participants :
- Université de Turin (Italie) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 245490.0 €
- Université Gaston-Berger (Autriche) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 205410.0 €
- Sagewrite ehf. (Islande) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 50100.0 €
- Université Duke (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université Érasme de Rotterdam (Pays-Bas) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 210420.0 €
- Toronto Metropolitan University (Canada) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Michael J. Fox Foundation (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Autres, subvention : 0.0 €
- Luminous llc (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Université Palacký (Rép. Tchèque) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 340680.0 €
- State University System of Florida (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of California System (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €