Gualtiero Piccinini

University of Missouri–St. Louis Assistant Professor of Philosophy Gualtiero Piccinini (pictured) has received a $120,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study what it physically takes for the human brain to think and compute – much like a computer.

With his research, “Computation in the Brain: Towards a Mechanistic Theory of Cognition,” Piccinini is creating a theoretical framework for combining both psychological and neuroscientific theories into a unified account of cognition. The research will cover a wider range of scientific and philosophical literature than any philosophical study conducted in this area.

A neuroscientist and electrical and computer engineer will be consultants for this project and co-write some of the resulting papers. “The NSF grant is a wonderful opportunity to make progress with my research – much more progress than I would have made without the grant,” Piccinini said.

The grant began Sept. 1 and runs through Aug. 30. It’s an NSF Scholars’ Award.