New ERC Funding for Luca Bonini: toward wireless eye-tracking in natural behaviors

New ERC Grant Awarded to the Luca Bonini's lab

A new ERC Grant has been awarded to Luca Bonini, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma.

The European Research Council, the European Union’s main funding body for frontier research, has awarded him an ERC Proof of Concept Grant.

The funding supports the project VisionMagTrack, which aims to develop and validate an innovative, telemetric, and non-invasive system for neurobehavioral research in macaque monkeys. The device will allow researchers to visualize the visual scene from the animal’s perspective and to track eye movements during unrestricted spontaneous daytime behavior as well as during natural nighttime sleep.

Currently, no commercial solutions exist that enable precise monitoring of gaze direction under ecologically realistic conditions without constraining the animal’s movements. VisionMagTrack addresses this gap through a compact device based on a contact lens with integrated micro-magnets, capable of tracking eye position in a fully wireless manner.

The system will make it possible to overlay the subject’s gaze onto video footage of the observed scene, acquired via a micro-camera, and to synchronize this information with parallel neural and behavioral recordings.

The project represents a direct extension of the technologies and studies developed within the ERC Consolidator Grant EMACTIVE, led by Luca Bonini, and further strengthens the Parma research group’s work on brain activity in fully freely moving and interacting monkeys.

Beyond basic neuroscience research, the technology may also find applications in clinical settings and immersive technologies (VR/AR), enhancing the ecological validity and translational value of brain research while adhering to the highest ethical and animal welfare standards.

Read the full news article on the University of Parma website