PhD Opportunities
[Opportunity 1 – ASAP]
We are recruiting a promising PhD candidate to compete with us for the project : Exploring the functional role of neural oscillations in temporal processing (Abstract below), which has been preselected for the Numerics PhD program.
The final application will be revised and submitted jointly by the applicant and the project supervisors: Sophie Herbst and Virginie van Wassenhove. Please see the Applicant’s guide.
Contact info: Sophie Herbst <ksherbst@googlemail.com>
Requirements:
- Interest in human timing & time perception and neural oscillations
- Prior experience with psychophysics, human psychology, neurosciences, and/or (as a plus) magneto/encephalography
- Basic programming skills (Matlab/ Python)
- Mastery of the English language in spoken and written form
- Team spirit, enthousiasm, and motivation to manage a scientific project to completion!T
- Mobility requirement: the candidate must not have resided in France for more than one year since 2016.
Abstract: Neural oscillations are functionally implicated in the binding, prediction and orchestration of information processing as per the communication-through-coherence hypothesis (Engel, Fries, König, Brecht, & Singer, 1999; Engel, Fries, & Singer, 2001; Fries, 2005, 2015; Nikolic, Fries, & Singer, 2013). At the mesoscopic scale, neural oscillations reflect the mean activity of local neural assemblies and at the macroscopic scale, rhythmic fluctuations capture inter-areal synchronizations over time and space (Buzsáki, Anastassiou, & Koch, 2012; Engel et al., 2001; Siegel, Donner, & Engel, 2012; Wang, 2010). Brain rhythms are phylogenetically preserved (Buzsaki 2004; Fig. 1) and their synchronization temporally adjust processing windows ensuring efficient communication between brain regions (Varela 1981, Fries 2005, Bastos et al 2015). Oscillatory activity may follow a hierarchical organization in which low frequency regimes modulate higher-frequency activity (Lakatos et al 2005). Such “cross-frequency coupling” was reported (Palva et al 2005; Canolty et al 2006) during spatial navigation (Bragin et al 1995, Tort et al 2008), working memory (Tort et al 2009, Heusser et al 2016), speech processing (Canolty et al 2006) and time production (Grabot et al 20187). This PhD project will questions the implication of neural oscillations in temporal processing. The project will use brain imaging data acquired with high temporal resolution (MEG, EEG) and make use of statistical models of human behavior and electromagnetic brain activity, notably the modeling of oscillatory brain networks (Dupré la Tour et al. 2017).
[Opportunity 2]
WildTimes PhD: Time, space, and duration are intertwined in our everyday life yet they are rarely studied together in ecological settings. This PhD project will focus on (temporal and spatial) cognition in humans when they are moving using mobile neuroimaging (electroencephalography, EEG). This project will contribute to the understanding of the representation of time in the human brain by empirically contrasting current theories on how the human brain maps time during complex trajectories, and will contribute to practical applications in collaboration with SNCF and IFSTTAR. Contact info: Virginie van Wassenhove
Requirements:
- Interest in temporal cognition and/or spatial navigation;
- Interest in doing rigorous science in ecological settings;
- Prior experience with psychophysics, human psychology, neurosciences, and/or electroencephalography;
- Basic programming skills a plus (Matlab/ Python);
- Mastery of French and English language in spoken and written form;
- Dynamic, reliable, can take initiatives, enthusiasm, willingness to learn and engage in an interdisciplinary consortium.
Postdoctoral Opportunities
[1] Multifracs PostDoc [PDF]: Multivariate Multifractal Analysis of Human Brain Dynamics in Magnetoencephalography (MEG). The goal of the project is to perform multivariate scale-free analysis of MEG data.
[2] We are continuously accepting applicants to join the team. Please inquire if interested in submitting a grant.
Master Opportunities
[1] WildTimes_Masters_[PDF details]: ASAP several opportunities for master students are available starting now!
[2] We are continuously accepting new master students to get involved in ongoing projects or start new ideas!
Fulfilled Opportunities
WildTimes_PostDoc_[PDF details]: expected start in Feb. 2019 to study time perception in transport.
[filled] Internship (master): Assessing the relationship between implicit and explicit timing in the human brain (with Sophie Herbst)
[filled] Tenure-track* researcher position [pdf]
Applications are invited for a tenure-track researcher position in the Cognition and Brain Dynamics research team of Virginie van Wassenhove. The lab is hosted at NeuroSpin (Dir. Prof Stanislas Dehaene) on the plateau de Saclay near Paris, France. Salary will be commensurate with experience and the position comes with benefits package. Application closing date is set to end of April 2018. Pre-selected candidates will be interviewed in May. Earliest start date is planned for September 2018.
[filled] Internship (master): Tracking decision processes in temporal metacognition (with Tadeusz Kononowicz)
