Job Maastricht University - PhD student Cognitive Neuroscience/Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience

Speech is one of the most relevant complex sounds of our daily life and crucial for communication and social interaction. The adult brain deals with these sounds with surprising efficiency and automaticity recognizing up to 150 words per minute. The candidate will perform fMRI and EEG studies of language and speech perception to unravel the brain mechanisms underlying this efficiency. In particular, univariate as well as multivariate analysis techniques will be used to understand coding mechanisms and fine-grained neural representations of words and sentences in healthy adults. The candidate defines her/his own project in this context.

As a PhD student you will participate in our international Cognitive Neuroscience Graduate program funded by the 7^th Framework program (Marie Curie Initial Training network “Neurophysics” and the Dutch Science foundations (NWO pilot program”Methods in Neuroimaging”).

Master (MSc) in cognitive neuroscience or related field. We expect a genuine interest in language and speech perception, motivation in conducting empirical research across disciplines, willingness to work with standard and advanced data analysis methods and excellent writing skills. Experience with fMRI and/or EEG as well as programming skills are an advantage. Teamwork.

The terms of employment of Maastricht University are set out in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO). Furthermore, local UM provisions also apply. For more information look at the website http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ , A-Z Terms of Employment.

Your salary would be € 2.042,- gross per month in the first year up to € 2.612,- gross per month in the fourth year according to the PhD-student salary. Each year an evaluation takes place.

Maastricht University is renowned for its unique, innovative, problem-based learning system, which is characterized by a small-scale and student-oriented approach. Research at UM is characterized by a multidisciplinary and thematic approach, and is concentrated in research institutes and schools. Maastricht University has around 14,000 students and 3,500 employees. Reflecting the university's strong international profile, a fair amount of both students and staff are from abroad. The university hosts 6 faculties: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Law, School of Business and Economics, Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience.

The CN department combines research in human perception and cognition with the development of advanced methods in neuroscience. The PhD candidate will work in the Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging (CNN) group that forms the research ‘core’ of the M-BIC (see http://mbic.unimaas.nl/redirect.asp?page=Home). This group has gained a distinguished reputation for performing leading-edge cognitive brain research and for the development of new analysis methods for MRI data. The ‘know-how’ in the center extends from the development of methods and techniques for the acquisition and analysis of MR images to their application in testing cognitive theories of information processing. This unique combination produces exciting, international, and inter-disciplinary research involving psychologists, bio-engineers, IT experts, radiologists and neurologists.

Dr. Milene Bonte, e-mail: m.bonte@maastrichtuniversity.nl, tel.+31-43-3884036/82178