As a PhD Candidate you will work on a project entitled ‘Neural Mechanisms of Processing and Recognizing Complex, Statistical Sounds’. This project is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and will be conducted at Radboud University in Nijmegen. The main research question is how the brain represents and processes acoustic stimuli which are only defined on a statistical level. These stimuli have a high behavioural relevance, since many natural stimuli have this character. The PhD project will involve a combination of neural population recordings from multiple areas of the auditory and parietal cortex of behaving mice, and their subsequent data analysis. Individual cells will be identified using specific genetically modified mouse lines and matched optogenetic tools. The main outcome of the research will be an expansion of our knowledge of auditory processing, which may have far-reaching implications for the processing of sounds in hearing aids and smart phones.

- MSc degree in (computational) neuroscience, engineering or biology;
- experience with animal physiology, programming and data analysis;
- a proactive attitude, good communication skills, and the ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary team.

- you will be appointed for an initial period of 18 months, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 2.5 years
- you will be classified as a PhD Candidate in the Dutch university job-ranking system (UFO)
the gross starting salary amounts to €2,222 per month, and will increase to €2,840 in the fourth year
The Faculty of Science is an equal opportunity employer, committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community, and as such encourages applications from women and minorities.

Radboud University

Strategically located in Europe, Radboud University is one of the leading academic communities in the Netherlands. A place with a personal touch, where top-flight education and research take place on a beautiful green campus in modern buildings with state-of-art facilities.

http://www.ru.nl

Faculty of Science

The Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour consists of three research centres, the Centre for Cognition, the Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging and the Centre for Neuroscience. It focuses on state-of-the-art cognitive neuroscience in a multidisciplinary approach, and offers excellent lab and neuroimaging facilities. The position will be jointly hosted at the Neurophysiology department, which provides a high-quality neuroscience environment with facilities for chronic and non-chronic multi-channel recordings, imaging and computational modelling. The department’s research questions address issues in fundamental and applied research, and enable the interaction of theory and experimental work in a single location. The Donders Institute is an equal opportunity employer, committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community, and as such encourages applications from women and minorities. Radboud University offers a parental leave scheme and day care on campus.

No commercial propositions please.

http://www.ru.nl/english/people/englitz-b/ ; http://www.ru.nl/donders/research/theme-4-brain/neurophysiology-1/