We are looking for an experienced postdoctoral researcher who will use rapid invisible frequency tagging (RIFT) in MEG to test audiovisual integration of hand gestures and speech. This position is part of the ERC-funded HearingHands programme, investigating how temporal gesture-speech alignment contributes to audiovisual spoken communication across languages, populations and communicative settings. 
As a postdoctoral researcher, you will use rapid invisible frequency tagging (RIFT) in MEG to pinpoint the neurobiological mechanisms underlying gesture-speech integration. Specifically, you will test how simple up-and-down beat gestures influence lexical stress perception in real time, using the 'manual McGurk effect' (Bosker & Peeters, 2021, Proc Roy Soc B). Furthermore, you will compare typical behavioural and neural signatures of gesture-speech integration to those in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are known to demonstrate impairments in prosody processing and audiovisual integration. Finally, you will run a large-scale correlational study testing whether the participants' own gestural timing behaviour is linked to their use of gestural timing in audiovisual speech perception.

• You hold a PhD in neurolinguistics, cognitive neuroscience, or a related field, and want to pursue an academic career.
• You are a highly motivated, independent, critical and creative researcher with a strong publication record.
• You are team-oriented, open to provide and receive feedback to/from lab mates, happy to support other research projects with your skills set, and keen to engage in scientific discussions.
• You have extensive EEG/MEG experience, including conducting source analyses, as evidenced by high-profile publications in neuroimaging journals. Prior experience with frequency-tagging techniques (e.g. rapid invisible frequency tagging; auditory steady state responses; visual steady state responses; fast periodic visual stimulation; steady state visually evoked potentials/fields) is particularly desirable.
• You have experience working with special populations, preferably individuals with ASD.
• You enjoy reading and writing code and have demonstrable experience using Fieldtrip, Matlab, Python, and/or R.
• You enjoy working with video/audio materials and have demonstrable experience in video editing (ffmpeg, Adobe Premiere Pro) and speech editing (Praat).
• You have an excellent command of spoken and written English.

Fixed-term contract: It concerns a temporary employment for 3 years.

• It concerns an employment for 0.8 FTE.
• The gross monthly salary amounts to a minimum of €3,974 and a maximum of €5,439 based on a 38-hour working week, depending on previous education and number of years of relevant work experience (salary scale 11).
• You will receive 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus.
• It concerns a temporary employment for 3 years.
• You will be able to use our Dual Career and Family Care Services. Our Dual Career and Family Care Officer can assist you with family-related support, help your partner or spouse prepare for the local labour market, provide customized support in their search for employment and help your family settle in Nijmegen.
• Working for us means getting extra days off. In case of full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the legally allotted 20.

Work and science require good employment practices. This is reflected in Radboud University's primary and secondary employment conditions. You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself, for example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports subscription. And of course, we offer a good pension plan. You are given plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.

You will be part of the Speech Perception in Audiovisual Communication (SPEAC) lab of Dr Hans Rutger Bosker at the Donders Centre for Cognition within the Faculty of Social Sciences of Radboud University and part of the Donders Institute. You will collaborate with researchers in the SPEAC lab interested in gesture-speech alignment, prosody, and audiovisual speech perception. Furthermore, there are close links to and collaborations with related research groups, including the Communicative Brain (PI: Linda Drijvers) and Sound Learning (PI: James McQueen) groups. The Donders Institute houses an MEG scanner and high-performance computing facilities to facilitate the acquisition, processing and analysis of big data. HearingHands itself offers a generous budget for conference visits (€1500 a year), organising workshops, setting up new collaborations, and participant testing.
The Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour is a world-class interfaculty research centre, that houses more than 700 researchers devoted to understanding the mechanistic underpinnings of the human mind. Research at the Donders Institute is focused around four themes: 1. Language and communication, 2. Perception, action and decision-making, 3. Development and lifelong plasticity, 4. Natural computing & neurotechnology. Excellent, state-of-the-art research facilities are available for the broad range of neuroscience research that is being conducted at the Donders Institute. The Donders Institute has been assessed by an international evaluation committee as ‘excellent’ and recognised as a ‘very stimulating environment for top researchers, as well as for young talent’. The Donders Institute fosters a collaborative, multi-disciplinary, supportive research environment with a diverse international staff. English is the lingua franca at the Institute.



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