We are looking for two highly qualified and motivated PhD candidates in Cognitive Neuroscience. The two positions are part of an ERC consolidator grant titled "Towards understanding human consciousness: How internal brain states and environmental context shape our subjective experience". Both PhD positions are embedded in the Conscious brain lab, and the projects will be supervised by dr. Simon van Gaal and colleagues. The conscious brain lab consists of several PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and staff members of the Brain and Cognition department (department of Psychology) of the UvA who all study the neural basis of conscious and/or related topics (see website for details).

The two projects

Project 1: What makes us experience the world around us consciously? We do not become conscious of all inputs that reach our senses at every point in time: much processing goes on "under the radar". The aim of this project is to elucidate the neurochemical basis of conscious experience and to dissociate it from unconscious processes. Conscious experience will be manipulated in several ways (e.g., masking, rivalry) and different pharmaceutical agents are given to healthy human participants (on different days) while they are performing experimental tasks in which consciousness is manipulated. Pharmacological manipulations target GABAergic and Glutamatergic functioning to impede inhibitory and excitatory neural processes that are hypothesized to be important for conscious experience. EEG and fMRI will be used to measure the effects of these pharmacological interventions on neural processes indicative of feedforward, horizontal and feedback processing in the human brain.

Project 2:While studying consciousness, it is increasingly recognized that the goal to control as many "confounding factors" in lab experiments comes at a price. That is, in real life, conscious experience is not created in a controlled vacuum, but it is determined by internal spontaneous fluctuations in arousal and (responses to) external changes in environmental context. In this project we address how fluctuations in arousal and physical activity of the body (also referred to as "brain state") may shape sensory build-up of stimulus representations and hence conscious experience. Arousal fluctuations are measured when they fluctuate spontaneously using pupil size. However, arousal will also be manipulated by changes in physical activity of the body (e.g., by inducing drowsiness or active states in participants) and pharmacological intervention (up- and down regulating arousal). EEG and fMRI will be used to measure the neural effects of these manipulations and their impact on conscious experience.

Because in these projects pharmacological interventions are performed, one of the two candidates should be fluent in Dutch to be able to communicate well with the participants (in Dutch) (explaining/evaluating exclusion criteria etc.).

What are you going to do?

• complete and defend a PhD thesis within the official appointment duration of four years;
• gain knowledge of the field through literature survey, discussion with team members, and internal lab meetings;
• contribute to the design of experiments and perform experiments;
• analyse and interpret results of experiments;
• present data at local, national and international scientific meetings;
• assist in teaching undergraduates and Master's students and co-supervise junior scientists (technicians, MSc/BSc students).

You are passionate about cognitive (neuro)science and interested in consciousness or related topics such as perception and decision making. You enjoy working in a diverse setting, as you will be working in a collaborative project. You are a team player and a nice colleague with good communication skills as you will regularly join and present at lab meetings as well as at relevant (inter)national meetings.

Your experience and profile:

• MSc (preferably research master) in Experimental Psychology, (Cognitive) Neuroscience or related fields;
• Good and demonstrable skills in coding in either python, R, or Matlab;
• Good analytical, writing and presenting skills;
• Good project and time management skills enabling you to meet the projects' deadlines for finishing analyses, reports and other deliverables;
• Eager to learn new things, high conscientiousness, flexibility, and a collaborative attitude;
• Fluency in English, both written and spoken;
• Preferably in depth knowledge about the topic of consciousness or related topics such as (visual) perception, attention and perceptual decision making;
• Preferably experience with data acquisition techniques such as eye-tracking fMRI, or EEG;
• Preferably experience with neuroimaging (e.g., EEG and fMRI) data analyses (e.g., decoding analyses, network analyses);
• Preferably experience with computational modelling (e.g., drift diffusion models).

A temporary contract for 38 hours per week for the duration of 4 years (the initial contract will be for a period of 12 months and after satisfactory evaluation it will be extended to a total duration of 4 years). The preferred starting date is between 1 September 2023 and 1 January 2024. This should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). We will draft an educational plan that includes attendance of courses and (international) meetings. We also expect you to assist in teaching undergraduates and master students.

Your salary will range between €2541 in the first year to €3247 gross per month in the last year of employment, on the basis of a full working week of 38 hours. This sum does not include the 8% holiday allowance and the 8.3% year-end allowance. A favorable tax agreement, the 30% ruling, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU) is applicable.

Besides the salary and a vibrant and challenging environment at the Psychology department and specifically the program group Brain and Cognition, we offer you multiple fringe benefits:

• 232 holiday hours per year (based on fulltime);
• multiple courses to follow from our Teaching and Learning Centre;
• a pension at ABP for which UvA pays two third part of the contribution;
• the possibility to follow courses to learn Dutch;
• help with housing for a studio or small apartment when you're moving from abroad.

Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

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