Ph.D. Student in MARSEILLE/France

A PhD position in non-human primate (NHP) electrophysiology is available to work with Drs Thomas Brochier and Alexa Riehle, at the Timone Institute of Neuroscience (INT) in Marseille, France (www.int.univ-amu.fr). The candidate will join a research team interested in cognitive motor control (CoMCo), combining behavioral and electrophysiological studies in NHP and in human participants and patients. The position is funded by a FLAG-ERA Human Brain Project partnering project, aimed at providing a characterization and modeling of NHP fronto-parietal network dynamics. The funded project also implicates Dr. Bjørg Kilavik in the same institute, as well as one lab in Greece (Prof. Georgia Gregoriou, Heraklion) and one in Germany (Dr. Sacha van Albada, Jülich), with whom regular interactions will take place.
The PhD project will involve training macaque monkeys in visuomotor arm reaching behavior, and electrophysiological recordings with multi-electrode arrays from multiple motor, parietal and visual cortical areas. Furthermore, the candidate will be extensively involved in data analysis (matlab/python). Neuronal spiking activity and local field potentials (LFPs) will be analyzed to study the dynamics of local interactions and inter-areal communication. These network dynamics will be compared across brain states ranging from anesthesia and resting state, to selective attention and different levels of anticipation/predictability.
The ideal candidate should have a strong interest in neuroscience but with various possible backgrounds (biology, psychology, physics…). He/she should be motivated to use electrophysiological recording techniques in behaving macaque monkeys. Basic experience with programming is required for data analysis and control of the experimental setup (Matlab, Python). The successful applicant will work in an international research institute, therefore proficiency in English is important (speaking French is not an absolute necessity).