Job ID: 114969

Postdoc neuroscience/ computational neuroscience

Position: Post-doctoral Position

Deadline: 30 September 2023

Employment Start Date: 1 October 2023

Contract Length: 1 year renewable (up to 4 years)

City: Mannheim

Country: Germany

Institution: Central Institute of Mental Health

Department: Psychiatry and Psychotherapy

Description:

Project Summary:

Impaired sensory perception is both a characteristic and a risk factor for many pain disorders. Brain activity in the resting state was shown to be associated with the pain experience in pain-free states.

A whole-brain search for specific features of chronic pain-resting-state connectome will be performed, which are predictive for individual pain sensitivity (Spisak T et al., 2020).  Defining a predictive strength map for individual pain sensitivity would substantially advance the field from a basic and translational perspective (Baliki MN et al., 2008).

In a second step, neural activity and connectivty in abnormal resting-state networks will be modulated with transcranial neurostimulations (Lefaucheur JP, 2008).

 

References (3-5):

Baliki MN, Geha PY, Apkarian AV, Chialvo DR (2008), Beyond feeling: chronic pain hurts the brain, disrupting the default-mode network dynamics. J Neurosci 28:1398-1403.

Lefaucheur JP (2008), Use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in pain relief. Expert Rev Neurother 8:799-808.

Spisak T, Kincses B, Schlitt F, Zunhammer M, Schmidt-Wilcke T, Kincses ZT, Bingel U (2020), Pain-free resting-state functional brain connectivity predicts individual pain sensitivity. Nat Commun 11:187.

 

Methods that will be used:

  • Data from magnetic resonance imaging
  • Behavioral and sensory data
  • Analysis softwares for MR data (e.g., SPM/Matlab, FSL/Freesurfer, fMRIPrep,…)

 

Cooperation partners:

  • All colleagues from SFB1158 Consortium

Eligible qualifications:

  • Completed master’s/diploma degree in a subject with a quantitative focus, e.g. (bio)statistics/bioinformatics/biotechnology.
  • Aditionally psychology with advance knowledge in computational neuroscience.

Desirable skills:

  • Good knowledge of the use of statistical programming languages (e.g., matlab, python)
  • Organizational skills, project management, coordination
  • Enthusiasm for independent work,
  • Team work

Keywords:

machine learning, model, connectome, resting-state networks, pain sensitivity

Enclosures: The following documents must be enclosed with your application as a single pdf file: updated CV with publications, motivation letter, copies of degree certificates

 

Information for the applicant: For any updates and further information ( for e.g.: change of deadline of the application), please visit the consortium website career section: www.sfb1158.de