Job ID: 118850

Postdoc position in Social Rodent Neuroscience: brain dynamics of social interactions

Position: Post-doctoral Position

Deadline: 16 May 2024

Contract Length: up to 3y

City: Amsterdam

Country: Netherlands

Institution: Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

Department: Social Brain Lab

Description:

Both human and rodents live in complex environments that include the necessity to interact with other conspecifics. To better understand how the brain responds to this level of complexity, neuroscience is moving from analyzing brain and behavioral responses of single individuals to the simultaneous recording of brain, behavior and physiological responses in two or more individuals freely interacting. In this postdoctoral position, you will have the opportunity to pioneer behavioral paradigms while recording brain and physiological responses simultaneously from two or more individuals, and investigate how the (emotional) state of individuals influences those of others and determine adaptive social decisions. This effort will leverage the unique competence and technological might of the Dutch Brain Interface Initiative consortium (dbi2.nl).

During your postdoc you will thus have the opportunity to:

  • Develop paradigms and experimental set-ups that allow for simultaneous behavior and brain recordings of small interacting groups of N≥3 rodents
  • Collaborate with the  engineering DBI2 cluster to develop or refine tools to add long-term recording in freely moving animals of physiological measures to be paired with brain activity
  • Collaborate with the artificial intelligence and computation DBI2 cluster to identify the best algorithms to classify social dynamics
  • Establish closed loop systems that allows to identify causes and effects of a particular brain-behavior dynamic
    Advance your analytical skills of functional connectivity and brain-2-brain and brain-2-behavior dynamics
  • Publish your findings in open access scientific journals.

What to expect from us:

  • Help you acquiring the skills to manage challenging, varied projects with major scientific and societal impact
  • Have access to state of the art techologies
  • Offer the opportunity to develop a unique profile at the forefront of social neuroscience
  • Offer a wide collaborative network within and outside the Netherlands
  • Facilitate the interaction with world-wide leaders in the field of neuroscience, bio-engineering and computational neuroscience
  • Offer the opportunity, within DIB2, to touch base with a wide network of post-docs working on related topics and with non-academic companies
  • Facilitate the interaction with other big consortia within the Netherlands, to for instance deepen the discussion bout ethical consequences of the use of interactive technology
  • Offer guidance, support and mentoring from at least two PIs
  • Offer guidance and mentorship in the supervision of more junior scientists, in order to help you develop as a successful leader
  • Support you during grant applications you may want to consider
  • Offer a contract for 3 years for 1.0 fte conform the CAO NU for post-doc.
Eligibility criteria

During our selection process, we will be looking for an enthusiastic team-player, who:

  • Has a PhD in the field of neuroscience or related fields;
  • Enjoys and has extensive experience in advanced data analyses and statistical inferences;
  • Enjoys and has hands-on experience in setting up rodent experimental set-ups
  • Has experience with in vivo measures of brain activity
  • Experience with handling rodents and establish social paradigms
  • Functions well both in a team and independently, and possesses good communication skills;
  • Has extensive experience in programing
  • Is willing to travel within the NL for short collaborative stays or regular visits to collaborative labs;
  • Enjoys finalizing projects and writing papers, also visible from successful past work
  • Is motivated to pursue a scientific career
  • At least one paper in the field of behavioral neuroscience
Selection process

Only applications that have filled in the application at Postdoc in Rodent Social Neuroscience (knaw.nl)  + the form at https://forms.gle/sAn4WfU9QfpBy5ZB6 will be considered

Evaluation of candidates will begin immediately, and after about 4 weeks from the deadline, candidates will be informed whether they passed the first round or not. Shortlisted candidates may receive, taking into account candidates’ availability, a short assignment to be done within 48h. Based on the results of the assignment, we will organize a 1h Zoom interview followed by a visit on site. We foresee a final decision to be communicated within three months after the first submission date. If no excellent candidate can be identified, we might re-advertise the position.

We will not respond to any supplier enquiries based on this job advertisement.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, protected veteran or status as disabled status, or genetic information.

Environment

About the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience
The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience is the country’s leading fundamental neuroscience research institute, in the international and progressive city of Amsterdam. It provides a critical mass of scientists (spanning more than 27 nationalities) and neuroscience facilities, in a highly interactive, dynamic, multi-cultural environment, with English as the working language.

The Social Brain Lab at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

This will be your main home, in which your direct supervisor will be working on a daily base and where you will be appointed.

The Social Brain Lab is the results of the joint venture of the research groups of Valeria Gazzola and Christian Keysers aiming at shedding light on the neural mechanisms of empathy by combining studies in humans and rodents. The SBL is funded by multiple European (ERC, Marie Curie) and Dutch (VIDI, VICI, Gravity, XL) grants, and is characterized by an unusually diverse environment, with members from all over the world, backgrounds (ranging from philosophy to engineering with an emphasis on biology and psychology), and neuroscientific techniques (spanning from ultra-high field fMRI in humans to single-cell recordings in rodents). The SBL is appreciated for its collaborative, enthusiastic and supportive environment, where people strive to become successful, recognized and appreciated scientists. We value an open culture where everybody feels free to ask questions and make suggestions.