PhD position in Computational Neuroscience
Temporary
temporary
26 Jan 2024
Amsterdam
About the job
The Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Group at the University of Amsterdam is seeking a highly qualified and motivated candidate for a PhD position in Computational Neuroscience. The position falls under the Horizon Health Europe Consortium grant “Virtual Brain Twins for Personalized Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders”. This Consortium constitutes a large collaboration between different European institutions, aiming to develop personalized brain simulation software (“virtual brain twins”) to improve the diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia.
The main objective of this PhD project is to develop a biologically realistic computational model of the human brain, and use it to study alterations in brain activity associated with schizophrenia. Such model will make use of local neural mass models (developed by our Consortium partners) to simulate multiple brain areas, and will bring them together using structural connectivity data from human subjects. The model will be then used to explore the effects of schizophrenia-related alterations in brain dynamics and function, and to derive patient-specific virtual brain simulations to improve diagnosis and explore treatments in collaboration with clinical Consortium partners.
The project will be supervised by Dr. Jorge Mejias, principal investigator in computational neuroscience and leader of the Dutch component of the Consortium, and by Prof. Dr. Cyriel Pennartz, head of the Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Group. You will closely collaborate with other Consortium members, particularly with the team of Prof. Viktor Jirsa at Aix-Marseille University, and will also benefit from interactions with local colleagues including other theoretical, computational and experimental neuroscientists at the Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Group.
What are you going to do?
You are expected:
from dynamical systems, complex systems and machine learning, and compare their predictions with
experimental data including fMRI and EEG;
computing resources and contribute to data and model curation;
We will base our selection on your scientific and/or technological track record, as well as on your academic achievements, qualifications, and vision.
The main objective of this PhD project is to develop a biologically realistic computational model of the human brain, and use it to study alterations in brain activity associated with schizophrenia. Such model will make use of local neural mass models (developed by our Consortium partners) to simulate multiple brain areas, and will bring them together using structural connectivity data from human subjects. The model will be then used to explore the effects of schizophrenia-related alterations in brain dynamics and function, and to derive patient-specific virtual brain simulations to improve diagnosis and explore treatments in collaboration with clinical Consortium partners.
The project will be supervised by Dr. Jorge Mejias, principal investigator in computational neuroscience and leader of the Dutch component of the Consortium, and by Prof. Dr. Cyriel Pennartz, head of the Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Group. You will closely collaborate with other Consortium members, particularly with the team of Prof. Viktor Jirsa at Aix-Marseille University, and will also benefit from interactions with local colleagues including other theoretical, computational and experimental neuroscientists at the Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Group.
What are you going to do?
You are expected:
- to complete a PhD thesis within the official appointment duration of four years;
- to perform research on computational modeling and brain simulation;
- to acquire in-depth knowledge on neurophysiology, computational neuroscience and brain disorders;
- to build biologically realistic, data-constrained human brain models, study them using techniques and tools
from dynamical systems, complex systems and machine learning, and compare their predictions with
experimental data including fMRI and EEG;
- to collaborate with other groups in the Virtual Brain Twins Consortium, use simulation and high-performance
computing resources and contribute to data and model curation;
- to contribute to the teaching effort of the Group, including supervision of bachelor and master students;
- to present your results at seminars and (inter)national conferences.
We will base our selection on your scientific and/or technological track record, as well as on your academic achievements, qualifications, and vision.
