A postdoc position is available at the Department of Functional and Systems Neurobiology of the Cajal Institute (https://cajal.csic.es/en/home/) part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in collaboration with the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge.
The aim of this position is to develop a new framework for the analysis and interpretation of animal behavior and electrophysiological data from a high-throughput memory-based behavioral paradigm (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2020.00064/full) developed in the Jercog Lab. Such a framework will involve different theories and modelling approaches such as reinforcement learning, stochastic decision processes, and history-dependent biases over a range of timescales from seconds to months, under the co-supervision of Yashar Ahmadian, University of Cambridge. The overarching aim of the project is to understand how long-term memories affect the decision making process in a volatile environment, focusing in particular on the hippocampal contribution to control (e.g. Lengyel & Dayan 2008, Stachenfled et al. 2017), and using approaches such as rational control (Wu et al 2020) to infer the internal beliefs and models used by animals in the task.
Our lab is part of a larger network of Spanish neuroscience institutes including the CINC, the Neurotech and the IN. The institute is located in the center of Madrid, one of the most exciting cities in the south of Europe, well connected with the rest of the world.
Candidates should have a Ph.D. in computational neuroscience or a related field. Prior experience with the analysis of animal behavior, neuroimaging, machine learning, and/or computational modeling will be valued. Competitive financial support is provided by the Spanish Ministry of Science.
*INITIAL APPOINTMENT:* two years.
*APPLICATION:* Send a curriculum and motivation letter with a list of three contacts for recommendation letters to pjercog@gmail.com. Informal inquiries are welcome.
*DEADLINE:* applications will start to be reviewed on June 17th until the position is filled.
*STARTING DATE:* before September 2024.