Dear all,

Please find an open position for a PhD in signal processing / computational & clinical neuroscience

*Project title: ** *NeuroCog – Parkinson action (https://neurocog.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr) Funding body: UGA Contract duration: 3 years Starting date: From September 2017 on.

*Job description:* The successful candidate will develop new TMS/EEG methods (acquisition and processing) for early Parkinson’s disease diagnosis that will quantify the impairment of cortical excitability.

*Requested expertise: ** *Computer science / Signal processing / Parkinson’s disease / Neuroimaging / Brain stimulation

*Project scientific summary:* Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most frequent neurodegenerative disorder. Unfortunately, there is no cure for PD and no neuroprotective treatment and about 95% of patients will become demented within 25 years after the diagnosis. The presentation and evolution of PD is highly heterogeneous between patients and some PD phenotypes are more at risk of having a more severe and progressive course of the disease. In particular, although cognitive deficits are very frequent in old patients, in younger patients it is difficult to predict whether they will develop early cognitive disturbances. For this PhD project, we assume that in PD patients with a subtype characterized by prevalent cognitive issues, the impairment of cortical excitability in the fronto-parietal networks would be a new biomarker detectable at an early disease stage. We will thus study the cortical excitability using innovative methodologies that will be first developed in healthy subjects (Harquel et al, 2016; in press) and then longitudinally tested in a cohort of de novo PD patients. Overall, this project investigates PD phenotypes under a neurophysiological perspective that is highly innovative.

*Host research groups:* The main goal of the primary host research group (Brain Stimulation & Systems Neuroscience, PI: Olivier David) is to study large-scale brain networks in order to develop new applications of brain stimulation in the field of psychiatry, movement disorders and epilepsy using a translational approach based on clinical and preclinical research. The secondary host lab (Laboratory of Psychology and Neurocognition, PhD co-director: Dr A. Chauvin) is a Cognitive Science Research Unit affiliated to the CNRS (National Institute of Biological Sciences, section 26) and to two universities (University Grenoble-Alpes, Grenoble and University of Savoie Mont Blanc, Chambery). Members of the LPNC who compose the TMS group have an interdisciplinary approach which encompasses engineering, experimental psychology; computational and mathematical modelling; neuropsychology; cognitive psychiatry; and neuroimaging. In addition, the PhD fellow will be in constant interaction with the Movement Disorder Unit of CHUGA (PI: Pr E Moro) and other research groups within the NeuroCog project working on the same cohort of PD patients. Very close interactions between experimentalists, methodologists and clinicians, will offer an optimal environment to develop skills of young scientists.

Contacts: Dr Olivier David, Research Director, Inserm, Olivier.David@inserm.fr. Dr Alan Chauvin, Assistant Professor, UGA, Alan.Chauvin@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr.

*Please send application including CV, statement of research interests, and the names and full contact details of at least two referees.** * References: Harquel, S., Bacle, T., Beynel, L., Marendaz, C., Chauvin, A., & David, O. (2016). Mapping dynamical properties of cortical microcircuits using robotized TMS and EEG: Towards functional cytoarchitectonics. NeuroImage, 135, 115–124. Harquel, S., Diard, J., Raffin, E., Passera, B., DallIgna, G., Marendaz, C., et al. (In press). Automatized set-up procedure for transcranial magnetic stimulation protocols. NeuroImage