PhD position available at Donders Centre, the Netherlands

[Robert Oostenveld]

PhD-position on a Collaborative Project at the NICI (Nijmegen  
Institute of Cognition and Information) and the FCDC (F.C. Donders  
Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging)

We are seeking a candidate for the PhD project Beamforming for  
Cognitive Applications. This project is supervised by Eric Maris  
(NICI/Biological Psychology), Robert Oostenveld (FCDC), and Ole  
Jensen (FCDC).

Project Description:
The golden standard in cognitive neuroscience are measurements of  
electromagnetic signals at locations in the brain from where they  
originate physiologically. Unfortunately, in human cognitive  
neuroscience, we can only measure electromagnetic signals at some  
distance from their physiological origin, via the EEG or the MEG.  
Source reconstruction techniques, such as the beamformer, are then  
used to infer a signal at the source level (the brain’s grey matter)  
from an observed signal at the sensor level. The beamformer has  
several distinct advantages over other source reconstruction  
techniques (applicable to evoked responses and induced oscillations,  
unique solutions, no assumptions about the source model, excellent  
spatial resolution). Unfortunately, it has several disadvantages when  
applied to the data of cognitive experiments (only applicable to  
single experimental conditions, requires a high SNR, no  
quantification of spatial uncertainty). In this project, three  
methodological innovations are proposed that extend the beamformer  
such that it becomes suitable for cognitive experiments. These  
innovations will be implemented in the Matlab toolbox Fieldtrip  
(http://www.ru.nl/fcdonders/fieldtrip/) and tested on MEG-data from  
existing cognitive neuroscience experiments.

Requirements:
* A master degree in engineering, neuroscience, cognitive science,  
biology, applied statistics, or a related field.
* Experience with programming, preferably in Matlab.
* A scientific interest in how the brain works.

More information can be obtained from:
Eric Maris
NICI/Biological Psychology and FCDC
T:+31 24 3612651 (NICI)
T:+31 24 3610754 (FCDC)
E: maris at nici.ru.nl

Applications:
Candidates who want to apply to this position can send an application  
letter and a CV to maris at nici.ru.nl.