Master student (m/f/d) Psychology and Neurosciences

‘Forschungsgesellschaft für Arbeitsphysiologie und Arbeitsschutz e.V. Dortmund’ (legal entity name) is a research institution institutionally funded by the German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the sponsor of ’Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors at TU Dortmund’ (IfADo). IfADo explores the risks and potentials of modern work in interdisciplinary approaches. We combine the disciplines of Ergonomics, Immunology, Toxicology, Psychology and Neurosciences.

The Department Psychology and Neurosciences focuses on Cognitive Neurosciences, with a specific emphasis on the physiological foundation of cognitive performance, and has its methodological focus on non-invasive brain stimulation, imaging approaches, and neuropsychopharmacology.

The Department of Psychology and Neurosciences looks for a

for conduction of the thesis project at our institute

The project is expected to last around 5-7 months and students can start anywhen between January and March 2024.

Your duties

You would be expected to help to collect data, recruit participants for an MRI experiment, and perform preliminary data analysis. You would get a chance to learn techniques like MRI, non-Invasive brain stimulation (tDCS), to conduct psychological tasks, and to record subjective questionnaire data. You would also learn to do preliminary MRI and task analysis using MATLAB and Linux-based scripts.

Your qualifications

Proficiency in the basics of MRI and theory of non-Invasive brain stimulation, some experience in programming for data analysis. Prior experience with MRI or conducting experiments would be appreciated.

Information about the project

This project is the second part of a project that is aimed at understanding the effects of anodal tDCS on stress-induced working memory deficits. In this project, we use aversive movie clips to induce stress in participants, who are then they are asked to perform a working memory task (n-back). During task performance, they are exposed to brain stimulation using tDCS over the brain. Task and resting-state data are analyzed to see the effects of stress on the brain and how tDCS influences it. Multiple modalities of physiological markers like heart rate and cortisol are also collected. The first part was done using EEG where we stimulated two brain areas (dlPFC and vmPFC) and found interesting results. The second part is now being done using MRI (keeping the procedure similar to the EEG part) to stimulate just one brain region which showed promising results. You would be working on the MRI part. This project is part of a PhD thesis project.

Language

The applicant should be proficient in English and understanding basic German would be an advantage due to interaction with participants.

What can you expect?

A dynamic, highly motivated international working group, offering opportunities for cooperation and exchange as well as for developing your own ideas.

Please note that you will not receive any salary or other compensation.

The IfADo promotes professional equality for all genders and is certified accordingly.

We value diversity and therefore welcome all applications - regardless of gender, disability, nationality or ethnic and social origin. Where appropriate, there is also the possibility of part-time work.

General information about the IfADo can be found at www.ifado.de

If you have any questions, please contact Lisa Göbel, goebel(at)ifado.de , phone:  +49 (0)231 – 1084 - 302.

Have we aroused your interest?

Then please send your complete application documents, indicating the reference number “NeMo Master 2024”, by 31th January 2024 preferably by mail to bewerbung(at)ifado.de .

Alternative you can send your application* by post to the following address:

Forschungsgesellschaft für Arbeitsphysiologie und Arbeitsschutz e.V.

Personalabteilung

Ardeystraße 67

44139 Dortmund

(*We ask you to submit application documents only in copies and not in folders as the documents are not returned. These will be destroyed by privacy after expiration of the retention period.)