Postdoc 'Laminar MRI of Cognitive Dopamine Function'

We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in neuroimaging and an interest in higher order cognitive function associated with dopamine, such as working memory gating. The goal of this project is to advance our understanding of the brain mechanisms by which we select what information from the world around us enters working memory and what information from working memory guides action and attention. This input and output gating of working memory is known to depend on brain dopamine. This project aims to test specific hypotheses about how this happens, grounded in knowledge about the anatomy of feedforward and feedback flow of information between different cortical layers and about the layer specificity of dopamine receptor distributions.

Psychopharmacology will be combined with ultrahigh-resolution fMRI for measuring effects of dopamine drugs at submillimeter scale, distinguishing neuronal activity within the different layers of the prefrontal cortex in humans. You will be involved in designing critical experiments to isolate computations related to the gating and control of working memory and modulated by dopaminergic drug administration. You will also be involved in collection and, most notably, analysis of 7T fMRI data at laminar resolution to examine layer-specific neural activity modulation.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Design experiments to unravel working memory gating operations.
• Collection of laminar fMRI data.
• Analysis of laminar fMRI data.
• Supervise a PhD student to conduct pharmacological (highfield) fMRI.