Postdoctoral Researcher: Neural Mechanisms of Generalisation and Novel Inference

The ability to generate novel, compositional solutions is fundamental for adaptive behavior in our uncertain world. Are you passionate about integrating insights across domains of action planning, vision and language to unravel the mechanisms of novel inference? As a postdoc, you will be part of a team of enthusiastic researchers studying the computations of novel inference.

We are looking for a highly motivated candidate with expertise in electrophysiology (e.g. MEG, EEG), an interest in novel inference for adaptive behaviour, and a collaborative team spirit.

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will study the role of neural signals in the learning and inference of novel meaning for language. Compositionality is fundamental to adaptive behaviour in different cognitive domains (e.g. language, vision, memory and action planning). The human ability to compose complex representations from basic building blocks depends critically on abstract, generalisable knowledge, and implicates the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex. What are the neurocomputational mechanisms that underlie inference and generation of the meaning of new words? Are they shared across cognitive domains? If yes, how? The project aims to advance our knowledge of the brain mechanisms of flexible and efficient behaviour, as well as shared inferential mechanisms across cognitive domains.

To this end, you will design, conduct, analyse and disseminate MEG experiments to probe the neural underpinnings of inference.