PhD Candidate: Sensorimotor Contributions to Non-motor Working Memory Formation and Recall at the Donders Centre for Cognition (0.8 - 1.0 FTE)

• Employment: 0.8 - 1.0 FTE
• Gross monthly salary: € 2,443 - € 3,122
• Faculty of Social Sciences
• Required background: Research University Degree
• Application deadline: 16 June 2022

Are you an aspiring researcher and would you like to work on an exciting new cognitive neuroscience project into sensorimotor cues for non-motor working memory? Then join the collaborative and supportive work environment of the Donders Institute as a PhD candidate. You will be able to put your ideas to the test and push your boundaries. You do this in a collaborative, multidisciplinary and supportive work environment, with a diverse international staff.

We are looking for a PhD candidate for an exciting new cognitive neuroscience project on sensorimotor cues for non-motor working memory, with potential future applications in the design of digital devices. We are looking for a motivated candidate, open to collaboration and eager to learn, qualified in any of the relevant fields, with a keen interest in (motor) learning and potential societal implications of cognitive neuroscience findings.

As a PhD candidate, your prime responsibility will be to develop yourself to perform the research project described below in collaboration with the supervisors, with increasing autonomy over the project. In addition, you will have limited teaching duties. A participating role in the institute and potential outreach will be encouraged.

Representations of spatial locations of limbs and objects are necessary for successful motoric interactions with the natural environment and digital devices. However, spatial locations also appear to play a supportive role in visual working memory when locations are seemingly irrelevant. For example, subjects learn a sequence of stimuli faster when they are presented in a consistent spatial array compared to when presented at a random or single location. This phenomenon is called 'visuospatial bootstrapping' (Darling et al, 2012; 2017; 2020; Yousif et al, 2021). It is currently unclear what specific aspects of the spatial location causes this supportive effect. We hypothesise that, similarly as in motor control (Howard et al, 2013), the most informative cues are linked to potential motoric responses and dorsal pathway processing (Kravitz et al, 2011). Interestingly, during common navigation on modern mobile devices, some of these cues are unavailable, which allows weighing the effectivity of different cues. That is to say, when panning on the phone using the fingers, primarily allocentric spatial cues are available. In contrast, when moving the phone as in augmented reality also egocentric spatial cues and eye movement signals are available (Mehra et al, 2006; Hürst & Bilyalov, 2010). In the proposed project we will employ a paradigm inspired by such mobile phone interaction, both behaviourally and in the fMRI scanner, to disentangle the cues for visuospatial bootstrapping for verbal material. This should shed further light on the underlying mechanics and potentially inform the design of future digital interfaces.

Profile

• You should hold an MSc degree in cognitive neuroscience, movement sciences, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, psychology, biomedical science or engineering, physics, or a related field.
• You have a keen interest in neurophysiological and cognitive science-driven experimental research in the field of memory formation and sensorimotor control and in potential societal implications of fundamental research.
• You have an open and proactive attitude towards learning and collaboration, combined with good communication skills in person and in writing and presenting.
• You have creative ideas as to how to transform a societal question into a scientific question and a scientific question into an experimental paradigm.
• Good programming skills for coding experiments and quantitative data analysis (e.g. Matlab, R, Python, C++) and experience with performing fMRI measurements would be advantageous.

We are

The project will be embedded in two research groups: the Societal Implications of Cognitive Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence group and the Sensorimotor Control group. Daily supervision will be provided by the two contact persons listed below and is geared towards collaboration and personal development. Both groups are located at the Donders Centre for Cognition, which is part of the Faculty of Social Sciences, one of the largest faculties at Radboud University in Nijmegen. You will be involved in teaching activities in psychology and/or artificial intelligence.

The Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour is a world-class interfaculty research centre, that houses more than 700 researchers devoted to understanding the mechanistic underpinnings of the human mind. Research at the Donders Institute is focused around four themes: 1. Language and communication, 2. Perception, action and control, 3. Plasticity and memory, 4. Neural computation and neurotechnology. Excellent, state-of-the-art research facilities are available for the broad range of neuroscience research that is being conducted at the Donders Institute. The Donders Institute has been assessed by an international evaluation committee as 'excellent' and recognised as a 'very stimulating environment for top researchers, as well as for
young talent'. The Donders Institute fosters a collaborative, multi-disciplinary, supportive research environment with a diverse international staff. English is the lingua franca at the Institute.
Radboud University
We want to get the best out of science, others and ourselves. Why? Because this is what the world around us desperately needs. Leading research and education make an indispensable contribution to a healthy, free world with equal opportunities for all. This is what unites the more than 24,000 students and 5,600 employees at Radboud University. And this requires even more talent, collaboration and lifelong learning. You have a part to play!
We offer

• Employment for 0.8 (5 year contract) - 1.0 FTE (4 year contract).
• The gross starting salary amounts to €2,443 per month based on a 38-hour working week, and will increase to €3,122 from the fourth year onwards (salary scale P ).
• You will receive 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus.
• You will be employed for an initial period of 18 months, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 2.5 years (4 year contract) or 3.5 years (5 year contract).
• You will be able to use our Dual Career and Family Care Services . Our Dual Career and Family Care Officer can assist you with family-related support, help your partner or spouse prepare for the local labour market, provide customized support in their search for employment  and help your family settle in Nijmegen.
• Working for us means getting extra days off. In case of full-time employment, you can choose between 29 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the legally allotted 20.

Additional employment conditions
Work and science require good employment practices. This is reflected in Radboud University's primary and secondary employment conditions . You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself, for example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports subscription. And of course, we offer a good pension plan. You are given plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.
Would you like more information?

For questions about the position, please contact Frank Léoné, Assistant Professor Educational Neuroscience at +31 24 361 61 26 or [email protected]. Alternatively, you can contact Luc Selen, Assistant Professor Sensorimotor Control at +31 24 361 26 29 or [email protected] .

Practical information and applications
You can apply until 16 June, exclusively using the button below. Kindly address your application to Frank Léoné. Please fill in the application form and attach the following documents:

• A letter of motivation.
• Your CV, with the contact details of two references.

The first round of interviews will take place on Tuesday 21 June. You would preferably begin employment on 1 September 2022.
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